Lumens, Lux, and Adding It all Up

ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
Mr. Maryjane said:
hey, can you hook up more than one light to a ballast, and if so, how do you know how many you can hook up.
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no .

edit: okay, so you "can" do that, but you shouldn't. I "can" jump off a building, but it wouldn't be very smart :)
 
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trapper

trapper

Well-Known Member
ive found useing a light meter that the least amount of lumens i need for optimum bud growth is 10,000 lumens.that is the outside rim of my plants.they will do fine,but if you rotate them in every other week that helps alot.i found that less then 10,000 and the buds get fluffy,im talking lumens from an hps.but believe it or not some strains like ak47 dont do well at the 10,000 lumen point.
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
trapper said:
ive found useing a light meter that the least amount of lumens i need for optimum bud growth is 10,000 lumens.that is the outside rim of my plants.they will do fine,but if you rotate them in every other week that helps alot.i found that less then 10,000 and the buds get fluffy,im talking lumens from an hps.but believe it or not some strains like ak47 dont do well at the 10,000 lumen point.
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lumens aren't meaningful unless you state at what distance the plants are from the light. 10000 lumens isn't near enough if your light is three feet from the canopy, for example.

lumens also aren't meaningful except if you state what the spectrum of the bulb is. So, '10k lumens' doesn't mean '10k HPS lumens'. Know what I mean?

So if you can specify how far your 10k HPS lumens are from your canopy, that would probably help readers understand what you have found to be sufficient.
 
trapper

trapper

Well-Known Member
ceestyle said:
lumens aren't meaningful unless you state at what distance the plants are from the light. 10000 lumens isn't near enough if your light is three feet from the canopy, for example.

lumens also aren't meaningful except if you state what the spectrum of the bulb is. So, '10k lumens' doesn't mean '10k HPS lumens'. Know what I mean?

So if you can specify how far your 10k HPS lumens are from your canopy, that would probably help readers understand what you have found to be sufficient.
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the distance doesnt play a part,because if my bulb is new it will read 10,000 at 3 feet,if it has 3 grows under the belt it may not,im just saying that 10,000 lumens is the least i can use for flowering to get good results weather it is 400,600,1000,new bulb,old bulb,when i put the meter and it says 8,000 i know the plants to far away.i dont know how else to explain it,but i am talking hps.i find that 10,000 lumens from a cfl does not have the same intencity.yes i know their are differant kelvins and such,i use 2700 cfl,s.
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
trapper said:
the distance doesnt play a part
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Sorry, but that's just not true. Did you read my initial post? Maybe you're meaning to say lux instead of lumens.

because if my bulb is new it will read 10,000 at 3 feet,
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your meter doesn't read in lumens. check the manual

if it has 3 grows under the belt it may not,im just saying that 10,000 lumens is the least i can use for flowering to get good results weather it is 400,600,1000,new bulb,old bulb,when i put the meter and it says 8,000 i know the plants to far away.i dont know how else to explain it,but i am talking hps.i find that 10,000 lumens from a cfl does not have the same intencity.yes i know their are differant kelvins and such,i use 2700 cfl,s.
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I don't know what measurement you're using to deduce that 10000 lumens CFL is not the same as 10000 lumens HPS, but it is incorrect.
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
trapper said:
i am able to do conversions unless your calling me fucking stupid.
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Lumens and lux are two different types of units. It's like comparing force and pressure. Your post makes it pretty clear that both 1. you didn't read my initial post and 2. you don't understand that. I tried to be nice about pointing that out.
 
trapper

trapper

Well-Known Member
im quite comfortable converting my foot candles to lumens and useing that as my point of referance for lighting,and it works just fine or me,and if i notice a differance in bud structure from an equal amount of cfl light against an equal amount of hps light who is one to tell me i dont,that is my observation in my home.
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
trapper said:
im quite comfortable converting my foot candles to lumens and useing that as my point of referance for lighting,and it works just fine or me.
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Please explain to me how you convert your foot-candles to lumens, and I will gladly admit that I misunderstood you. I don't know how I misunderstood that "the distance doesnt play a part,because if my bulb is new it will read 10,000 at 3 feet", but maybe that is not what you meant. 10,000 lumens? Is that really what you mean?

if i notice a differance in bud structure from an equal amount of cfl light against an equal amount of hps light who is one to tell me i dont,that is my observation in my home
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It is quite different to say that "10,000 lumens from a cfl does not have the same intencity [as 10000 lumens HPS]" and what you have stated above, which is that with your setup you see a difference between CFL and HPS. I am not contradicting the results you've seen - just what you attribute the difference to.

I don't know why I bothered with what you've written above, as I've already stated that lumens don't matter - lux do. Intensity is intensity, CFL or HPS. Any difference you see is due to either spectrum or how you have the lights distributed.
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
Seamaiden said:
Unless it's a ballast made for multiple lights. Or the light has a ballast built in..?
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That's a good point! I assumed he was talking about HID, in which case I do not know of ballasts for multiple bulbs.

For fluorescents, however, the fixtures take multiple bulbs. I wonder if it's one ballast or four smaller ones?
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't know, it's been HELLA days since I've wired anything up. But, I used to wire up tank hoods for stuff like reef tanks, and I know that for MH at least there are multi-light ballasts (two & 4 light configs are what I've seen). Ain't cheap, either. ;)
 
trapper

trapper

Well-Known Member
ceestyle said:
Please explain to me how you convert your foot-candles to lumens, and I will gladly admit that I misunderstood you. I don't know how I misunderstood that "the distance doesnt play a part,because if my bulb is new it will read 10,000 at 3 feet", but maybe that is not what you meant. 10,000 lumens? Is that really what you mean?

It is quite different to say that "10,000 lumens from a cfl does not have the same intencity [as 10000 lumens HPS]" and what you have stated above, which is that with your setup you see a difference between CFL and HPS. I am not contradicting the results you've seen - just what you attribute the difference to.

I don't know why I bothered with what you've written above, as I've already stated that lumens don't matter - lux do. Intensity is intensity, CFL or HPS. Any difference you see is due to either spectrum or how you have the lights distributed.
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personally,your opinion does not contribute to my grow what so ever,that might be hard for your ego to take,and thanks for the sly comments in rep posts.you think you need to have some f**cken degree to read a light meter and find what level your plants respond to,i dont know what the hell your trying to say but its all shit to me,so keep your sly remarks in the rep category to your self.
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
trapper said:
personally,your opinion does not contribute to my grow what so ever,that might be hard for your ego to take,and thanks for the sly comments in rep posts.you think you need to have some f**cken degree to read a light meter and find what level your plants respond to,i dont know what the hell your trying to say but its all shit to me,so keep your sly remarks in the rep category to your self.
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I don't remember repping you, so I'm unsure what you're referring to. Why would I rep you from this thread?

Please link me to what meter reads in lumens, or tell me how you converted from what your meter reads, which is in lumens/area (per ft^2 is footcandles, per m^2 is lux). You still don't get what I'm saying.

It is your decision whether or not to use this information ... don't take it out on me, chief.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
(shrug) I dunno. But I will tell you this, I wish we had some $$ to drop on enough photovoltaics (or, whatever necessary) to help pull us off the grid. This loss of power stuff gets old, and so do the high electricity prices.

I had a question I was mulling over in the shower about other light qualities, to do with color and peak in a given light's spectrum (and again, sun's spectrum during a certain time of year & day), but I am afraid I've completely brainfarted it. :roll:
 
ceestyle

ceestyle

Well-Known Member
Seamaiden said:
(shrug) I dunno. But I will tell you this, I wish we had some $$ to drop on enough photovoltaics (or, whatever necessary) to help pull us off the grid. This loss of power stuff gets old, and so do the high electricity prices.

I had a question I was mulling over in the shower about other light qualities, to do with color and peak in a given light's spectrum (and again, sun's spectrum during a certain time of year & day), but I am afraid I've completely brainfarted it. :roll:
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haha ... happens to me all the time.

yeah, assuming you are experiencing the same sunshine i am, you are in a great place for PVs. with luck, you'll be putting money in my pocket by the time you invest :)
 
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