rate my flowering light

my friend made this for me. he used 10, 24w CFLs. he said it will put out almost as much light as a 600w HPS. what does everyone think? looks like he worked pretty hard on it but 1 light wont light up. and all the wires are electrical taped, could this be a fire hazard? he said he tested it out and it works great for growing. he said i should use it in my flower room.

looks pretty cool be nice for your top buds but you will want more lights for underneath at least a floro tube or LST your crop that would work good i would think!!

Very nice light. You should trade in the warm bulbs and get some cool ones. That would make a great veg light, and then yes maybe go with a 600wHPS for flower. good job

I don't know your friend.. so I don't have to spare his feelings.
That's a nice attempt at something. You would likely want to double check the wiring. No way is 240 watts of CFL is even going to compete with a 250 watt HPS.. just my opinion, but you aren't going to get penetration like you do with a HID. I'm not a CFL grower.. so maybe I'm not the right person to comment, but there's a reason people upgrade their lighting after a few grows

no offense, im sure a lot of time was put into it, but the thing is junk. take the bulbs out and use them for clones/seeds or to light your house. sell the metal as scrap. tell your friend he is an idiot and wasted his time. if hes trying to tell you that thing will put out almost as much light as an hps, he obviously has no clue wtf he is talking about. im not saying you couldnt grow with that light, but hps will blow it out of the water. if i were you, i wouldnt take any advise from that friend.

I think you got a great setup yes it won't be as good but it will work but maybe change the lights to a lot higher wattage and then you can change them for flowering and also cfl bulbs work better side ways not as much up and down but you can get a good grow out of it ,I 've done several grows with cfl and use clamps for side lighting and yielded a nice grow, also check the forum on cfl and tweek what you got and make it a little better.

i agree with smoking58 CFL is awesome if set up properly its less heat and less energy used, i have never used hps or mh or anything so wouldnt beable to compare but as they get bigger you need lights on the sides around the plant for lower light penetration work out the kinks and you should be good to go read up on other forums about CFL's there are stickys on it!!

If you want to keep that light, for any reason at all (I'm not saying it's a bad set up), get some wire caps and replace the tape with them, then re-tape over the caps. Relying on just electrical tape to hold wires together, especially in a grow room(can get pretty warm and humid, causeing tape to fall off) is a fire hazard just waiting to happen.

skiweed sounds like he is the pro here but he is full of shit i use the same hook up last batch 4 plants got 7 ozs so use it dude

*cool for people to DIY, tell your friend just to keep doing what he's doing but improve on the previous model, so this first one would be the 'beta test' model

--cheers

noprofit said:

skiweed sounds like he is the pro here but he is full of shit i use the same hook up last batch 4 plants got 7 ozs so use it dude

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LMFAO... pics!

noprofit said:

skiweed sounds like he is the pro here but he is full of shit i use the same hook up last batch 4 plants got 7 ozs so use it dude

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Ski didn't say it wouldn't WORK, he just said it wouldn't compete with a 250w HID. And he's right. A little harsh, maybe, but right. CFL's or floros just don't have the same intensity and penetration as HID's.
That being said, I'd use one of those if it was free or if I couldn't afford a 4' 8 bulb T-5. I'd use it on clones, or to re-veg something. You'll get some head stash out of it but nowhere NEAR what you;d get with an HID set up or even an 8 bulb T-5.
Ski is right about another thing. Stop taking advise from your buddy. Go with someone who has been there and done that.

what is the spectrums of a HID?

NVM... i found it lol-----> http://www.delonixradar.com.au/hid-xenon/colour-chart.php

I will be looking into theses forsure after this CFL Bagseed grow

Nice CFL setup - but it won't compare to a 600 watt HPS, or even a 400.

I have both and I have 315 actual watts Professional CFL array/reflector.

I actually grew some killer bud with it, but the yield was poor.

Nothing like the yield with my 600 or 400 watt HID.

Good Luck

hey this doesnt haVE MUCH TO DO WITH THIS THAT MUCH BUT IF I WAS TO SWITCH MY 600WATT FOR A CFL AS BETTER GROWTH ND THIS IS TO HARSH FOR THN ATM SO IS THAT POSIBLE ND KAN IT BE DONE

noprofit said:

skiweed sounds like he is the pro here but he is full of shit i use the same hook up last batch 4 plants got 7 ozs so use it dude

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lol your a fucking tool. thats bullshit. maybe buds filled with leaf and wet. theres no way you could get 7 ounces with that setup.

anyone one else that thinks otherwise all i got to say is one thing, how many CFLs does a warehouse usually run? how many HPS? thats what i thought. cfls are great for supplemental lighting for the sides of your buds. they work for veg too. sorry to be harsh, but im simply stating facts. HPS puts out way more light watt per watt. you would need roughly 30 of those bulbs to equal a 600w hps.
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficacy
http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/guide3.shtml

skiweeds said:

anyone one else that thinks otherwise all i got to say is one thing, how many CFLs does a warehouse usually run? how many HPS? thats what i thought. cfls are great for supplemental lighting for the sides of your buds. they work for veg too. sorry to be harsh, but im simply stating facts. HPS puts out way more light watt per watt. you would need roughly 30 of those bulbs to equal a 600w hps.
sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficacy
http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/guide3.shtml

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Hey skiweeds im sure you are right about the HPS but i am using all cfl's and my buds are pretty dense and fat still got a few more weeks of growing so i am guessing im gonna get at least an ounce outta my girl you can have a look at my pics in the link below if you want to see it for yourself!!

Thank you everyone! i had an experienced friend come over that i havent talked to in a looong time. he used to do this until he moved to a non medical state and hes going to help me setup. he sad my other friend doesnt have a clue what hes talking about. i dont know how im gonna tell my one friend but now i dont really want the light. from what i learned the CFLs have bad penetration. he said i could veg with it but recommended a t5 high output. think im gonna just save some money and get an hps light. sucks a lot of work was put into the light and i kinda feel bad but i feel now at this point that he thinks he knows a lot more than he really does. i also asked my friend if that 7 ounces thing was true and he laughed and told me dont believe everything on the net lol.