I was going to be purchasing a new light for a small closet grow of 2-3 plants. I've already completed one with some purple haze, with 7 24-26 watt CFL's (all appropriate k for veg/flowering). I ended up with 21g off a single clone as a first time grower, with no nutes, just light and water. I was hoping for a half so the extra quarter was a bonus. But for my next go around I would like to pull 1 oz and be able to grow more than one plant which leads to my question. Would it be better for me to invest in a CFL light that can use between 125-200 watt bulbs or grab a 150 watt hps? The area in my closet is 34 in x 24 in and I was hoping to not have to run additional cooling other than the fan I have on my plants currently which keeps temps between 70-85 degrees. Any input would be appreciated because the guy at the hydro store was telling me the CFL would be the better way to go but my buds were quite airy in my first grow so I was hoping to avoid this this 2nd go. Thanks in advance.
150 watt hps or 125-200 watt CFL?
- Thread starter Ckrogue
- Start date
skunkd0c
Well-Known Member
at the lower end of the scale, i do not think hps/hids really out perform cfls , a 150 watt sodium will still produce a fair amount of heat , you will still want it atleast 6-8 inch away from your plants, if all you have is a floor fan, and no real extraction to speak of
roughly 200-250 watts of cfl will produce the same amount of light with much less heat, i would use 2x 125w cfl as it will give a better spread than 1 single 250watt cfl
keep your plants short, and look into training them , or use a screen to keep them no taller than 1.5 ft tall fully grown
choose a good indica strain that makes dense bubs this will help you alot
you should be able to produce good bud with 250 watts of cfl you should get a few oz not just 1
cfls are good from 2-6 inch away, but keep them as close as possible without making the coverage/footprint too small
i wouldn't suggest you use a HID unless you want to sort out the fans/ extraction, or you run the risk of making a oven, not a grow box lol
peace
roughly 200-250 watts of cfl will produce the same amount of light with much less heat, i would use 2x 125w cfl as it will give a better spread than 1 single 250watt cfl
keep your plants short, and look into training them , or use a screen to keep them no taller than 1.5 ft tall fully grown
choose a good indica strain that makes dense bubs this will help you alot
you should be able to produce good bud with 250 watts of cfl you should get a few oz not just 1
cfls are good from 2-6 inch away, but keep them as close as possible without making the coverage/footprint too small
i wouldn't suggest you use a HID unless you want to sort out the fans/ extraction, or you run the risk of making a oven, not a grow box lol
peace
stelthy
Well-Known Member
Why not mix n match, use the 150w HPS (red-spec) and a 125w 6500k (blue-spec) CFL... using them together will give you a fuller spectrum and will help your plant/s achieve bigger buds with more resin...heck! if you added a uv-b reptile lamp/tube too, you'd have a full usable spectrum - and the UV-B would give those big resinous buds a decent THC boost 
hope that helps ?!! - STELTHY 
hope that helps ?!! - STELTHY 
ChuffinHoolies
Active Member
I am kinda in the same boat.
I currently use a 200 watt sunblaster CFL in a 18x36x60 space but I'm left wondering if there are more eficient choices,
Req's
Low watt
Low heat
High penetration
High yield
High coverage.
Is a 150watt hps with remote ballast the option? Some crazy LED's or am I better off with the cfl?
My buds been coming out nice. Light,not fluffy, still dense,not rock solid.frosty.
I can't really afford to spend money I don't have if what I got its good. Ha ha. Cheers .
I currently use a 200 watt sunblaster CFL in a 18x36x60 space but I'm left wondering if there are more eficient choices,
Req's
Low watt
Low heat
High penetration
High yield
High coverage.
Is a 150watt hps with remote ballast the option? Some crazy LED's or am I better off with the cfl?
My buds been coming out nice. Light,not fluffy, still dense,not rock solid.frosty.
I can't really afford to spend money I don't have if what I got its good. Ha ha. Cheers .
superbak3d
Well-Known Member
Those 150w sunburst hsp whatever systems are crap.
They run hot as hell and they don't even have good coverage,
I've used em, and CFLs outperformed it by a mile.
They run hot as hell and they don't even have good coverage,
I've used em, and CFLs outperformed it by a mile.
TheChemist77
Well-Known Member
when i just started growing back in the early 90's i started with an emilies garden and a 150 watt hps in a closet.. i must say it worked very well, if it had failed i probably would not still be growing today..the 6 plant emilies garden is a nft unit and the 150 watt hps above is perfect for closet grows just make sure you have a fan in there..it worked so well that i had the best weed around at the time and since then ive moved on, but to this day ill never forget that emilies garden and how easy it was for learning to grow hydro and that 150 watt hps,,,well its still in my garage gathering rust n dust it still works too...now i am a care giver with a grow room, a large table and ive grown every hydro system from aero to under current.. switch to the 150 hps and you will never go cfl again..grow well n be well
Medizzinman
Active Member
What is your budget? I use these, no more heat, and smokes a 250 watt hps using half the power.
http://growershouse.com/kessil-h380-spectral-halo-ii
http://growershouse.com/kessil-h380-spectral-halo-ii
since1991
Well-Known Member
I had an emilys back then. It was actually designed by Rosenthal and was originally called Liz's Garden. But High Times did a big write up on Lizs Garden so Hydrofarm changed the name to distance themselves (post operation Green Merchant). I even had the 2 liter soda bottle "tree fountain" self watering dealy that gave extra water and feed capacity. It wasnt an NFT system at all. It was a passive wick aerated reservoir system. Back when Hydrofarm had their own hydroton called Geolite and thier own powdered nutrient. The good ole days. I grew somw bad ass skunk and NL plants in that thing. I was just a kid. A very popular one though. Lol
kmog33
Well-Known Member
Those pull 90 watt? And you say you can outyield a 250 watt hps with it? What are your yields like from 90 watts?
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superbak3d
Well-Known Member
Those H380 are awesome lights. One of those and a few cfl side bulbs would easily outperform a 250w hps
since1991
Well-Known Member
Would easily or did easily????
superbak3d
Well-Known Member
I haven't used them personally in my grows but I have seen them first hand and in some journals.
They are very good lights. I would take the H380 over a 250w hps any day of the week.
kmog33
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't adding he side bulbs essentially just end up making your 90 watts ~200? With 3 42 watt cfls, which is ok but I still find it hard to believe that you're hitting ~250 grams from a 90 watt fixture with a couple cfls added.
Don't get me wrong, kessils makes great lights and uses very high quality parts. I use kessils for my reef aquarium. I just was talking to someone on here the other day about how the exact same light as yours, doesn't do as well as some midrange LEDs.
I've just read up on this and it is a footprint of 2x2 for flower, which means it has a smaller footprint than a 250 watt hps, more like a 150. It's kessil that also makes the claim that 4 of these will match a 1000k hps. Which makes sense if they all cover a 2x2 adding up to a 4x4, but as the beam is focused, you will never get the spread of a 1k with 4 of these. And I can't find anyone other than this post of real experience with them claiming they can do what the company selling you them claims. It's still pretty bold to claim that 360 watts of these kessils can outperform a 1k hps. The most high efficiency DIY builds on here don't claim that. More like 500-600 watts at 60% efficient. Would be interesting though, but I feel like if it were true more people would be buying these for growing instead of doing the Cree/bridgelux DIY thing.
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since1991
Well-Known Member
Oh ok...gotcha
kmog33
Well-Known Member
I would like to see it, because I literally was just talking to someone on here that has these and they were not saying as nice a things about them. Great quality, just not great at producing.
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kmog33
Well-Known Member
https://www.rollitup.org/t/4-kessil-h350-600w-hid-comparison-the-highlight-reel.508900/page-2
This is the only journal I could find and it was using the 350s which pull 5?watts more. And 4 of the 350s pulled 40% less than a 600 watt hps. Unless they made magic in a version upgrade I cannot possibly see going from pulling 40% of what a 600 watt hps does, to more than a 1000 watt. Just seems wonky. And I literally can't find any grows with the 380.
Kessil makes great aquarium lights.
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This is the only journal I could find and it was using the 350s which pull 5?watts more. And 4 of the 350s pulled 40% less than a 600 watt hps. Unless they made magic in a version upgrade I cannot possibly see going from pulling 40% of what a 600 watt hps does, to more than a 1000 watt. Just seems wonky. And I literally can't find any grows with the 380.
Kessil makes great aquarium lights.
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superbak3d
Well-Known Member
Well that's the thing with these kind of leds vs HID. HID have much better horizontal spread/coverage, where as leds like the kessil H380 are very point focused.
Meaning, you need multiple LED units to get even coverage in larger tents, basically you need 1 light directly over each plant, unlike HID where you only need the 1 bulb to cover the entire area.
BUT, when dealing with direct intensity (directly under the light), these kind of LEDs flat out beat any HID.
So I think a lot of this has to do with the number of plants you're growing. It's a trade off. The more plants you want to grow the more HID becomes the better choice, or alternatively you can grow a smaller number of plants with direct LEDs, but each plant would have much higher yields over HID.
At the end of the day, both roads lead to the same destination. Do you want to grow 8x 2oz plants with HID, or 4x 4oz plants with LED?