choader

6 125W EVLs will give you over 66K. All a few inches from your plants. Interesting, isn't it??

Choader

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JoseHempSeed

well, no, i think that's sort of foolish - it's not even cost effective.
for that kind of money i could get 2kw (200,000+ lumens ) worth of hid

choader

As long as you can deal with the heat & electric costs. My space is small so I have to deal with heat as a primary concern, as well as vertical space. With an HID, I give up 12" more than with the EVLs. I only have 42" total so this is bad.

I guess it comes down to this. You have to spend money to correct what isn't optimal about your space. In my case, it's vertical height & heat. Therefore, I spend more money to get 12".

Make sense? That's my take anyway.

Thanks.

Choader

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JoseHempSeed

yep, absolutely. there's a light for everybody and everybody for a light.

have you seen how cannabis connioseur cools his cabinet? he runs 400w hids in even a shorter space.

a buddy of mine runs a 250 hps in 18"! but he's also got plenty of fans...he grows in the tropics too, where heat is a real problem.

but in the end, whatever works for you is best. as long as you're growing and toking

choader

He told me some interesting things.

1. Compact Fluoros put out up to ~65 lumens/watt
2. MH puts out up to ~85 lumens/watt
3. HPS puts out up to ~140 lumens/watt

He seemed very knowledgable, from what I could tell from a 15 min conversation. He was more than willing to talk with me also. They carry the EVLs & the maxlite brands, along with all HIDs.

He basically claimed the Envirolite is being generous with its lumens rating.

Even with his numbers, is it best to have 65 lumens 1" from the plant or 140 lumens 12" from the plant? What units are the 'd' in the inverse square equation (denominator of distance units)?

Hmmmm, seems like some math we could do here. I'll try to find it and post back when I do.

Choader

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JoseHempSeed

hey choader

your light guy sounds like he's been around the block a few times it's good to find someone who knows what's up...

as for the calcs, you can use any units you like. it doesn't matter - it's really the ratio of distances you're looking at, at least in terms of the inverse square law.

absolute brightness is another story, and it is very difficult to calculate. there are too many variables, mostly in the design and construction of the reflector. to be able to compare different lamps effectively, you need to do some emperical measurements - using the same reflectors for each. you have to remove the variables if you can't quantify them precisley. i think that's one of the little details the clouds up discussions about lighting, the numbers are pretty much useless without a solid baseline to relate them to.

anyway, in macro terms, you can think in terms of the distance/lumens relationship another way. say you have a light very close to your plants. because it's (for all practical purposes) a point source, it will illuminate a small area. now as you increase the distance, the coverage becomes greater (here's the reflector factor i was referring to), and dispersion comes into play.

so if you're growing a large bushy plant, you want to cover it as best you can - think about the large fan leaves off to the sides of the bush. so in that case, having a cool light close to the plant isn't doing any good...so you pull it back to get coverage, and your lu psf goes down the drain.

on the other hand, you could use a lot of those lamps - but that gets expensive real fast. always a trade-off...

that's also one of the reasons the sun is so effective...you've got 10k lu psf on the top of the plant, on the sides, on the bottom...of course whatever is exposed to the sun...the inverse square law doesn't apply.

now if it would just stop raining

papadanknc420

EDITH,
I have a little info I hope will help you. Now, I have read all the post on your topic, but it is 3:45 am, so if anyone has said this already, please forgive me.

1) FLouro's just cannot come close to the intensity of HID lighting. Does that mean you can't grow pot with florous? Hell no. In fact, I just saw a friend pull about an ounce and a half of decent bud off 1 plant using florou's. The problem? It was all on the top and not very frosty. He was growing White Widow.(theres the penetration aspect that was discussed earlier).
So, in my next grow, I will germinate under 4' floro's (first 2 weeks) then go to a HPS for the next 2 weeks and into flowering.
Hope this helps mate. and good luck with your question and your grow!!
papa

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edith

cheers for the info papa. i got an hps in the end and ive just this weekend harvested 1.5oz of orange bud so im a happy 1st time grower. the buds r a little bit un-dense in places but ive managed to get a decent enough amount, despite my best efforts to kill the plant with nutes and heat! It had hardly any leaves left and it looked like it was manicured already!! Lesson learned!

Dj_Hyrdo

On the January 2003 High Times with Doobie Man

There is this whole article on a guy who grew bud with floros (Stoner of The Month)

I can find a link but ill read it to ya.



I accepted a challange from a fellow grower who siad i couldnt grow buds with fluorescents.Its not about how much you spend,Its about good gentics and proper nutrition,and proper tempatur.Micro-gardens rule I grew 2.5 ounces of bud in 56 days


Diamond D.
Fayetteville,NC

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