Lumens, Lux, and Adding It all Up

ok so i have 20 cfls that are all 26w 1600lumens and they r 360MA so 3 of them lites pull almost 1 amp ... so with 20 of them at 26 w i have 580 w with 32,000 lumens and im only pulling a little over 7 amps... so if i had 600w of hps / mh how many amps do them pull and do i have enough lite for my room its 4'w x 6't x 2'd but i dnt think the height matters cuz im not liting the space above my lites... and all the lites r 6500kelvin i have 20 2700k for flowering too when i go to put them in there i have like $60 in to my hood my room is all mylard i have some smaller cfls that i put rite in the plant they 5000 kelvin and only 13w at 800 lumens but they r rite in the plant it doesnt burn them at all just wondering if im on the rite page or goin in the rite direction ? u guys have helped me out with all the info on here just when u guys talk about lites no one ever says anything about amps when u say hps / mh is better then cfls thanks ...... drink alittle drink smoke a little smoke

Well adding up Lumens huh speaking of that can someone with experience please take look at my journal and comment on my lighting setup. I'm looking to improve to optimal lighting in the future as i feel while my lighting i sufficient it could be better. Im thinking 4 more LEDs but i really need suggestions and recommendations.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/384835-swiftgrow-journal.html

Thanks in advance

P.S. very aware of induction lighting but im not NASA funded unfortunately.

Stromedome234 said:

Will they notice?

I have a friend who works for the local electric company
He rides down your street and automatically reads all meters on your street
He says if one house is pulling alot more electric than others then he has to report it
because theres a chance you might be growing.
Now my question is with my 400 hps and my fans and pumps along with my everyday electricity usage
will one of these meter reading dick beaters blow the whistle on me?

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My computer uses twice as much electric as your 400w hps... you have zero worries. Don't start worrying until youre pumping over 3,000 watts in a single room home or 5,000 watts in a big house.

There aren't many side by side comparisons out there so I did one between 3 LED panels and tested using PAR. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4I3bkkfBFE

This compares the strength of the Grow Panel Pro 300, Apache Tech 120 and the UFO 90 LED light arrays. The strength of the light in a plant's usable range is measured in PAR and tested at one foot using a quantum meter, which is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosyn...

Anyone know anything about inductive lighting? Anything at all? The spec's and the prices are impressive but I haven't heard of anyone who's used them??

Keep your eyes open, inductive lights should be cheaper than LED's. I'm in the process of trying to buy some. My problem is, I don't know anyone that has used them? Are they as good as their sped sheet says?

On3Tim3OnLy said:

WTF
Though given, it is irrelevent ! Lumens are for Humans not plants ! Lumens measure how we see light. Our eyes prefer green light. Green light has the most Lumens, Red and Blue the least. Most fluorescent lamps are made to look bright for humans by adding huge spikes of greeny yellow light.
Lumens only measure how BRIGHT the light appears to us.
Lumens cannot measure light useful to plants

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LOL, at last, a voice of reason and understanding! Yes folks, the lumens are for people, NOT plants! I know for damn sure that MY girls love the P.A.R., (that's "photosyntheticaly active radiation"). This comes from the red and blue light spectrums. And yes, they make a meter that measures P.A.R., an indespensible tool for a true hortaculturalist.
Good luck & good grow.......BB

does any one know the cost of running a 400w HPS 120V 18/6 ?

eman2 said:

does any one know the cost of running a 400w HPS 120V 18/6 ?

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It goes like this: 400X18=7.2K per day - IF K= 15 cents, then.....$1.08 per day, and have a good one.......BB

$that1dude$ said:

I found someone selling a Sun Systems 400 watt Mh. He told me to give him a price, its slightly used, but everything works. heres a pic...what do you think a good offer might be? I checked out the Sun Systems page and they didnt have the exact same one but it was still a 400 watt Mh and brand new it was only 186.00 (US).

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whatever you do, dont believe him on the bulb if its used. tell him you arent interested in the bulb.

edited to add:
this is only because i know a lot of used equipment gets sold with some old ass 6-9mo old bulbs and its better to not get burned and have to buy a new bulb anyways. not sure on life span of MH though...

So I searched this thread and didn't find anything related to PAR, or Photosynthetically Active Radiation. As Ed Rosenthal puts it in his Marijuana Grower's Handbook, "The light plants use is known as Photosynthetically Active Radiation, or PAR. Measuring quantum light is the only way to be certain your plants are getting all of the usable light they need."

and more from Ed
"Since lumens, lux, candles, and foot-candles are all measures of light in the narrow range of human sensitivity, they don’t accurately measure all the light to which plants are sensitive.

The better measure of light in relationship to its usefulness to plants is its Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), which includes the range from 400-700 nm.

The units for measuring PAR are typically expressed in millionths of a mole per square meter per second (umol/sqm/s). pg108. Most gardens with MH or HPS lamps produce about 1,000 (umol/sqm/s) or 5000 fc or 55,000 lux. None the less, PAR measurements do not take into account far-red and UV light. Nor does it take into account how plants absorb light at different wavelengths."

Oh I like your approach you must be into physics!
Amen
Now I've noticed how intense this little aluminum reflector on a desk lamp treats the cfls. I'm thinking though I use lumens/watt as my comparison I may have to step up to those bulbs that don't even note their lumens! That said then it's a matter of getting those reflectors but reflectors for cfl is nonexistent in any form I know? Or rather without buying a bunch of desk lamps!

Hey Stalwart, get thee to a Home Depot, or Ace and you will find these: >>

They are called "clamp lights", and cost around $6/8. They're perfect for the 42 watt bulbs. Good luck & good grow.......BB

I have a question i want to upgrade again yet i dont want to just make my other lights obsolite, dont know if i speeled tha right and im not stoned! Yet. But anyway here is what i want to do i want to take my 400 that's currently being used for my flowering room and use that for the veg room, then take the 250 i have in the veg room now and put it in the flower room along with a new 250 watt CMH set up together. That would give nme 500 watts of light in my flower room and more light in my veg room as well..I know i can do it so my question is is it a good idea because of the spectrums..

stinkbudd1 said:

I have a question i want to upgrade again yet i dont want to just make my other lights obsolite, dont know if i speeled tha right and im not stoned! Yet. But anyway here is what i want to do i want to take my 400 that's currently being used for my flowering room and use that for the veg room, then take the 250 i have in the veg room now and put it in the flower room along with a new 250 watt CMH set up together. That would give nme 500 watts of light in my flower room and more light in my veg room as well..I know i can do it so my question is is it a good idea because of the spectrums..

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You didn't identify the spectrum of ANY of the lights you're using or propose to use. Rule of thumb: 65K for veg/27K for flower.
As for your spelling, just look in the upper right hand corner of the reply area and spot the "ABC" in a "check-mark". Use this and you can't misspell + you'll look brilliant! Good luck & good grow.......BB

Thanks BB it's always a pleasure, my 400 is switchable hps mh id use that mh for veg and the 250 is hps and the other i would put with it to flower would be 250 CMH, ceramic metal halide for a total of 500 watts of what , i dont know..trying to see if it could be a good mix since ive heard that the CMH is the best overall light to grow with veg and flower...

Ganjaglutin said:

Like, If You Had Four 1000 W Sonagro HPS Bulb Over A Single Plant???......

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ceestyle said:

that's not a good experiment. you'd cook the plant.

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So why does 4 x 1000w HPS surrounding one plant in vertical application not cook the plant? Still 4 x 1000 over a single plant.

xyzxyz said:

So why does 4 x 1000w HPS surrounding one plant in vertical application not cook the plant? Still 4 x 1000 over a single plant.

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I have no knowledge of the cooking temps for cannabis........However, there is a point of "light saturation"! Go beyond this and the excess light is just wasted.......BB

Hey can anybody tell me how many wats I need in fluorescent lights for 4 plants