HOW MANY LUMENS??? MAny Small bulbs

P@ssw0rd

New Member
Ok so i built a light with 7 back to back double sockets.like this crude diagram shows,I was inspired by a board member who had the best cfl grow i had ever seen, they were using the same type of sockets,I would love to give them credit but i can't find it anymore, anybody remember the one i mean post a link.

@-T-@
@-T-@
@-T-@ @=bulb
@-T-@
@-T-@
@-T-@
@-T-@
|
|
PLUG

I attached the sockets horizontally to an 18" piece of 2" x 2" pine wired em all up to a single plug. The whole thing has approx a 3" profile. So i thought i was doing great, See what i wanted a 2' 4 bulb t5 setup but kinda tapped out and high so i "Got my work on" and tried to build something to do the same job in the same place. I populated it with 12 x 26watt 6500k
2 x 26watt 2700k there are each like 1750 lumen's i think
But i just read something in a post here on RIU that i need to know more about, It was just mentioned almost as an afterthought that adding together many smaller CFL's didn't increase lumens past that a single bulb is rated for, rather it just increased the area of coverage. So all 14 of my 1750 watt bulbs going at once is still only 1750 watts??? PLEASE SAY IT AIN"T SO??? But if that is the case let me know. HOW MANY LUMENS DO I REALLY HAVE? Fuck it if my light is useless I'll just do what everybody does with there worthless homemade lights. Paint it call it "One of a kind" and sell the bitch on ebay, LOL I will be double posting this in an attempt to get more feedback. If anybody has a real problem with this please let me know.
Peace and thanks for your help:joint:
 

P@ssw0rd

New Member
i have but i just want to use this light to root clones and veg for a short time.
Like 8 clones vegging 2-4 weeks tops, then on to hps land they go. But can you answer any of my questions or was it just universal cfl forum reply, "Get a Hps" Let me make this clear i have no intention of flowering under this thing.
 

upinchronic1

Well-Known Member
Def not, ive grown some big plants with just 4 blue 26 watt cfls. You just cant add them directly up. Im sure theres some kind of formula
 

bah

Active Member
Ahh physics!

In series, you can add them up. Just not in parallel. Lights are 99.9999% in series. If in parallel, each light you add will just make the rest that much dimmer. At least in wattages, and I can't imagine the lumens behaving much differently.
 

ganjageek

Active Member
no i do not believe you are true,
In series, you can add them up. Just not in parallel. Lights are 99.9999% in series. If in parallel, each light you add will just make the rest that much dimmer. At least in wattages, and I can't imagine the lumens behaving much differently.
i think that almost all house light fixtures are in parrellel, or else if one bulb burnt out, they would all go out, which isnt the case in bathrooms,,,etc....
 

bah

Active Member
no i do not believe you are true,
i think that almost all house light fixtures are in parrellel, or else if one bulb burnt out, they would all go out, which isnt the case in bathrooms,,,etc....
True, true. It's been a while since I was in a physics classroom, but I could have sworn that when in parallel each additional light makes the rest that much dimmer. So with two, they're at 1/2, there at 1/3, etc. I don't remember, but I think somehow it bypasses? A huge strand of Christmas lights are in parallel? That'd be pretty crazy.
 

P@ssw0rd

New Member
So help me out people, do i need to wire in series or parallel? Currently i have them wired in parallel. I can tell you that each bulb is emmitting as much light in my array as the same bulb would in another socket all by itself. Really if and how to calculate lumens is what i am hung up on, Do 2 1750 lumen bulbe wired in paralell produce 3500 lumens? Would it be different if they were wired in series? Is there a formula to that can be used to determine total lumens of an array of multiple bulbs? Thanks for your help again
 

JohnnyBravo

Well-Known Member
No one has answered his question...which I think is a good one...Do ten 2000 lumen bulbs create 20,000 lumens of light or is it still 2000 lumens spread out over a bigger area???....I think more lights add up to more lumens....The light is much brighter with ten lights than just one...Just my Highly scientific hypothesis:)
 
Top