# Help! Veg and flower with CFLs



## ArtVandolay (Jul 7, 2008)

My grow space is 4' x 2.3' x 1.25'.

I bought a 400w hps light and there is no #$& way I can cool it (please see my last thread "Newbie has cooling Problems..."  Summarizing, I live in a tropical climate with ambient air temps of 90 degrees plus in my garage.  The lowest I can get the temp in the grow space is 102 degrees (higher in the afternoon).

Can someone recommend a CFL set up for my cabinet?  I understand CFLs run quite a bit cooler than 400W HPS.  I'm looking for a CFL configuration that will yield product in the shortest possible timeframe..

Thanks in advance!  I'm getting desperate, going broke and out of smoke.


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## Ethan-2.6- (Jul 7, 2008)

If u got 4 feet u should do what i did.
Made a wire grid (or some type of grid at the top of ur space.
hang like 4 fixtures and get 4 bulb splitters...
there! thats 8 cfls! Put a small fan in ur room and ur good to go! 
Use 5600k for flowering and 2700k for veg i THINk (might be opposite)
42 watt cfls are the way to go if ur supplyin from home depot, if not, check some hydrophonic sites. (dont know any off the top of my head, try google)
should stagger ur lights so some are below horizontal to the nodes and some are vertical beaming on the cola, this grow nice DANK buds in good time. (almost HPS time +\- 1 week. Hit me up if u have any other Q's man. Peace


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## ArtVandolay (Jul 8, 2008)

Thanks, Ethan.  This is encouraging.  What I've read so far about CFLs is to use a mix of 2700 (blue) and 6500 (red), tilting toward more blue during veg and then toward red during flower.

I looked at your link - it seems CFLs still give off  lot of heat, though.

In any event, I packed up the 400W HPS and stowed it for a future project.  It's clear CFLs are my only hope during tropical summer temps.


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## Driphuse (Jul 8, 2008)

Hi there!
For your cooling problem...

I had the same problem at the beginning. The only REAL solution is to...
1. make sure you have two fans aimed at the plants (one at 55 degrees, the other at 35, creating good air circulation)
2. Buy a good pressure mist spray bottle
3. Leave an open can of water in the plants area to increase humidity
4. spray the plants and grow area (all over) with the mist bottle few times a day. as you do this, you will notice the temperture will begin to drop.

You will only need to keep doing this until the plants have reached their flowering period and the size of about 15 inches. At this point, if you'll only keep watering the pots well enough, this should do - the plants will begin generating certain humidty themselves and the temperture will dtop, as when they're bigger, they help shade each other and prevents the pots from drying too fast.

Just remember that when your plants will begin to flower, you will have to stop sparying them right away! the water is very bad for the flowers when in comes in direct thouch with them.


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## [email protected] (Jul 8, 2008)

why not put the hps inside a house with ac unit and proper intake, outtake fans.... if i had eneough to buy a hps i wouldent downsize to cfls, or go buy a tiny ac unit and put that in the garage...


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## Thorn (Jul 8, 2008)

yo dood, I grow in a tiny space with cfls, and even when there on with no fan running the temps don't go higher than mid 80's F. In that space you got you could look at some of the larger cfls like envirolite I think i've seen them at wattage of 125 and even 300 watt. check this out..





Compact Fluorescent - 200 Watt - Full Spectrum 5000K - Mogul Base - Energy Miser FE-IIIB-200W 

# Energy Miser
# FE-IIIB-200W
# 200 Watt - 10,000 Lumens
# Incandescent Equal: 600 Watts 

hxxp://www.1000bulbs.com/150-to-200-Watt-Compact-Fluorscent/

10, 000 lumens is pretty darn good for one lamp. Work out the amount of lumens you need for your space then see what lamps you need. Those will still run pretty hot, but they may be more manageable. You could go for several smaller ones and give yourself the option of using less and more as and when you need.

Hope this helps


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## BagSeed (Jul 8, 2008)

Even with a cfl your temps are going to be high in the garage... Heck they will be high with no light in there at all... You need to either get some kind of a cooling system or an A/C or something... Maybe you could rig a small hose from your home ac to blow into a hole in the back of your grow cabinet in the garage... That could definitely help if you could pull it off...


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## honeybear (Jul 8, 2008)

yes, i would agree with the ones saying that cooling your room with an intake and outake system of fans would definitely lower your growing temperature no matter how hot the ambient temp is. you've already invested in a 400W hps system, lets find a way to use it!

you might need to partition off your growing area and set it up that way if setting up an entire system for the garage costs too much. partitioning off your grow area (like some canvas hanging from the ceiling) also has other perks. 

besides just setting up the intake/outake fan system, a mini air conditioning unit might be necessary if you find that the air system isnt being as effective. heck, a few oscillating fans plus dehumidifor + mini-AC is a win
also in my experience, one de-humidifier goes a LONG way in cutting down how "hot" an area is. used together, you'll have no trouble controlling the temperature.


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## iClown (Jul 8, 2008)

the ones that are for veg glow white and the ones for flower glow kinda orangish right?

also, do the lights change colour or become dull colour when they are dieing.


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## ArtVandolay (Jul 9, 2008)

Wow, thanks for all the comments...

The 400w HPS is just too hot for my box and garage.  There is no reasonable way to get air conditioned air into the garage/box, the only thing I can do reasonably is to get fresh air through the window on the side garage door. I don't think a/c air would reduce the temps enough anyway. 

The other problem I have is the cool tube is too long for the box and I can't get a good stream of air straight through the tube.  The final, related problem is the ballast raises the ambient air temp in the garage, higher and higher the longer it runs.

Yesterday, I installed 3 27w (100w equivalent) CFL's and ran them last night.  The temp in the cab is a balmy 92 but I'm not drawing intake air from the window yet.  I had to order 45w CFLs in the right spectrums since I couldn't find them at the store.

At this point, I'm pretty confident I can get and keep the box temp in the very low 90s using CFLs.  I'm only looking to grow 1-2 plants at a time.  I'll keep you all posted on progress and I appreciate your comments.


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## iClown (Jul 9, 2008)

the 2700k is flowering right> the higher ones are vegging


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## honeybear (Jul 9, 2008)

yea 2700k is about the right range, should give off an orangy color

temp in the low 90s should do you fine too as long as the humidity isnt too high


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## massproducer (Jul 9, 2008)

ArtVandolay said:
			
		

> My grow space is 4' x 2.3' x 1.25'.


 
i don't understand...Are you saying that you only have 1.25 feet of head space without a light?  Is your availible height 1.25 feet?


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## ArtVandolay (Jul 10, 2008)

massproducer said:
			
		

> i don't understand...Are you saying that you only have 1.25 feet of head space without a light?  Is your availible height 1.25 feet?


4' high without light, 2.3 wide, 1.2 deep.




			
				honeybear said:
			
		

> temp in the low 90s should do you fine too as long as the humidity isnt too high


Good news, I think so, too.


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