Cfl light bulb question :-)

I cant seem to work out how you increase the brightness of a cfl - is it to do with the tube construction, amount of tubes/length of tubes, just the ballast or all three options.

I referenced two 200watt cfls and one was brighter but couldnt work out the why and how.

As far as i can get is that less tubes of longer length increase the tubes wattage absorbtion.

One bulb of 200watts had a 130w tube absorbtion the other a 150w absorbtion making it brighter. The higher absorbtion brighter tube was longer meaning less u bends/tubes on the bulb.

This is probably complex but beforeci try to work it out i thought id post in case an engineer of this subject was growing weed.

Thanks

it's actually about light color aka Daytime color to a warm color look at the Kelvin reference on the box and you'll see. Daytime colors are usually 5k to 65K perfect for veg cycle, warmer colors aka 3k to 27k are cooler in temp but great for a flowering cycle...

LED's are better

xtsho said:

LED's are better

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true, led bulbs are a heck of a lot better.....been playing with a panel this season, bout to flower with the led bulbs

BudmanTX said:

true, led bulbs are a heck of a lot better.....been playing with a panel this season, bout to flower with the led bulbs

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Actually I was being sarcastic with Kingrow1. But yeah LED's are better than CFL's.

xtsho said:

Actually I was being sarcastic with Kingrow1. But yeah LED's are better than CFL's.

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i know...lol...

It will be the area of tube and ballast power.
The amount of light produced is directly related to the amount of phosphor coating so the more tube the more coating , the more power is needed to light the gases inside which create uv light which in turn excites the phosphor to create visible light.
If you want increase in light output you must use more surface area and that needs more power to work.

coreywebster said:

It will be the area of tube and ballast power.
The amount of light produced is directly related to the amount of phosphor coating so the more tube the more coating , the more power is needed to light the gases inside which create uv light which in turn excites the phosphor to create visible light.
If you want increase in light output you must use more surface area and that needs more power to work.

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Knowledge

BudmanTX said:

it's actually about light color aka Daytime color to a warm color look at the Kelvin reference on the box and you'll see. Daytime colors are usually 5k to 65K perfect for veg cycle, warmer colors aka 3k to 27k are cooler in temp but great for a flowering cycle...

Click to expand...

This

MoreSessLessStress said:

This

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Yea this is how it works

BudmanTX said:

it's actually about light color aka Daytime color to a warm color look at the Kelvin reference on the box and you'll see. Daytime colors are usually 5k to 65K perfect for veg cycle, warmer colors aka 3k to 27k are cooler in temp but great for a flowering cycle...

Click to expand...

I didnt want to complicate with spectrum and both bulbs were vegative.

coreywebster said:

It will be the area of tube and ballast power.
The amount of light produced is directly related to the amount of phosphor coating so the more tube the more coating , the more power is needed to light the gases inside which create uv light which in turn excites the phosphor to create visible light.
If you want increase in light output you must use more surface area and that needs more power to work.

Click to expand...

Ok commercially and industrially i think you can strap a lot off different sized and amount of tubes to the same ballast to oroduce different lumen ratings and hence how one 200w cfl can be a little brighter per area and overall. There must be some efficiency graphs with curves on for each tube for different ballasts or wattages to find sweet spots.

It just bugged my why some cfls were brighter and teilded more years back when they first came out - envirolight vs maxibrite or todays cfks = no competition. I feel it was more desiggn not ballast and less tubes in a reflector at more illuminosity somehow equalled better efficiency even though that seems backwards.

Next i need to work out power differences between a 4u and 5u ballast of the same wattage... eeek

Try Home Depot ...Pick the same wattage, same brand, same twist, different spectrums. check the lumens..

xtsho said:

Actually I was being sarcastic with Kingrow1. But yeah LED's are better than CFL's.

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Why would i care about peak efficiency in a small ass veg tent - those led trollers can suck on my low lm/w planet fucker 'Yo bitch i can afford to piss away a 100watts of power' love for high wattage cfl attitude allday long, they aint the ones paying my bills (well actually some cool dude called Mr Marijuana pays them but i feed and put a roof overr that fucker so he owes me rent).

But yer sometimes you got love for stuff which isnt the most efficient, the next guy owns a lambo on a car forum and everyones calling him a douche because he gets two miles to the gallon driving to vegas on weekends.....

Yer but if i was furnishing a big ass grow neither led or crl or flouro would get a sniff - pure cmh and hps double enders all over the shop

Edit: Ya someone said led was the future and still i see fuck all leds around my country - point in fact is that its still the hardest light herecto locate and steal.... hurry up led future

Coalcat said:

Try Home Depot ...Pick the same wattage, same brand, same twist, different spectrums. check the lumens..

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Pick two different brands same spectrum same wattage and i found a lumen difference so thought 'explain that?'.... hopefully the answer was above

Kingrow1 said:

Pick two different brands same spectrum same wattage and i found a lumen difference so thought 'explain that?'.... hopefully the answer was above

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Yea ballast efficiency and construction...i personally think its mostly ballast and electronic quality...I think if bulb manufactures found that they could get significantly more light with a certain shape they would all do it...but who knows. I think it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to figure out which bulb variables causing the differences between 2 different manufacturers

Coalcat said:

Yea ballast efficiency and construction...i personally think its mostly ballast and electronic quality...I think if bulb manufactures found that they could get significantly more light with a certain shape they would all do it...but who knows. I think it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to figure out which bulb variables causing the differences between 2 different manufacturers

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Yep very difficult and that was unexpected of cfls