which ones better a 25watt cfl or a 23watt with equivalent of 120w cfl? please help!

help please, i have no idea what equivalent means.

i just went to a home depot yesterday morning and i saw some of these bulb with 23W=120W equivalent writing in its box.

and i remembered my CFL with 25watts in it but has no writing of equivalent or whatsoever, so what is this equivalent about and

and what is much better to buy? a 25watt cfl or the bulb with a 23W=120W equivalent. the brand name of the 23W=120W equivalent is omni by the way.

please help me out, so that i can replace my other newly bought bulb with that bulb if it is much better.

Do you know the kelvin rating? 2700...6500....somewhere in between? The higher actual wattage bulb is most likely better, as long as it's new and the proper color. Forget about the equivalent wattage number, only go by actual watts.

Depends what time of the cycle you are in.Yyou can grow an entire crop with CFL’s if you chose the right spectrum of bulb’s. For Vegetation you will want to use 6500K or 5000K, and when you flower you will want to switch to 2700K or 3000K . The reason being, throughout the year the plant’s outside receive more 6500K light because the day’s in summer are long and hot and as Autumn/Winter get’s closer the day get’s shorter, and gradually receives less 6500K light and more 2700K light as the plant flower’s. Do what you can to avoid bulbs within that 3500K – 4000K because they emit very little light that Is useful to your plant.

Tutorial to Growing with Cfl's

myself i go for the bigger 23w 2700K (WArmer)CFL bulb (cause i couldnt find the 42w 6500K at my lowes and depot) and also use a smaller softer white buld (14W) but i use 4 Big 23w (bout to mount 2 more soon) and 2 soft white ( bout to mount 2 more also ) buuuut i used this

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/do...effective.html

and made that reflector for my CLFs and made my own adjustments to what i had to work with but takes less then an hour to assemble and works great and cost me $20.73 n all. works Very nice in small spaces or to just hold you over till u get the funds for a HPS bulb.

Keep Growing. <3

go with the 25w a few more watts wont break your wallet
disregard equivalent watts

Originally Posted by Metasynth

Do you know the kelvin rating? 2700...6500....somewhere in between? The higher actual wattage bulb is most likely better, as long as it's new and the proper color. Forget about the equivalent wattage number, only go by actual watts.

yes sir, i know kelvin rating, learned it from the people of RIU. thanks sir and ma'am.

i was just confused because of the equivalent wattage, i hate some salesman here at the home depot in my place, they confused me they told me that the equivalent watts are better because it produces more light, they told me that, but i was high and i didn't listen to them i followed my insticts and still bought the 25 watts cfl, i now again have 3, ( i accidentally dropped my other CFL, i'm sometimes clumsy). can i put some warm lights 2500k-2700k
together with my 6500k's and still veg, and use it for flower. (i think i'm gonna buy two 25watts 2500k warm daylight)

Sure, you can flower with a mixed spectrum. As a matter of fact, I preferred it when I grew with CFL's.

Originally Posted by F A B

go with the 25w a few more watts wont break your wallet
disregard equivalent watts

alright sir,

i wanted to ask if i can buy 2500k-2700k lights and mixed them with the 6500k lights and still use it for veg, and also use both 2700k and 6500k
in flowering.

or is it much better if all lights are in 6500k for veg and if in flower all lights are in 2700k.

I think it's better to use both 6500k and 2700k mixed together in both veg AND flower...I vegged with a ratio of two 6500k/one 2700k, and I flowered with a ration of two 2700k/one 6500k. So in veg, for every 2 6500k bulbs I had, I was burning one 2700k, and switched for flower. Perfectly fine, with work wonderfully.