100 watt cfl or 400 watt metal halide?

yea the title basically says it, im choosing between just a 100 watt cool cfl or a 400 watt MH for vegging (ive got a 400hps for flower). Is it really that much better growth with MH? Vegging with the cfl would save me alot more money on my electricity bill but then again the growth could take a while with cfl's? any input is appreciated,(right now im just vegging with my 400hps, this isnt good is it?)
thanks

You need more Cfls to veg. Ten 100w Cfls use less power then a 400w MH. Ten 100w Cfls @ 6500k use 230w but put out 1000w of Cfl light. The 400wML uses 400w. But the 400w MH puts out around 45,000 lumens and the ten Cfls put out 16,000 lumens. Thats why Hid lights are better! I use Twelve 100w Cfls for veg. The plants stretch more but thats fine. You just top more. The power savings and the minimal heat makes them well worth the drop in lumens.

Use Daylight Cfls for Veg they are 6500k. Cool White Cfls are the wrong spectrum for veg! Good Luck!

what? im pretty sure cool white is the right spectrum, its the bluish colour. And yea they are 6500k. So you sure it wouldnt be worth just getting a mh bulb? I would get a MH conversion bulb that i can put in my hps ballast. It would be cheaper too get the MH....so what do you reckon? Vegging with my 400hps is not a good option is it?
peace

stilltokin said:

what? im pretty sure cool white is the right spectrum, its the bluish colour. And yea they are 6500k.

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6500 K is
Daylight, 4100 K is Cool White, 2700 K is Warm White.

Bubba Kushman said:

Ten 100w Cfls @ 6500k use 230w but put out 1000w of Cfl light.

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no they put out 1000 watt incandescent equivalent light. You can veg with HPS I'm doing it myself right now. I like the 6500 K for seedlings though as it makes for a compact plant to start.

how many are you growing? that is really the main question here.. and do you have seperate veg and flower areas? because..

if you only have 1 area i'd get that hortiluxeye bulb like these guys are saying..
if you have seperate places, and are only growing a few plants, then get CFL's or even better would be the T5 lights.. they put out HUGE lumens per watt compared to normal CFL's.
if you have seperate places and are growing a SHITLOAD of weed.. get a MH hands down.. don't fuck around. MH is way better on large scales.

Like above, its all depends on how many plants you want to grow. I am in the process of a closet grow with 4 plants, I used 12 26w 6500K CFL's for 4 weeks of veg, the plants stayed very short and compact (I kept the lights 2-3in away) I would definitely use CFL's again in my instance.

Cannabox said:

how many are you growing? that is really the main question here.. and do you have seperate veg and flower areas? because..

if you only have 1 area i'd get that hortiluxeye bulb like these guys are saying..
if you have seperate places, and are only growing a few plants, then get CFL's or even better would be the T5 lights.. they put out HUGE lumens per watt compared to normal CFL's.
if you have seperate places and are growing a SHITLOAD of weed.. get a MH hands down.. don't fuck around. MH is way better on large scales.

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I decided to go with two 100 watt 6500K daylight cfls as I'm only growing two PPP's at the moment. You reckon this is enough light for the two girls?
thanks alot for your help guys

Do you mean equivilant watts or actual watts?

Actuall watts heres a link to it (I'm in australia)

http://www.aussieponics.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=22

peace

i would recommend just buying the mh. I used a hortilux hps bulb 400 watts throughout my whole grow and it stretched alot of my plants. If u are going to spend the time growing, you should used the best of the best. Just my opinion tho.

stilltokin said:

Actuall watts heres a link to it (I'm in australia)

http://www.aussieponics.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=22

peace

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Its BS. Talk only actual watts. 10 100 actual watt bulbs draw 1000 watts of power period. If the cfl draws 100 watts then it draws 100 watts. They are saying that this 100 watt bulb that draws 100 watts puts put more lumens than than a 400 MH. Total bullsit, do not believe it. I have a 100 watt actual bulb (expensive) cfl and it is maybe 1/8th the brightness of my digital. Not bullcrap. Real experience. I have both, not that exact bulb, but a similar one. When I was starting up I believed the CFL bullshit and the only cfl's im still using ate t-5HO bulbs...

It says that the 100w is equaly to 400 flouro watts. Example A 100w cfl equivalent bulb is 23-24 watts. That 100w bulb is basically like 4 of these 100 watt equilavent bulbs with a $40 surcharge.. If your going flouro use t-5's better off just buy a hps/mh ballast. I've seen people with $400 in flouro lamps when they cpuld have had a 400 hps and better results.