Best CFL Manufacturer

Well, I'm sure the circuit will have a max amount, but i dont see you reaching it with cfls, When i had my cfl grow going i had 24 42w bulbs on 1 scrogged plant. I could of added more but at that point it seemed kind of overkill to keep adding more bulbs. a 400w hps is what im using now, I like it better, but if you want to do cfls you can do a good grow too. Dont let anyone tell you otherwise. lol

Like most on this side of the pond, 20amps is it and you shouldn't go over 16amps for a protracted period of time. I'm in an existential quandary. One ballasted 430W HPS or a boatload of CFLs. What would Sartre do? I'm trying to do some research as well on T5s but not getting to far. I can't tell if it was a flash in the pan two years ago that never caught on, or if they just don't work so great for flowering.

My concern is reducing the heat in my room. It will be vented anyway, but those ballast/HID kits are hot, hot, hot!

not if you have an air cooled reflector and a remote ballast you can leave outside the grow area, the ballast makes alot of the heat so only having to deal with the heat from the bulb really helps especially if you you have a forced venting system for your light.

God knows; another forum, probably. It didn't make a great deal of sense to me either. Good to know it's an urban myth.

SirTitanium said:

Would you prefer four 23W or four 85W? I have space for four and available amperage for either wattage. Is there any reason not to use the 85W bulbs?

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I would go with as many high wattage bulbs as you can. If you cannot use enough 85w to fully surround your plant then just add some more lower watt bulbs to fill in the "gaps." The higher the watts the better, but that is only true if you can keep your temperature in check.

I'm still learning the CFL grown method. But at the moment i'm running TWO 42w @2700k and TWO 26w @6500k. I just put my germ'd seeds in soil, and here it is day 3 and i've got some nice young'ns. I think SirTitanium is stressing things a bit too much. Relax a bit, smoke a big doob, then tackle problems.

Good luck on your endeavor man!

Thank you, sensei.