ok.. cost vs effectiveness... I can get just as many lumens for 400w of CFL's (like humboldt) as I can with my 400w MH, but without spending as much on electricity and less heat... right?

That guys's plants look fuckin savage for using those CFL's..

anyone have any opinions on this? cause, when I move out, I will just veg under 600w of CFL and flower under a 1k HPS (that's coming in the future)...

That sounds perfect

If you've already got an HPS coming, then use that

But if you haven't bought one, consider using CFLs throughout the entire grow process. Humboldt did it, why can't you?

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I've also been looking into vanity light fixtures to plop down some cfl's into. If your purchase the Y Adapters which houses 2 bulbs your getting more bang for the buck. Like you said i'll veg under cfl's and flower under a high pressure sodium bulb. This way is so much cheaper and saves you space and money. Can't go wrong.

Hank.

yeah.. just the shear girth and bushiness of those plants durring veg makes me wanna nut... I still wanna use a 1k w HPS because it will just flat out make the dank denser... unless someone can prove me wrong? lol Humboldt?

Im very anxious to see how his come out, just with the CFL... Has anyone else had a successful crop with CFL?

lol (had to type more cause of the limit >_>)

this is what I want to do with my setup...

Im going to run 2 rooms... I want to crop every 60 days

room 1:
30 26w CFL arranged just like Humboldts, but twice as long... 2 rows of 6 plants... This room would be for VEG ONLY... well, it would be the same room, but blocked off from the flowering room... and yes... everything would be surround by a reflective surface...

room 2:
1 1000w HPS light... all reflected.. etc etc etc...

basically I will have 24 plants total... 12 get 2 months of veg, while the other 12 get 2 months or so of fruiting...

If I could squeeze an oz off of each plant every 2 months, that would be dope.. I will most likely be switching to a hydro setup as well... it just works better...

but for vegging, it seems I can use those 30 CFL's to veg, while still getting a good veg, and saving money.. would that be right?

Sounds great

Yeah CFLs is the cheap way to go for vegging

But I must say, unless you've bought the CFLs already, you might as well buy an MH if you're going to buy that many CFLs LOL

For 30 of those lights at Walmart it would cost you around $100, I think that could get you a nice MH?

Either way I think it'll be just fine

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well.. I just saw a page online that shows something very useful...

13 32w CFLs will output 33,000 lumens

I have found numerous ebay ads that have large packs of CFL for dirt cheap.. check it out

12 COMPACT FLUORESCENT 23W=100W ENERGY SAVING LITE BULB - (eBay item 300173990948 end time Nov-26-07 13:06:39 PST)

this one was dope because for less than $25, you get 12 23w CFL's... pretty good deal...

Damn... for 400w of CFL, and 400w of MH, it would still cost the same to run them... but you get more lumens from the MH for the same price it costs to run the CFL... and I already have a 400w MH..

i just got in from home depot with a haul of flourescents.

got 3 Ys, six screw in spiral bulbs, a ten pack of 40w 4' cool blue bulbs, and even 2 full shop lights (4' floros w/ 2 bulbs) for under $70.

that includes beer $15

lemme give you some facts.

first of all 400 watts of cfls waste's the same amout of power as 400 watts of hps. same cost.

as for efficiency 400+ watts of cfls will give you around 30k lumens. 400 watts of hps will give you 55k lumens... thats 25k more almost double efficiency

as for the initial cost hps are around 150 shipped .... as for cfls there prolly half the cost... but also half the efficiency... you get what you pay for... if you have the space and heat isnt an issure then i believe you should get the hps.. no doubt... but if you have a small space and heat is an issure then feel free to go with cfls

also humbolt is great with the cfls i wanna know what he used to make a setup that nice. i + reped him