Making the switch.

I have a mh in my veg box , it's about 4 feet by 3 feet and 5 feet tall. I have a small heat problem but nothing ventilation couldn't defeat. However with a veg room and a flowering room going my electric bill went up to much for me. I am going to change my veg room to cfls and I was thinking about putting 3 200 actual watt cfls in it be it that it's cheap to run and doesn't take many amps. I know you need a lot of light for flowering and I have that but for vegging is that to much light? Is it to little? Will I have to lower my lights and move then as my plants grow?

I think you will find that 600 watts of CFL will put off almost as much heat as your MH.

Like I said heat is not my worry lol

In that case, 600w is 600w. If your MH is 600w, it will t take just a bit more than that drive the bulb. Replacing the MH with CFL will give you the same power consumption (if it is 600w MH).

Just looked through your posts...you have one each 400w HPS and MH. I think you'll find that 600w CFL uses 200w more power than a 400w MH .

My mh takes like 4.8 Amps something like that, 3 200 watt cfls is 4 Amps and I was really thinking of using 2 of them and then the Amps just about 3 I did the math the other night. It's cheaper to use cfls then my mh at this point

Will it veg my plants ? That's all I need to know, I want to make sure that my plants will still grow lol

Running 2 CFLs for 18h/day vs the one MH will save you anywhere from $20-$35 per month. Will 400w of CFL give you sufficient light? How many plants, how big of a space?

400 watts per hour of CFL and 400 watts of MH or HPS ...
Same...
1KW = 1000 watts an hour, your bill is in KW used...
1000 watts of CFL uses a 1000 watts...
same as
1000 watts of MH uses a 1000 watts...
sorry....
OHM's Law 101...

All points put aside,
Yes that will Veg. your plants.

OK, saw the size of the space in OP (doh!), so really need to know how many plants you will have in there. 400w of CFL will be OK for 3-4 plants (in veg), but not sure about just using 2 200w bulbs to get there. You'd be better off splitting it down to more lesser wattage bulbs because the lumens from a CFL fall off much more rapidly than HID.

Sand4x105 said:

400 watts per hour of CFL and 400 watts of MH or HPS ...
Same...
1KW = 1000 watts an hour, your bill is in KW used...
1000 watts of CFL uses a 1000 watts...
same as
1000 watts of MH uses a 1000 watts...
sorry....
OHM's Law 101...

Click to expand...

Actually, 1000w of MH uses roughly 1080-1090w...you lose some in the ballast.

I want to veg like 25 plants max, no more then about a foot tall. I believe a few cfls can do this. I dont need gigantic plants just alot of small ones ready for flowering , Sea of green style lol

Well personally I do sog in coolers and I also grow 3-4ft Xmas tree style type w/ cfls. I use 250watt cfl for top lights and 26watt cfls for side growth. Cool In veggie, warm in flower. Works very well

Dannysayo said:

Well personally I do sog in coolers and I also grow 3-4ft Xmas tree style type w/ cfls. I use 250watt cfl for top lights and 26watt cfls for side growth. Cool In veggie, warm in flower. Works very well

Click to expand...

I personally like the lumens per watt of the smaller cfl's, and the price tag of the smaller cfl's, you need to replace them every 6 months also, so if you are going for one big veg light then t5's are probably better, and mh isn't bad either.

Another thought, you can't always just go by the current (amps) to get watts, because in an inductive (or capacitive) load the volt-amps don't equal the real power, because the current and voltage are out of phase. Just go by the stated real watts, or buy a watt meter.