lighting Question about my grow lights

[stc3248]

Phasing out means...they are discontinuing T12 bulbs...or at least fixtures that support them. T8's are replacing them, the fixture you just bought probably has something along the lines of "work most efficiently with 26w T8 bulbs" somewhere on the box. Either bulb should work in a most new fixtures, but if its meant for a T8 you may shorten the life of the ballast by using 12's in it...

Just saw Max's reply...so +1 to him.

 

[fathual]

OH it says t12's on the fixture Most of the ones i was finding was t8's like you said . but i finally found the t12 after 30mins of looking lol.

it means that companys are going to stop selling them out slowly.. its like VCR, they are obsolete and will slowly be taken off the market.. so in a few years, you won't be able to get them.. but then again. T8 and T5s will be much cheaper then anyways... or at least they should be

Good to know kinda funny that I'm using the vcr of lights :o it work and I don't have to worry about my cd's scratching lol.

 

[fathual]

Willard wasn't trying to be harsh. Take what he says with an eager ear. Look up his plants, the man can grow his indoor babies!

All he meant was that there is sooooooo much info on lights to look into on here. What little feedback you get won't even scratch the surface of it all. You must find what works best for your situation and cost structure is all.

What you've got now sounds great for seedlings. Pour the light to em! Best of luck =)

sorry i miss understood.

 

[fathual]

I would try 24/7 for the first 5 weeks, and 18/6 after that. It makes for nice bushy plants. Lots of light early is key IMO.

dang so leave the lights on 24/7 24 hour's for 5 weeks not sure about my power but that might be allot lol, but good idea if it means my plants will be bushy also I could put them in the sunlight for 20mins or less but ill have to really watch them Ive had bad experiences with burning plants.

 

[stc3248]

dang so leave the lights on 24/7 24 hour's for 5 weeks not sure about my power but that might be allot lol, but good idea if it means my plants will be bushy also I could put them in the sunlight for 20mins or less but ill have to really watch them Ive had bad experiences with burning plants.

With most electic rates running a typical floro fixture 24/7 only costs a few bucks a month. I think in San Diego I am paying about $4 per fixture...its heaters and higher powered lights that usually pull most of your load. Water heater, washer dryer, AC, refrigerators. Anything with a heating element or compressor pulls tons of juice...look at the wattage of a coffee maker vs a floro fixture.

 

[Maxsack331]

yeah it really depends on where you are... but here in CT which has one of the highest in the country.. our supply+generation rate is just about $0.20 kwh, which is crazy because that means that even 4x 32w CFL lights running 24 hours a day runs us $18.50 a month about... which is crazy..

and fathual, I noticed that my plants that I started a few weeks earilier than the other ones were really bushy when I had them in the shelf with 3 32w CFL lights with some window light to supplement here and there running 16-18hours a day until I potted them up to 1 gallon containers.. vs the same plant (Bulgarian Carrots) that I started in the same shelf but pulled them out and put them into my grow tent once I had that all setup and running are much less bushy just due to all the other plants around, and the less light.. even though it is under a 600w MH light (dimmed down to 450w right now with a Digilux bulb, and was under a 400w MH light before that), they still look great and I don't really care that they are a little less bushy for now because they should branch like crazy once they go outside, but I was surprised at the difference between the 2.

the point being that in the shelf, I measured the light to around 15-30,000 lumens or more if it was sunny outside and I had the front pulled back from the shelf.. vs the MH light which will all the other plants gets about... 8-10,000 lumens, which is still more than enough to grow the plant. .but it just makes it want to grow a little taller first.. so I would personally just put them in an area where they get a lot of light for 16-18 hours a day or so, and give them some rest (and if you have peak hours for electric company, then find those out and run them on off peak hours.. there going to grow no mater what, and as long as you give them enough light to stimulate growth in the lower areas then they should be bushy..

 

[AlabamaJack]

let me tell you about lighting power bills...just think in about a week I will be running 3.5KW for 18 and ~2.6Kw the other 6...umhuh...will really get into my pocket book...and I always expect the DEA or someone to knock on my door?...most/all of my neighbors know I am a fairly large scale hobby grower...

 

[stc3248]

let me tell you about lighting power bills...just think in about a week I will be running 3.5KW for 18 and ~2.6Kw the other 6...umhuh...will really get into my pocket book...and I always expect the DEA or someone to knock on my door?...most/all of my neighbors know I am a fairly large scale hobby grower...

The first few weeks of my grow I didn't have my grow shelves covered and I wonder what the neighbor on that side of the house thought when he saw the shelves shining out my window like a landing strip beacon...with little plants under them.

 

[Maxsack331]

let me tell you about lighting power bills...just think in about a week I will be running 3.5KW for 18 and ~2.6Kw the other 6...umhuh...will really get into my pocket book...and I always expect the DEA or someone to knock on my door?...most/all of my neighbors know I am a fairly large scale hobby grower...

haha, it's funny because I checked out your glog right after I posted this.. and was going to edit and say that I guess 24 hours for the beginning wouldn't be too bad, but I would think that it is more, the amount of light that produces the stocky/bushy plants, at least that is what I observed in my limited time

and yeah I don't know how I would be able to go any bigger, I had the 600w HID now running 18 hours a day. then the heater running, which I am going to take out since the basement is pretty warm now and it is not too cold out during the day now, but I am going to wait another couple weeks when the plants get a little bigger before letting it drop down to 65 or so

and this is my first year really going bigger on growing inside this early, so my neighbors have no clue what I am planning for the summer lol, I am slowly increasing the garden size whenever it gets warm enough out so I don't have to do it all at once in the spring

 

[fathual]

I so wish i hade some wind power and solar power haha but eh like you guys are saying my bill shouldnt be too high with what i have and thanks for the replys i hope to have bushy healthy plants . Also im going to have to figure out a set up for some shade cloth, for when summer hits.