Cree Bulb vs 23 Watt CFL Veg Out! Can Cree Take On The Light-Weight Champ?

^^^The A51 nugs would be rock solid from the spectrum's they choose and the CREE Bulb route is not a sure thing. Sometimes you're paying for not just the light, right? Expertise, incidentals, warranty coverage, support, it's all in the price. Try getting your money back from CREE if your plan doesn't work. From what I've heard A51 will bend over backwards to get right with you, CREE not so much I would think. Does it sound crazy? Not if it works .

OK lets see, I've upgraded the CFLs to 2x26 watt 1654 lumen "Daylight" bulbs but to me it appears that there's not enough light. Usually I have 8x23 watt CFLs running in this section but after looking at the plants they're too stretched out at this point, and have too many 1 to 3 leaf fan leaves. I expected some stretching but not like this. Usually 12/1 gives you pretty tight nodes and while my BC isn't that big of a fan of 12/1 it usually gets with the program after a couple of weeks. These 2 aren't doing that it seems.



Now if we look at my moms which are under some spots, you'll see they're not as stretched for being under 12/1 nor do they suffer from underdeveloped leaves. These are under 2x10 watt 5000K and 1x20 watt 12000K spotlights.


Maybe an 18/6 schedule would clear up the way the BC looks but to me it really needs more intense lights. Anyway I'm gonna run these plants for about a week and a half more, then it's time to redo my cabs with my new light setup. Guess now would be a good time for some training. Think I'll give the champ an extra day or two before I torture them into submission. Try to get those roots to grow a bit more before training. And I'll get those temp readings soon. Happy Growing Everyone!

Whats Up Brother FranJan.I Also Been looking At Replacing My CFL'S With Led Bulbs My Damnself.Lots Of Great Information Keep Up the Awsome Work

Clear your Inbox brother!

Update time and it was time to put on my boxing gloves and beat down our little Blue Cheese bitches. Plus I decided to up the light cycle to 16/8 on my way to 18/6, but that's more for all the Critical Mass in my veg cab ATM that I want to keep as stress free as possible till I'm ready to sex them. Anyway I like what the CREES are doing, but there's sooo many better options, like spotlights, COBs and home-made bulb kits with the diodes you want. Still I think I've proved they can hang in the veg cab, though I wouldn't mind doing this again with a strain like SLH. Anyway 1 more week or so of veg, (the CFL BC will have a few more days of veg to catch up), then it's off to the flowering cab. So let's see what's up;


So one more update and maybe we'll go another round with some SLH. See ya soon.

man those plants are healthy looking. how come you dont have a proper journal of your full grow fran(or i am i the ultimate stoner and did not seen it this whole time)? id sure in hell like to see weekly updates from whatever you got going on!

Good deal man (edit: or lady) thanks for the info...I can imaging lots of folks rigging up strip lighting and coming up with all kinds of awesomeness on the cheap on account of your thread, bravo!!

The last of the parts I needed came today so I just need to make a reflector and I'll be ready to see if these Cree will do a good job flowering. I'll start a new thread when I get it setup,I'll be using 12- 2700k and 4- 5000k and I might add some 2700k CFL's for side lighting.On a side note my new inline fan arrived today and boy is it quiet,well worth the $170 I paid for the 4"-5" S&P TD silent.It's about 10 feet away from me and I can barely hear it running.

Well after all this I think we can say the Cree 5000K do a pretty good job at 20 watts of draw. Still root growth isn't there IMO, lots of flopping around and the main stem isn't really thickening enough for me, but that goes for both sides and let's face it Cheese can be a pain in the ass. Perhaps a 5000K and a 2700K would of done a better job? For me what I've got out of this is if you're paying expensive prices for electricity, the Cree is a good alternative for the person who likes to veg with CFL. There's better ways of using LEDs but for the average person who wants to just grow they are a pretty good option. If you can find them now.

Oh and I almost forgot, here's the temp readings I keep forgetting to take. I put the probe from my digital thermometer inside a CFL for 5 minutes and came up with readings of 136F inside the bulb and 85F at the plants base, and the bulb reading was still climbing. Next I slid the probe behind the LED's reflector and put it within an inch of the CREE's ring of LEDs. After 5 minutes I got a max read max of 113F and 83F at the plant base so a bit cooler running temps but I assure you the bare LEDs will burn the plant's leaves faster than your avg CFL so beware those who choose to remove the globe! Well let's see the ladies.


OK so the LED plant is getting nice and bushy and while the CFL plant is a bit behind, it is finally starting to respond to my training. Still more light in the cabinet is the answer to the slow growth that I'm getting. These plants are gonna stay in veg for a while I think and if I have the room I might try to repeat this demo with 2 SLH I have that are perfect for this. Otherwise I think those interested in more CREE bulb fun should check out captainmorgan's (LINKY) journal in LED/Other. Good Luck Capt. and thanks to Alex281 and everyone else for their kind words and views.

Finally subbed to this. Hated looking around for this thread earlier - about to make a HD order, and needed to reference this and PF's threads.

I'm thinking of switching out my CFLs everywhere in my house. I'm also growing a small "earth Box" of Spinach and Swiss Chard with CFL that I'd like to switch over to LED. In General, I'd like to switch to an all LED grow environment. Currently rockin' 3 A51s for partial veg + flower (2x A51-90s and 1x SGS-160). Would like to get my mamas and clones under some of these cree bulbs.

All the input in this thread and others are really helpful. Thanks for taking the time to put it out there!

Well lets see......

Wasn't very happy with the CFLs growth or the roots on the CREE 5000K so I ditched the CFLs and grabbed 2 WW CREE Bulbs. I was going to just run 1 and 1 on each plant but decided to replace the CFLs straight up with the 2700Ks and was very surprised by the growth exhibited by the plant under them so I've decided to see something. Since I've got a little space and time let's just keep this thread kicking and do a little CREE Bulb Red Vs Blue or 2700K Vs 5000K comparison, shall we? So I've got 2 old ass, abused, root bound and over-watered Super Lemon Haze clones I've been waiting to veg so let's get them going before it's too late;




I'm going to insert a divider between them next week but for now let them have all the light till they get a bit healthier. Questions? Comments?

Did you ever take the globes off? Your setup would probably benefit from having such an efficient and intense light in your area. When I'm done I want to take mine apart like Bumping showed us and see what I can mount them on or I might use them as intra-canopy lighting for my XP-Es if they stumble. But I wouldn't mind using them in the next cup comp for a goof .

And yeah I got them in every lamp now in my place now, helping the old e-bill big time. And a 10 year warranty. How can you go wrong with these things, unless you're like ultra sensitive to lighting.

FranJan said:

Did you ever take the globes off? Your setup would probably benefit from having such an efficient and intense light in your area. When I'm done I want to take mine apart like Bumping showed us and see what I can mount them on or I might use them as intra-canopy lighting for my XP-Es if they stumble. But I wouldn't mind using them in the next cup comp for a goof .

And yeah I got them in every lamp now in my place now, helping the old e-bill big time. And a 10 year warranty. How can you go wrong with these things, unless you're like ultra sensitive to lighting.

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It will be interesting to see how many of us 'LED heads' are using household LED's in their 'normal spots'....i had the left over 7 watters from my household grow (and a few 9's) so i dont have a CFL or incandescent in the house anymore.

So Fran, me... im assuming Pet? Who else? I think Psuagro was thinking about it...but he probably got induction households instead..

PetFlora said:

I have replaced most of my cfls & incandescents with led bulbs. They are awesome. Some of the 3-4w chinese I use for mood lighting. The CREEs throw a ton of light. The 7w Utilitechs that I did not remove the globes are in the bathrooms

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something i never would've thought to do.......thank you internet & Pet

gday fellas..im just startin off with d.i.y led...i have a really noob question... have been trying to replace a led chip inside a flood and the solder im using will stick to the wires but not the chip....what type of solder do i need to complete my task?

^^^Try a thin gauge silver, which is what I use, though the exact gauge escapes me atm. I take some solder and deposit a blob on top of the contact, then I solder the wire to the pre-soldered contact. Works great for me. Good Luck Scroga!