This thread is asking for responses from CFL Users Only. We are NOT asking for debates or responses from HID users. Responses from HID Light Users will be deleted from this thread. We need feedback for our FAQ section from personal experience. If you want to post about HID Lights, then start a new thread about them.

1, Are you happy with using CFLs only? Do you feel you are getting a smaller yield because you use CFLs?

2, Do your bulbs get very hot, or too hot to the touch of your hand? Can you hold them while lit?

3, Do your bulbs heat up the grow room or grow area to a much warmer temp?

4, What about electricity or power usage? Do they make your power bill go up a lot?

5, What bulbs do you use, in what space sizse or grow area, and what wattage do you use, and how many do you use?

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Roseman
When you grow with Mother Nature, you Grow with God.
May Peace and Joy Be Your Companions.
[FONT=Arial]Ask me about DWC, CFLS, and Indoor Growing.

Okay, surprise here, I am using a cfl right now, for vegging only.

I veg this plant on a 24/0 schedule and I went in there right now, and I placed my hand around the bulb, and it burned my hand.

I believe it is a 42 watt bulb.

I think you may be confused over the usage of electricity roseman.
While cfl's may disperse heat faster because it is released over a much larger area than a HID light is. They still produce the same amount of heat, watt for watt.

The fact remains that it is not the bulb that creates the heat, it is the watts used.
It dosent matter if its a tv, a toaster, a fan, whatever is using watts, produce heat.

Place your hand on the back of any electrical appliance, and it'll be warm, from the electricity being used.

I think you'll be hard pressed to prove cfl's produce less heat.
I think that would be called, magic.

I have a 26watt bulb that I use for my lil sprouts, and after being on for a few minutes it gets to the point where I could twist it right out while its on, but it would only be something I would do if I was in a huge hurry.

can you answer more of the questions?

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Roseman
When you grow with Mother Nature, you Grow with God.
May Peace and Joy Be Your Companions.
[FONT=Arial]Ask me about DWC, CFLS, and Indoor Growing.

1, Are you happy with using CFLs only? Do you feel you are getting a smaller yield because you use CFLs?
I like using cfls in the summer to keep the heat down, and use them for vegging when its cold.

2, Do your bulbs get very hot, or too hot to the touch of your hand? Can you hold them while lit?
no they are not too hot and i can hold it while lit.

3, Do your bulbs heat up the grow room or grow area to a much warmer temp?
Nope, maybe by 1 or 2 degrees.

4, What about electricity or power usage? Do they make your power bill go up a lot?
not at all, i dont even notice anything.

5, What bulbs do you use, in what space sizse or grow area, and what wattage do you use, and how many do you use?
i use six 26watt bulbs in a 2' x 3' area.

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~All threads , posts , and pics. posted by me here are all BULLSHIT and or totally fictional in nature .
I don't grow , nor do I suggest anyone else does due to the possability of serious legal reprocussion~

hey yall been a lil busy sorry i havent been around that much...
1.yes i am happy with the cfl's,as for yields i have yet to harvest so i cant answer the 2nd part of the ?.
2.no my bulbs dont get very hot yes i can touch them with my hand.
3.i am growing in a VERY SMALL CLOSET so my temps stay between 70-81 degrees,i have a thermostat in there that records the hottest temps and the lowest temps as well as humidity.they do heat the closet up some but nothing thats out of hand.i just kick on the ac or turn my window fan on that drops it 5-7 degrees
4.i have not notice a increase in my power bill so i say no,my whole house has cfl's in it.
5.i have stealth hydros multi spectrums,315 watts 20,000 lumens i think they are 105 watts a piece,my closet is 6ft long,2 1/2 ft wide and 8ft high.there is a total of 3 cfls i use with the reflecter it came with i would recomend going to sh and checking out the set up its really nice and works great,i think they are like 199$ or something,i keep it about 3 inches above my plants and have no problems.

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"I SOFA KING WE TODD ED"

It is good to see that some of us understand CFL users Only.
THANK YOU for the response.

I am 100% certain that HID lights will grow tighter buds faster. THAT IS A FACT! If I had a ten by ten, or 12 X 12 grow room or larger, VENTED or COOLED, I'd use HID lights for sure. BUT I grow just like smokedoja and got420ndacivic, in a small space at the end of a closet the same size they mentioned. I did three grows with only two bulbs, but they wre 85 watts. I did a last grow with 8 extra CFLs, two tanks, one at each end of the closet, and the closet got warmer, up to 85 degrees. BUT I could not of considered a 400 watt HID in each end of the closet. It would of got over 100 degres fast.
And again,
This thread is asking for responses from CFL Users Only. ONLY CFL USERS. ONLY USERS OF ONLY CFLS. We are NOT asking for debates or responses from HID users. Responses from HID Light Users will be deleted from this thread.

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Roseman
When you grow with Mother Nature, you Grow with God.
May Peace and Joy Be Your Companions.
[FONT=Arial]Ask me about DWC, CFLS, and Indoor Growing.

1, I am very happy with CFLs, I am very happy with my yield.
2, I can hold a 85 watt or less in my hand while lite up. It is hot, but I can hold it and I do not get burnt.
3, When I went from 2 bulbs to 16 bulbs, my closet got 4 or 5 degrees warmer, never warmer than 85 Degrees MAX.
4, I did not notice my power bill go up more than $5 to $10 a month when I burn 6 pumps and 16 lights. The $10 is a wild ass guess, I am not certain it goes up that much at all.
5, for one tank, in a 2 X 3 ft grow area, I use 4 85 watts, (two red and two blue or two high kevin, ttwo low kevin) and 4 42 watt bulbs. Double that for two tanks.

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Roseman
When you grow with Mother Nature, you Grow with God.
May Peace and Joy Be Your Companions.
[FONT=Arial]Ask me about DWC, CFLS, and Indoor Growing.

Rojan, read your PM, you posted in the wrong thread.

__________________
Roseman
When you grow with Mother Nature, you Grow with God.
May Peace and Joy Be Your Companions.
[FONT=Arial]Ask me about DWC, CFLS, and Indoor Growing.

I was asked to answer more of the questuions, but unfortunately I really cannot. I haven't finished a grow under the cfl's, but transplanted outside when it got warm enough. The bulbs can get hot, but not to the point of killing plants. I used a 26 watt bulb inside a 20" X 20" X 20" cardboard box to start my guerrilla grows in the past, and it didn't get more than 80 degrees, which was awesome because the only ventilation I had was a hole the size of a toilet paper tube. I also didn't notice a change in the electric bill, but that was only one low power bulb. In the future I am going to be using a rubbermaid grow box with 6 26 or 30 watt bulbs, so I'll let you know what happens with that after I get it together (sometime this weekend(hopefully)).

1: I am very happy with my cfls'. I use them exclusively for babies and veg so don't know harvest except to say that I have not noticed any difference in yield or quality from using them.
2: The bulbs are touchable during use but you wouldn't want to hang on to one for too long.
3: Have noticed only a couple of of degrees difference.
4: Very noticeable drop in power usage.
5: Using 8, 26w, 5100k GE in a 3'x3'x8' area.

I use cfls' exclusively for veg growing, moving them out under the H..'s for flower. The whole set-up (veg/flower) is in a 10'x12'x8' bedroom.

1, Are you happy with using CFLs only? Do you feel you are getting a smaller yield because you use CFLs?
I use CFLs strictly for SOG vegging, seedlings, and cuttings. I am very happy with them, they are perfect for SOG veggging and gentle enough for seedlings etc.

2, Do your bulbs get very hot, or too hot to the touch of your hand? Can you hold them while lit?
Bulbs do not get too hot, I can keep them within inches of the plants without heat issues.

3, Do your bulbs heat up the grow room or grow area to a much warmer temp?
No this is why I use them to veg. They are very versatile and make appearances for sure in my gowroom in the summer.

4, What about electricity or power usage? Do they make your power bill go up a lot?
No they don't but I use well over 400 watts of CFLs, so my bill isn;t cheap either.

5, What bulbs do you use, in what space sizse or grow area, and what wattage do you use, and how many do you use?

My grow areas are 4 x 6 and 8 x 8 roughly. I use all kinds of CFLs from the smallest to a 125 watt. I use blue light and red light.

Damn I am stoned.

As usual I went to the end of the thread.
I was like what questions

1, Are you happy with using CFLs only? Do you feel you are getting a smaller yield because you use CFLs?

Response: I am not. I feel that for what I want to accomplish cfl's would be fine for veg and clones and seedlings.
However, I would much rather have a HPS for the flowering stage.
It really depends on how much expeirence you have.
I deffinately recommend them for beginers.
They allow you to learn the basics before you spend any real money.

2, Do your bulbs get very hot, or too hot to the touch of your hand? Can you hold them while lit?

Response: I use 42 w CFL's. They can get hot. I would not try to unscrew mine while they have been on for more than 10 minutes or so. Mine will burn you and they have burnt my plants before.
I do not recomend getting these closer than 3" without serious exhaust and air flow.


3, Do your bulbs heat up the grow room or grow area to a much warmer temp?

Response: I have mine in a closet. They make the room about 10 deg hotter with the door closed.
With door open and all the fans going they do not make the room hotter.

4, What about electricity or power usage? Do they make your power bill go up a lot?

Response: No they do not. I swear I think mine actually went down.


I have sucessfully had 2 harvests from cfl's. The first was from seed. The second was all clones.

I currently have 1 clone mom and 5 WW seedlings under them in the veg cycle at 18/6.

I have an HPS on the way. I will be using it for flower from now on.



I quess it really all depends on what you want to accomplish.

For me growing was a hobby to begin with.
Now it has become an obsession.

If you get hooked like me you will want the best that you can afford.


5, What bulbs do you use, in what space sizse or grow area, and what wattage do you use, and how many do you use?

Response: I almost forgot about #5
I use 6 x 42 w cfL's. 2 of them are in the red spectrum and 4 in the blue.

My grow area is one side of a walk in closet.
I would say the air space is maybe 6ft x 5ft x 9ft = 180 cu ft.
I do not recomend very small enclosed spaces.
Shaman told me along time ago that air flow is just as important as light and water.

So in the end I would strongly recomend the CFL's for newb's, beginers, first timers, startes, or what the hell ever you want to call yourself.

They are deffinately the only way to grow stealthly in a small area.

I would say they are a good investment.
When you upgrade to something better you can always use them for side projects and what not.

In my book they have allowed me to see what I want to do.
They have shown me what I do and do not want to do.
They have allowed me to grow with spending next to nothing.

My first grow was cost me maybe $80.00 USD
That is including lights, soil, pots, and cheap nutes (MG).

I did not buy all of it at one time either.

I would spend maybe 20.00 a week until I had everything I needed to get going.

Now I have a set up.
I can improve and expand from here.

Good luck. Keep them cfl's as close to the plants as you can with out burning them.
The 26w's maybe less than 3" away from the plant.
Never used them myself.

Remember that you heard it here.
AIRFLOW AIRFLOW AIRFLOW!!!!

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Here are some pics of what 42w CFL's can do.

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1. If your only doing a couple plants and willing to settle for second best they will do the trick. Yield and density could be better.

2. I use different wattages and the higher watt ones get fairly warm. I never tryd to hold onto one while it was lit, but i did bump them a few times with the back of my hand and it's hot!

3. 10 or more degrees fahrenheit, so yeah it does get a considerable amount hotter with the lights on. It also depends how many i'm using and the watts of each.

4. They make my power bill go up like everthing else does, there is math to it... blah, blah, blah. I used 10 45w 2700k cfl's for flowering and i definitely seen a increase in my power bill for those 2 months. I do my own meter readings. It depends on how many cfl's i'm running, but i do see a increase in my power bill even if i am only running 6 27w 6500k cfl's for 18 hours a day. Bottom line if you use a lot, your bill will go up a lot.

5. Question #5. I'm no english major but that's some real bad grammar i even got a bit confused after reading that but i'll take a shot at answering it for ya. I use a variety of makes, wattages, and temps. 6500k for veg and 2700k for flowering. I have more then one grow space, 2'x3'x4', 2.5'x3'x3', and 2.5'x3.5'x6.5'. I will use as many lights as i need. I flowered one plant under 5 45w 2700k cfl's plus a couple 27w 6500k's before.

Well, i'm not a strict cfl user but i tried
1. with normal cfl (used cheap ones too!) i had a heat problem and the life of a bulb was damn short
2. this is why i tried then tubes:
-they been cooler the cfl's (you could touch them without risking a burn)
-they been stable
-you could buy those tubes for 4-10bucks
-the entire cool white tubes with fitting costs me like 7-8bucks a piece!
-and as you can see in my thread, it worked not too bad for me in the end
A side project... T8 strictly;)

so over all tubes and cfl's work

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Keep the gun oiled and the thumb green!

It is actually kind of amazing, the people replying seem torn on the heat issue from what I've read.

Some say there not hot, others say they are.
I know, I would hate to have to wrap my hand around one, after it's been on for a while.

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Ex-owner
Retired

I have never used cfl's so I can't really say. Well I use them but not to grow with.

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What I freely have been given let me freely share

My CFL's get warm/hot, but not enough to burn my skin. I can touch the bulb for a while and not burn myself. However, the balast does get hot. Again, not as hot as an incandescent, I can touch the balast, but not as long as the bulb.

I have a small grow box, 20"x20"x42" and it definitley raises temps in there by. Before I had a proper exhaust system, just a whole in the top, the box, sitting in a 72degree room with an intake fan, would get to 99 degrees! Now, with a good exhaust system in place (110 CFM fan through a home made carbon filter) I can get the temps down to 76 degrees and about 82 under a humidity dome. Right now I'm using (7) 5500k 27 w CFL's that output 1300 lumens each. For flower I plan on switching to all 2700k 42 watt CFL's that output 2600 lumens a piece.

This is my first grow, so I can't speak to the other questions. I'll report back in a few months. ;)