CFL Search

I have been searching for the proper CFL's to purchase for grow (6500k veg and 2700k Flower) however the ones you see in Home Depot or Lowes are rated daylight bulbs but do not say 6500k on box. The Lumen rating is much less on box. All of the 20-26 Watt CFL's are much lower lumen rating on box. Am I not understanding properly or is there a 20-26 watt CFL that is daylight rated and will say 6500k on box? All of the daylight CFL bulbs in these store are not 6500k no matter what wattage rating is. What do I do?

the 6500k is not the lumen rating, but the kelvin rating. It measures what temps the chemicals inside the CFL burn at. The higher 6500k bulb is for veg. It burns at 6500 kelvin inside the bulb. Wattage does not matter. This is not lumens. I have 250w, 200w, 150w, 65w, 42w, and 26w bulbs, all 6500k, but all produce different lumens, different brightness. Hope this makes sense for you.

Read this on kelvin:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_Kelvin#

Something on lumens:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-lumen.htm

Your amount of lumens will depend on your wattage. Your K or kelvin rating, will not.

All different wattage bulbs, but all should be 6500k

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&source=hp&q=6500k%20cfl&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

you go to a site like this one: CLICK ME IM SEXY
lol.. its a link to a good lighting supplier

26w are really not to good for growing
people say there most effecient..
but what is the point of having 2-3-6 26watt cfls when you could have 1 or 2 46w or just one 125w....

just my .02

IAm5toned said:

you go to a site like this one: CLICK ME IM SEXY
lol.. its a link to a good lighting supplier

26w are really not to good for growing
people say there most effecient..
but what is the point of having 2-3-6 26watt cfls when you could have 1 or 2 46w or just one 125w....

just my .02

Click to expand...

Benefit of having more, in smaller wattage is allowing you to spread the light. Ed Rosenthal addresses this constantly.

in HID, 3 600w bulbs are better then 2 1000w bulbs, even then the 1000w have more wattage. The three 600w's let you spread the light over a greater surface.

Same goes for CFL's. Having 5 26w bulbs would be far more desirable then one 125w bulb. Light can be closer, and cover more area. Hope that makes sense to ya.

RPsmoke420 said:

Benefit of having more, in smaller wattage is allowing you to spread the light. Ed Rosenthal addresses this constantly.

in HID, 3 600w bulbs are better then 2 1000w bulbs, even then the 1000w have more wattage. The three 600w's let you spread the light over a greater surface.

Same goes for CFL's. Having 5 26w bulbs would be far more desirable then one 125w bulb. Light can be closer, and cover more area. Hope that makes sense to ya.

Click to expand...

you are 100% correct.Smaller is better no less than 25w though.

it makes sense to me... on paper
but im talking practicallity here... sockets, wiring, excess heat, those smaller lamps can take up alot of space in the grow room too when your using 10-12 of them.
personally i use 4 46w cfl's so i understand where your going with it, for me, i just done see the need to drop the wattage below 40w on a single lamp
i also lst and fim the fuck out of my plants so penetration is typoically not an issue i have to worry about.
like i said, just my .02... not the gospel.
everyone has there own ways of doing things, for me, after several closet grows, i find a few larger lamps works best than having 8-12 26watt lamps strung all over the place. reminds me of chinatown