19200 lumen CFL setup under $50

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md.apothecary

md.apothecary

Art is Resistance!
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Went to homedepot and walmart (right next door to each other)

Homedepot:
2 24" light fixtures = $14.00 each ($28.00)

Walmart:
12 2700k 23w bulbs - $7.00 each (three 4 packs = 21.00)

Misc. parts I have at home

The process was relatively simple. Took the two fixtures apart, and reversed the white decorative peice and turned it inside out and put it back on.
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Took a piece of 1/2in MDF and attached the brackets before placing the decorative piece on for good... do this with both fixtures.
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Place your dec. piece on backwards... so that the back is facing out where the bulbs screw in. This creates a very very crude reflector since it's angled towards your plants.

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Holes were put in the MDF for wiring...
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Wire it up and you're done with these 8 lights I got the 2ft ones because of my space, but I have 4 other lights that will go into my other home made fixtures to light from under neath and beside the plants.... I will post pics of later. This will give me 19200 lumens in my grow area, only a few thousand more than I really need, but more the better!

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BTW, don't worry about the cheap mylar in the back... it's being replaced with flat white paint. IMO, mylar *****!! it rips way too easily!
 
good job dude, creative.
I am planning on doing something similar, but i think im going to use 150w cfls.
Lookin good..
 
12, 23 watt cfl's is 273 watts @ 19200 lumens

One 250 watt HPS will give you 29,000 lumens for the same wattage.

Im sure the heat of 12 CFL's is more that one 250 watt HPS.
 
Temps in the grow room with NO fan running is 79 degrees and when placing my hand/arm in the light fixture, there is a nice warm feeling, but no warmer than touching the mechanical timer plugged into the power strip. It's equivalent to the temps of my 4 3ft 30w flouro tubes.

A 400w that I had was taking temps in the 100's, no good, plus for the PRICE, it worked well for me. If I could get a 250w that stayed cool, and at $50 I'd of gotten it. :) But CFL's I wanted to try anyway because I think they're nifty! And according to the spectral analysis I found, if you get enough of them, they actually beat out an HPS in the color spectrum that our plants need for flowering.

This info was in alienbaits LED thread where i posted the CFL charts.

speaking of LED.. I wanted to show my fancy GREEN room :) There is no flash on the camera and this was in the dark... that is a single 8w green LED lighting up my grow closet.

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I went and bought 2 more fixtures for the mother veg side. Of course... just my luck, I have to order 6500k bulbs online because no one had the ones i needed. i needed at least 23w bulbs, but the ones i found only were at 1050lumens each. and they wanted like 9 bucks a pack of 2

Just a note, I started finding tons of bulbs with no color temps, but a quick reference for those NOT in the know....

"DAY LIGHT" bulbs are NOT 2700K bulbs!! They are actually about 5500k - 6500k according to the packages.

"SOFT WHITES" on the packaging was indicating they were 2700k bulbs...

"Cool Whites" are 4100k-4700k usually (IMO, what's the point?)

"Warm White" - AKA soft white (see above)
 
Growdude said:
12, 23 watt cfl's is 273 watts @ 19200 lumens

One 250 watt HPS will give you 29,000 lumens for the same wattage.

Im sure the heat of 12 CFL's is more that one 250 watt HPS.
Click to expand...

nooo way is it more heat than a 250w. any sort of HPS gives off alot of heat, my 400 was crazy.
after using HPS, Using cfls is like not having to ever worry about heat really.
all i worry about know is smell
 
Ekoostik_Hookah said:
nooo way is it more heat than a 250w. any sort of HPS gives off alot of heat, my 400 was crazy.
after using HPS, Using cfls is like not having to ever worry about heat really.
all i worry about know is smell
Click to expand...

Nobody's going to tell me 12 cfl's are not going to put out some heat and unless someone has 12 burning now we really dont know what the heat output is.
This has been hashed around quite a bit about Too many CFL's oR just a single HPS.

The biggest problem with any CFL or floro tubes is they just dont have the light penetration needed to grow the sweetest buds, even though I have seen good results from CFL lighting IMO they are inferior.
 
Ekoostik_Hookah said:
nooo way is it more heat than a 250w. any sort of HPS gives off alot of heat, my 400 was crazy.
after using HPS, Using cfls is like not having to ever worry about heat really.
all i worry about know is smell
Click to expand...

I am a firm believer that in some grow rooms, whether it be vented or not, or the grower has an A/C set at 50 degrees in the summer, might make a difference, but my house thermo is set at 78 in the summer, and 68 in the winter. This makes a difference because the ambient temps are already saturated with a heat base starting at 78. It only goes UP from there, so someone starting at anything less than 78 has an advantage over me as far as being able to use any particular type of lighting that puts off heat, but seriously these lights are the best option for me so far.

Ventilation will be setup for me in the summer to cool the air more, but you're right about the smell!! Since changing these lights from LED's to CFL's the smell has gotten so much stronger! I need to investigate scrubbing options for the closet! haha btw, im not saying the light has anything to do with the smell... but then again, maybe it does since it's more light than the LEDs and it's stimulating more of the plants.

SPEAKING of ventilation... i just found out my home depot carries inline blower fans, plug in thermostats, and all the goodies that you order online at a good price. A 10" inline fan was only $40!! I was like holy sheep, that's cheaper than online!
 
well i have 5 150w cfls, and i can honestly say that heat is no problem at all. even if i put my whole arm under all the cfls, i can barely feel the heat.
even when i touch the bulbs, they are just warm.
MD has 8 cfls, and im sure he would say the same about the heat on his.
i dont even have a fan on the lights, just a small fan blowing the leaves around.

If MD adds 4 to his 8 for a total of 12, i doubt there will be much of a change in Temp...maybe a few degrees.
Now if you were using a 250w hps, and you upgraded to a 400 hps, there would be a very noticable change in heat.
To me, its almost like common sense that a HPS would have way more heat than cfls. Even if you had 20 cfls, i dont think the heat would match a 400w or 1000w HPS.

have you ever touched a 1000w burning bulb?? it hit my face once, i had burns for about 3 weeks.
just holding your arm under a hps, it starts to burn the skin.

one more thing, CFL may not penitrate through the foliage as much, but you can put CFLs much closer to the plant then a hps, you can have cfls above, on the sides. even under and inbetween plants...for under and side lighting....this kinda makes up for the weak penitration.
 
i had 13 cfl's at one time, and there really wasnt much of a heat issue, it stayed in below 82degree's, but he's right, 12 cfl's easily puts out as much heat as my 250watt advance hps. i also think that with age, cfl's get hotter imho. or be it seems like they do.


Dc
 
I am running eight cf's and no ventilation, i have my area in the back of my closet on a shelf. My temps never get over 85 degrees, not even in the summer and 24 hour lighting, i havent used an hps, but from what i have read about others ventilation problems cause of light heat, i would think that cfl's would be cooler. Just my thought.
 
Dankcloset i think you are right about the cfls getting hotter with age cause i have one or two cfls that have lasted 2 now on the third grow and this time my closet is getting about 5 degrees warmer that the last grow ... but as far as cfls putting off as much heat as an hps i can not agree with... a friend of mine has one 1000 watt hps and one 1000 watt mh and they both get so hot that if you put your hand 1 or 2 inches under the lights the get exteremly hot and his veg room has almost 30 cfls and the same size room and we have to open the veg room door and let heat in from the 1000 watt light so i can't agree but that does not mean you are wrong just my input.
 
Well, like I mentioned before, it has a number of variables, no ONE light is better than another. if you setup your CFL's properly, with correct spacing, etc. You won't have much of a problem with heat. If you have a single HPS, this heat is directly in front of the bulb, but this is why it causes the burns it does, because it's concentrated and reflected back down. An HPS puts off about 75-85% of it's light in the form of "heat". Just depends on what you're willing to do for ventilation.

I can't vent, so CFLs are better for me. My passive intakes and fans are all I can setup for this area. Easy stealth. :)
 
'Sup dude :ciao: I have 9 cfls in a 23"x23"x8' closet with passive intake and 3 axial fans situated directly above closet dumping into my attic, and mainain a 70F+/- temp during cold months. Im running 2 40w 2700k soft white 4 23w 6500k daylight, 2 23w 2700k, and 1 23w 5500k cfl. During summer i have 80-85F temps. Just my 0.02 on cfl heat. peace, e :bong2:
 
little FYI for those interested in CFL's

When you setup your configuration, try and make sure you optimize your spacing. Remember CFL's disperse their light in a cone pattern downwards. If you can determine the proper cone size and angle, you can actually cover more by using less. Obviously, piled up lights create a smaller cone but are more intense. However, you can build reflectors and direct the light yourself allowing you to space out more and have the same intensity creating less heat in a specific area by reducing the number of CFL's piled up in a central location.

Just doing some testing with my CFL's. :)
 
waiting on my order from 1000bulbs.com, does anyone do business with them? are they quick?
 
Hey, that grow setup is nice but not for vegging. I go to Lowe's and pick up a 3 pack of 1600 lumen daylights cfl's for only 10 bucks. That's 4,800 lumens for 10 bucks. Not bad at all in my eyes.This means $100 will get you 48,000 lumens but thats alot of light bulbs too. Those run at 26 watts a bulb. I dunno just my 2 cents!
 
my veg section hasn't been setup yet, but i have 26w bulbs coming in for that that cost me like less than $4 a bulb from 1000bulbs for my veg setup. Hopefully they'll be here today/tomorrow!

this was originally going to be for flowering but i decided why not try both! :) I am going to usethe flourex 65w 6825 lumen bulbs for a micro unit in the future or for starting my pups.
 
yoo dude, wheres some new pics??
throw some up for me man, i want to see whats happening
 
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