Lumens to Directional Bulbs

dave_jam

dave_jam

Member
I know lumens are a big factor in how effective these kind of lights are. If a regular bulb & a directional bulb produced the exact same lumens, would there be a difference in them? Becuz directional(or flood) lights concentrate all their light in one specific area..

I have a nice little 3w and a 5w LED flood light.. I also have some Cfls..

My question is what bulb would be more effective for me? 5w directional LED or a 23w 360degree CFL bulb?

This is my second Grow; first Auto grow and Idfk why or how but I'm messing my plant up quite a lot so I'm just trying to do what I can to do better I guess lol

Thx in advance
 
It's not oregano

It's not oregano

Well-Known Member
In my opinion the led would be better. I have used both for grows and the leds whupped the cfls using much less total wattage.

Say for arguments sake the led has an angle of 120 degrees of light output. That means if you mount it aiming downwards, ALL of the light produced is aimed towards the plant canopy. Working on that principle the cfl will only have 1/3 of it's light aiming towards the canopy, the rest will be going sideways or upwards, so only say 8w worth towards the canopy if the cfl is horizontal.

If that is the case, if they were the same lumen output to start with, the cfl will only be directing 1/3 of the lumen output towards the canopy for nearly 5x the wattage. More wattage means more heat to disperse.

Also, bear in mind if you rip the globe off the led you will get a decent increase in lumen output. I have never measured it but people have stated between 20-40% more.

Get some 15w leds in there and you will be flying...
 
dave_jam

dave_jam

Member
It's not oregano said:
In my opinion the led would be better. I have used both for grows and the leds whupped the cfls using much less total wattage.

Say for arguments sake the led has an angle of 120 degrees of light output. That means if you mount it aiming downwards, ALL of the light produced is aimed towards the plant canopy. Working on that principle the cfl will only have 1/3 of it's light aiming towards the canopy, the rest will be going sideways or upwards, so only say 8w worth towards the canopy if the cfl is horizontal.

If that is the case, if they were the same lumen output to start with, the cfl will only be directing 1/3 of the lumen output towards the canopy for nearly 5x the wattage. More wattage means more heat to disperse.

Also, bear in mind if you rip the globe off the led you will get a decent increase in lumen output. I have never measured it but people have stated between 20-40% more.

Get some 15w leds in there and you will be flying...
Click to expand...
Thx for the response.. yeah I figured that trick of tearing the plastic off leds and it's like a totally new light.. I have 3 of those and 2 directional flood ones.

Thx, that's what I was thinking about the leds too just wanted to know for sure
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top