Did I get the right lights?

Ok, so I've never grown before so I'm not entirely sure about what lights to use etc. etc...


Yesterday I measured an area in my room and basically planned out my ideal grow box. I then went to both B&Q and HomeBase and ended up buying most the things I need. All that's left is some wood (to actually build the box), seeds and building the hydroponic system... Anyways, while I was in Homebase I decided to buy some lights even though I wasn't 100% sure what to get cause I figured I could always return them if they were wrong so long as I don't open them...


So here's what I ended up going with. I bought 2 CFLs both the same. They come to 20Watt which is equivalent to 90Watts. They are both 1240 lumen. Their colour temperature is 2700k and voltage is 220-240V. I have done a fair amount of research before I bought them so I knew that the higher the lumens the better and I remembered that 2700k is used for either veg or flowering however I couldn't remember which one so basically here's my question... Are these lights good enough for either flowering, vegging or any other part of growing in general? Should I return them or keep them? Also, if you are going to suggest returning them and either buying HIDs or MHs or just better CFLs please can you give me a link to buying them? I live in the UK and I would prefer to go to a shop rather than buying online however if its cheaper online then I'll buy online. Money is a slight issue here however if the lights you want to suggest are worth the money then feel free to suggest them. Oh and btw, my plan is to have the box I am making split into two sections. 1 for veg and 1 for flowering. so if the 2cfls can go into 1 of those sections that's good. if not then just send me a link to a place I can get better?


Originally I was thinking about just buying 1HID and 1MH from amazon but their quite expensive on Amazon so I decided not to. Oh and btw, I'm planning on growing a MAX of 5plants however to start out with I will probably only be growing 1 or 2 so yeh, I shouldn't need too many lights?


sorry if this has been a really boring read and thanks for everyone who managed to read it all Any help would be REALLY appreciated!


Thanks,
Brad

the 27k's are better suited to flowering then the 6500k ones are, but you can surely use the ones you have now and add a few more of the 65k's.. the more light the better imo... i'd say you'd probably need a good 3 - 5 of that sized bulb per plant minimum to get it to flower and get somewhat decent buds..
you could have also looked in the spotlight aisle.. they have big like 125 watt cfl spotlights that run i think around $30-$40 or so.. one of those per plant is getting to what you'd really like to have.. they come with a big box attached, that is the ballast to fire the bulbs.. and some of them come with a light sensor, so you need to put something over the sensor so they come on all the time.

racerboy71 said:

the 27k's are better suited to flowering then the 6500k ones are, but you can surely use the ones you have now and add a few more of the 65k's.. the more light the better imo... i'd say you'd probably need a good 3 - 5 of that sized bulb per plant minimum to get it to flower and get somewhat decent buds..
you could have also looked in the spotlight aisle.. they have big like 125 watt cfl spotlights that run i think around $30-$40 or so.. one of those per plant is getting to what you'd really like to have.. they come with a big box attached, that is the ballast to fire the bulbs.. and some of them come with a light sensor, so you need to put something over the sensor so they come on all the time.

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Thanks, I was worried it was wrong because the watt seems quite low or the lumens... So if I use both the lights I have for flowering is that enough or will I need more? And then for Vegging should I use HPS or 65K CFLs? Which is better? Would I be better off returning the CFLs and buying MHs and HPS's? Also, can you send me links of any good online sites to buy lights cheap and if possible ones with shops I can actually go to and buy in person rather than online?


Thanks for all the help! ,
Brad

yes you would definiatly be better buying a mh/hps setup they may be more expensive but you pay them of x more in your first harvest.
what is the size of your grow room? Check out the 400w show off your pride and joy club and see what they can do with a 400watter.

lumens measure the appearance of visible light to the human eye. forget about lumens. think watts. i use 14 26W for a 2' x 3' screen.

If money is such an issue then you need to go to YouTube and type in "how to make a CFL fixture" and it will show you how to make a damn good light for very little money. A lot of people say cfls are shit and if you trying to grow a shit load of weed then yes they are, but if your like me and just growing a few plants for yourself then having about 5 cfls per plants plenty and the fixtures that I made work perfect for vegging. I made 2 fixtures with the AC ducting and a regular 3 bulb bathroom fixture and in each bulb inlet I put a 2 bulb splitter so in one fixture I have 6 bulbs total so in all I have 12 bulbs all at 1750 lumen's a piece, I have 8 5000K and 4 2700K and a total of 21000 lumen's in my opinion that should be fine. Now flowering is a different story. I do not flower with cfls. Anyway I made both of these lights with bulbs and all the materials for less than $100.00 and I thought that was a pretty good deal. So once you figure out how to do it then you can make what ever size light you want for your sized area. I just saw that scroglodyte gave you the sme advice in a pic.

Thanks everyone for your help so far..

[email protected] said:

yes you would definiatly be better buying a mh/hps setup they may be more expensive but you pay them of x more in your first harvest.
what is the size of your grow room? Check out the 400w show off your pride and joy club and see what they can do with a 400watter.

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Here's the dimensions for my grow box, not sure if it's useful to you but you asked how big it is

68cm width (back wall) (also floor)
68cm Hight (front wall)
44cm (left side wall)
44cm (right side wall)

34cm(middle halfed section)(going down towards floor)

Just to let you guys know, the 34cm cutting is going to be placed directly in the middle of the box basically splitting it into two separate sections, one for vegging the other for flowering... As you can kinda tell it's not the biggest growbox so not sure if I'd be better off with the CFLs or HIDs and MH... I've kind've slept on the matter and have started thinking that HIDs and MHs would be better off in the long run... Like I said, I'm only going to grow probably up to 3plants however I've started thinking that at some point I'm going to end up buying HIDs and MHs so would I be better off just getting them now to save the trouble later? Any shop suggestions? Also, are HIDs and HPS's the same? I know they stand for different things so not really sure... Lastly, if I go into a shop and ask to look at their CFLs, HIDs and MHs the assistant I'm asking just ends up looking at me confused as anything so is their another more generic name that the assistant may understand better?

Thanks for helping,
Brad

ok so your metric measurement convert to about 2ftx2ftx1.5ft.. or so if I'm correct, that's kind of small, HID's will run kind of hot in that area. HID stands for High Intensity Discharge, MH(Metal Halide-used for veg) and HPS(High Pressure Sodium-used for flower) are both types of HIDs. CFL's(CFL stand for Compact Florescent Light) and T5,T5 HO,T8,T12 are fluorescent,then there's LEDs(Light Emmiting Diode). I think you need to do a bit more reading before you jump into a grow,knowledge is power. In your space flourescents would be the best,at least for veg., not sure about flowering, keep reading and asking questions, there a bunch of people on here doing some cool shit with fluro's. Hope something here helps.

WeedFreak78 said:

ok so your metric measurement convert to about 2ftx2ftx1.5ft.. or so if I'm correct, that's kind of small, HID's will run kind of hot in that area. HID stands for High Intensity Discharge, MH(Metal Halide-used for veg) and HPS(High Pressure Sodium-used for flower) are both types of HIDs. CFL's(CFL stand for Compact Florescent Light) and T5,T5 HO,T8,T12 are fluorescent,then there's LEDs(Light Emmiting Diode). I think you need to do a bit more reading before you jump into a grow,knowledge is power. In your space flourescents would be the best,at least for veg., not sure about flowering, keep reading and asking questions, there a bunch of people on here doing some cool shit with fluro's. Hope something here helps.

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Hey, Thanks for your reply, I've actually done a fair amount of reasearch however lights were the confusing part for me as their probably one of the most contraversial subjects when it comes to growing weed... I've heard mixed arguments some saying that CFLs are good others saying HIDs, HPS's and MH are the only way to grow some proper dank weed... I'm willing to use the whichever light which will yeild the best results both quantity and quality wise. As for heat, I'm planning to install a PC fan possibly two which will aid in cooling the box down. As well as those fans which will be blowing cool air into the box cooling it down I will also have 1-2 PC fans pulling the hot air out of the box to further aid in cooling it down. The box will be kept in my room which I tend to keep fairly cold as I usually run my large proper fan almost 24/7 which will keep my room temp decently chilly. I know what all the lights stand for etc I'm just not really sure If I made the right decision buying the CFLs I bought.. They're only 20watts and have 1240lumens each. They are both 2700k so yea, not too sure if these lights will be able to grow some nice dank weed and as mentioned, I'm looking for a large yeild too.

As I said previously in my other post, I will only really be planting a max of 3plants per grow in the box and they will be grown via hydroponics not soil. If you or anyone else could suggest whether I should keep the lights, return for better, keep lights and buy better etc I'd really appreciate it but the reason I'm so desperate to know in advance is because I have yet to actually build the box and I don't want to drill a hole for my lights and then decide to switch over to an HPS which is unlikely to fit in the same light hole I would have made for my CFLs thus making me go out and buy some more custom built wood, re-cut the holes and re-configure the box... It'd basically end up being a big operation...

Thanks everyone for all your help so far, I really appreciate it,
Brad

bradandrews4 said:

Hey, Thanks for your reply, I've actually done a fair amount of reasearch however lights were the confusing part for me as their probably one of the most contraversial subjects when it comes to growing weed... I've heard mixed arguments some saying that CFLs are good others saying HIDs, HPS's and MH are the only way to grow some proper dank weed... I'm willing to use the whichever light which will yeild the best results both quantity and quality wise. As for heat, I'm planning to install a PC fan possibly two which will aid in cooling the box down. As well as those fans which will be blowing cool air into the box cooling it down I will also have 1-2 PC fans pulling the hot air out of the box to further aid in cooling it down. The box will be kept in my room which I tend to keep fairly cold as I usually run my large proper fan almost 24/7 which will keep my room temp decently chilly. I know what all the lights stand for etc I'm just not really sure If I made the right decision buying the CFLs I bought.. They're only 20watts and have 1240lumens each. They are both 2700k so yea, not too sure if these lights will be able to grow some nice dank weed and as mentioned, I'm looking for a large yeild too.

As I said previously in my other post, I will only really be planting a max of 3plants per grow in the box and they will be grown via hydroponics not soil. If you or anyone else could suggest whether I should keep the lights, return for better, keep lights and buy better etc I'd really appreciate it but the reason I'm so desperate to know in advance is because I have yet to actually build the box and I don't want to drill a hole for my lights and then decide to switch over to an HPS which is unlikely to fit in the same light hole I would have made for my CFLs thus making me go out and buy some more custom built wood, re-cut the holes and re-configure the box... It'd basically end up being a big operation...

Thanks everyone for all your help so far, I really appreciate it,
Brad

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In my opinion and yes every one's opinion is different, cfls will do just fine but I guarantee you that I can take 4 or 5 100w cfls and grow (veg not flower) a plant just as big as anybody growing with MH. Now like I said previously if your in a 12*12 grow room I wouldn't suggest it but in a space as small as yours I wouldn't use anything but cfls or T5. I grow in a 2*4*5 grow tent with nothing but cfls and I flower in a 4*4*8 grow tent with T5's and I do just fine but like my grandpa used to say opinions are like assholes everybody's got one and they usually stink.