Lumens, Lux, and Adding It all Up

South Texas said:

I recently contacted my local Weather person & posed the ? of how many Lumens the sun gives out at this date & location. (In the mid part of Summer/Hell, A fucking oven, in the shade) Response; 32,000 to 100,000 lumen's @ a mere 93,000,000 miles away. (Give or take a foot or two.) Bestgro lights, $420 for 1,000 watt for HPS is 140,000 Lumens & MH is 110,000 @ zero inches from the light source. I like the sunlight.
For All but free lighting systems, take notes, Fellow Stoners. In the Construction world, Commercial Buildings are being constantly build, Demoed, and /or re-done. For the Demo & redoing, your local Pott-Head Electrician's has to dispose of all kinds of wonderful lighting systems, venting systems, etc. Feel free at this point to let your mind boldly go.... well, you know the rest. After taking this shit home, storing it in their garage until the wife bitches enough that they have to throw the shit away. Nobody wants the shit... Enter stage left. Work on a relationship with a Commercial Electrician. I got a 600 watt fixture for 5 joints, he had threw 5 away- wife shit. One Construction Super offered 15 - 1,000 watt light fixtures, if I wanted. I now need someone to give me a 60 X 100 ft. grow room, the 2- 40 X 300 ft. ones I've got is a little bit too out in the public eye. Some people call them abandoned Chicken Houses. Happy Hunting.

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What the weatherman meant to say is that the sun puts out about 100,00 lux (lumens/m^2) at noon. I can't even imagine what that means in lumens ... wait, I can calculate that:

100,000 lumens / m^2 * 4 * pi * (146,000,000 kilometers * 1000 m / km)^2 = 26,772,896,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 lumens. That's 2.7 x 10^28 fucking lumens. Talk about some candlepower.

I've gotten readings of 3-400,000 lux from fluorescents, so it's all about placement and proximity. Still, I'm all about natural light wherever I can use it Best spectrum, and best price !!

Good tip about free greenhouse gear. I'm all over that when I gets a litle property.

Yeah! You are so right, I'd forgotten how good it can be to have friends in the construction trades.

bump! good thread. you could be one of the smartest pot heads on here.

ceestyle said:

man, i should take a picture of the burn on my arm i just got moving my light meter under that HPS. *sizzle*

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ouch.. a friend of mine grabbed hold of a small halogen at home depot once. dumbass.

lorenzo08 said:

bump! good thread. you could be one of the smartest pot heads on here.




ouch.. a friend of mine grabbed hold of a small halogen at home depot once. dumbass.

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Thanks !

Interesting combination of lines in your sig. Babyeater + C-coder?

ceestyle said:

Interesting combination of lines in your sig. Babyeater + C-coder?

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thank you. I strive to be odd

Wouldn't that be you strive to be 01?
(I don't EVEN pretend to understand binary, I just know it exists )

no, it would be something like 'striving to be (2*n+1)'

ok her is my question i am using a closet

4ft <---->

6ft tall

4ft deep

I have two plants hopefully girls!!!! in a mix grow medium. One is about two inches from surface the other is just coming threw.. my question is i have shit home made lights here is what i use

2 -23watt CFL great value soft
2-9watt CFL great value soft
1-fan and painted the walls white..

this is not my first grow but in the move my lights got jacked up and i cant buy new ones for a couple weeks... pay sucks.....

Will i get any results in yield from this specific situation and must my deflectors be good or go without till i can afford them?

what would be a sufficient CFL total if I had to use the 23 watt and would that provide the right light source or color use of light for my plants?

be gental but be honest im a big dude i can take it

Grow it big and you might get something decent off of it. As it stands a plant at 1' tall will grow to 2-2.5 ' in flowering...but the amount of light will only give you a few grams...if lucky you'll get a 1/4 oz...IF LUCKY. Best bet is to get more lights to fatten those buds out when it gets to that stage.

I really want to grab a 400 watt hps but the price for it here is like wtf.... so how many cfl should i grab to get the right amount of light.. I see alot of people talking about the cfl but no one tells us how many to use?

First week of growth

I have a QUESTION.

CAN THERE BE TOO MUCH LIGHT.

I HAVE A 400 WATT HPS over 6 BABIES..(10 days old)

Too much?

I heard of people using it the entire grow and really prefer this way..

Thoughts?

I bought some CFL tube lights. Heres the info right from the box

GE-Daylight 1025 lumens - 20 watts - 6500K
GE-Plant & Aquarium (full spectrum) 750 lumens - 20 watts - No Kelvin info
GE-Kitchen & bath 1275 lumens - 20 watts- 3000K

I need about 6400K (blue-white) for veg mode
I need right around 2700K(reds) for Flowering
You would think the 6500K CFL tube would give off more Lumens than the
3000K CFL tube.
Now how does the Plant & Aquarium light give off only 750 Lumens? And thats supposed to be a full spectrum light. You would think it would be more Lumens. When you go to the store how can you really tell by just the Lumens that the light your looking at is going to be the right Kelvin to give you the right Light frequency?

I understand that Lumens are for the Human Eye. The amount of light intensity per Sq. Meter of Reflective light. (you wouldn't have lumens (intensity)if it didn't reflect)
Plants absorb light, almost all the light except much green. Thats why there leafs are green. I really don't see how you can pick a light on lumen alone with-out knowing the Kelvin that the light burns at, ot the PAR value.

Well, topfuel, you're right, you can't pick a light based on lumens/lux alone. But, what's stickin' in my craw right now is that you were able to find CFLs with Kelvin ratings. This is what I like about using standard fluorescent lights, they tell me at the very least "soft white", "warm white", and so on.

That plant & aquarium bulb is only meant for "indoor" plants (typical understory-loving tropical plants found in the home) and to make the aquarium more appealing to the eye. It is not what aquarists who must duplicate sunlight, such as for miniature reefs or planted tanks, use. Their preferred is metal halide, and reefers are getting excited about sulfur plasma (check out the spectral distribution on those babies if you ever get a chance, closest thing to natural sunlight ever made by man!).

Sulfur Plasma? Yes I will check that out. Sounds cool.
Thanks for the help on the Aquarium light, I'll take it out of my mix.
I Love to see Kelvin readings on the box.

Last price point I heard on the SP lighting was $1,500/bulb. That's a little rich for my blood.

Very well written, executed and informative. Thanks. Pictures would be nice, and the name of the manufacturer of the photo sensor.

hey, this isnt relevant to what everyone is talking about, but all i want to know is if i go out and buy an ordinary Ultraviolet light, will i be able to use it to grow my weed? im not realy intrested about fancy stuff lol, im growing it in my wardrobe btw !