I saw a post asking if some crazy expensive 105 watt CFL was a good idea and it got me thinking I could put together a quickie review on how I setup ultra cheap lighting for my stealth cab grows. This is aimed at newbies (which i consider myself to be as well) that want to try their hand at growing but don't want to invest $$$ while they learn. Thats a good idea with most hobbies as well. Learn a little, and upgrade as you go along and get more serious.
I hope some find it helpful.
First, some basics and warnings.
If you don't have any electrical knowledge, read a few web pages. Let me stress this...basic wiring is easy and doesn't require much skill or knowledge. But it DOES require common sense and basic understanding.
BE CAREFUL AND CHECK YOUR WORK ! You can burn down your house or worse yet, risk your loved ones health and well being. It happens. Don't set your house on fire and have the FD or LEOs discover that you rigged something half-assed in your grow.
Lectures aside...
Small CFL's are dirt cheap. What we're looking for here is the most bang (light) for the buck. I won't get into the topic of lumens vs. lux vs. PAR. For our purposes, lumens work for comparing one light with another.
Those high watt CFLs are great, but the cost skyrockets with wattage, and we're going on the cheap here.
As you can see from this short chart, the small ones give you the best light/watt ratio which is good, they're the cheapest and easiest to find. Don't wanna buy online or dont have a credit card to do so? You can find these at any Casa Depot, Lowes, home center, etc. I see them in dollar stores all the time. The 23 watt to 30 watt are the most common, and most efficient.
I got this data from 1000bulbs.com
price watts lumens lumens per watt dollars per lumen
3.58 23 1600 69.5 .002
5.09 30 2000 66.6 .002
9.17 32 2100 65.6 .004
10.40 40 2700 67.5 .003
26.17 65 3400 52.3 .007
29.92 85 4200 49.4 .007
32.65 105 5000 47 .006
These are all daylight or veg bulbs at 65K. Similar results for the 27-30K CFLs. As you can see, the cost per lumen goes up after 40 watts. And the lumens per watt efficency goes down. The price can affect the lumens per dollar so shop around.
Another point. We know that light intensity drops off dramatically with distance. Two 23 watt lights spread out are going to cover more grow than one 46 watt. This is another part that makes this work well. Why buy a crazy expensive 105 watt light, that is as weak as a 23 watter when you get a little ways away? Why not replace that 105 watt monster with four 23 watters, for ALOT less, and get better coverage? I've seen packages of 4 27k 23 watt cfls in a local store for $ 5. Thats what this is all about. 65k cfls tend to be a little more, but not much.
Back to safety and basic electricity. Again, for newbies or those not familiar with basics to keep your wiring safe.
To figure out electrical circuits, multiply the following...
Resistance X Current (amps) X EMF (volts) = Power (watts)
Divide to go the other way...
Power / EMF / Current = Resistance.
Why is this important? Your circuit is only as safe as it's weakest link. Put 2000 watts through a wire or socket designed for 750, and you have a problem. Always make sure that your end use (total wattage of lamps) is never more than 80% of the rest of your wiring.
Our circuit will always be 120 volts. (220 for the europeans) so that's constant. We're working with low wattages, so its hard to overdo it, but be aware. Lets do a hypothetical set up.
Lets say we're going to do 8 23 watt lights. Thats 184 watts. Divided by 120 volts, thats 1.53 amps. Get it? That's important.
Normal house circuits are 15 amp, sometimes 20. Thats what can run on the circuit in total. Using a circuit with other lights, power equipment, etc? Take that into account. The least that could happen is you pop a breaker. The worst that could happen is a fire. Don't take a chance.
As you can see, using CFLs don't push a circuit very hard. But we also have wire and components.
The cheap extension cord below has a tag that says 13 amps, 120 v, 1500 watts. Thats alot of lights. So once again, this is safe but not if you don't use common sense.
So, with this system you can put out alot of light, where you want it, cheaply. Get yourself the following while at your local home center...
A 6 ft (or 2) extension cord $1 apiece
A few quick connect sockets about $2 apiece
A few socket splitters about $2 apiece.
Total cost for 8 lights on two cords... $18 not including lights.
2 cords $2
4 sockets $8
4 splitters $8
Catch a special on lights and maybe get 8 of them for $10-12. Add a timer and maybe a power strip and you're good to go.
I found these at a local dollar store for a buck apiece. They go around the burners on a stove for easy cleaning. Optically correct as reflectors? No. Do they reflect back some of the light that would otherwise be wasted going up? Yes. You can see it on the plants when you move them around. Cheap, reusable, adds to the efficency. Slip them over the light before you screw them into the socket.
Take your cord, cut off the end. Split the ends apart just a bit so they can't touch. Or don't, and leave it hanging or plug another cord into the end. Your choice. Take your sockets and add them roughly where you think they'll need to be. You'll need to split the wire apart with a knife in the spot you want a socket. Split the wire about for about 2 inches. Be careful to split right in the middle and not into the wire itself. There are a couple styles of these sockets. The one shown has a screw-on cap. You lay the wire onto the contacts and screw the cap on. Tight. Add a couple of splitters. Add two to one socket and make a trio of lights. Tailor it to your space and grow. Generally more light is better, but hey, I've found that three 23 watt lights over 3 or 4 small plants works great until they start to get pretty big and ready to flower. The nice thing is with this, you can add as they grow, move them around, etc. There's nothing unsafe about an empty socket as long as its not touching anything that can make contact inside. You can start with 2 lights and screw in a few more as your plants grow.
I use some cheap flexable wire (like baling wire) to hang the sockets from hooks. Always make sure they're secure and wont fall on your girls.
Here's part of my current grow.
And the lights above.
Three 30 watt bulbs are doing these young girls just fine. I'll add 2 more by the time they are ready to flower.
Sidenotes:
Personally, I feel that it doesn't take much to grow some perfectly acceptable personal stash with some decent soil, inexpensive nutes, and some floros from start to finish. Better than compressed brown dirt weed any day. When you tend to just a few plants you can keep the males out and cut when they're mature and have much better smoke than the parents of your seeds that were grown in a field, neglected, and mass produced. I don't have much experience with high end genetics but if you're on a budget or don't have access to them, I guarantee if you read up on just the basics of how to take a seedling up through flower, and harvest at the right time, most anyone can put out some buds that they and their friends will be happy with passing around the campfire or bbq with a couple of brewskis, from just ordinary seeds. With a bag of $10 good soil, a little basic nutes, some bagseed, $30 worth of lighting, and a cabinet, you can have some stuff you grew yourself.
Now as for growing the top shelf stuff, I'll leave that to the pros. I hope this is helpful to anyone considering a small personal grow, it's my attempt to give back a little for all I've learned here. Peace.
I hope some find it helpful.
First, some basics and warnings.
If you don't have any electrical knowledge, read a few web pages. Let me stress this...basic wiring is easy and doesn't require much skill or knowledge. But it DOES require common sense and basic understanding.
BE CAREFUL AND CHECK YOUR WORK ! You can burn down your house or worse yet, risk your loved ones health and well being. It happens. Don't set your house on fire and have the FD or LEOs discover that you rigged something half-assed in your grow.
Lectures aside...
Small CFL's are dirt cheap. What we're looking for here is the most bang (light) for the buck. I won't get into the topic of lumens vs. lux vs. PAR. For our purposes, lumens work for comparing one light with another.
Those high watt CFLs are great, but the cost skyrockets with wattage, and we're going on the cheap here.
As you can see from this short chart, the small ones give you the best light/watt ratio which is good, they're the cheapest and easiest to find. Don't wanna buy online or dont have a credit card to do so? You can find these at any Casa Depot, Lowes, home center, etc. I see them in dollar stores all the time. The 23 watt to 30 watt are the most common, and most efficient.
I got this data from 1000bulbs.com
price watts lumens lumens per watt dollars per lumen
3.58 23 1600 69.5 .002
5.09 30 2000 66.6 .002
9.17 32 2100 65.6 .004
10.40 40 2700 67.5 .003
26.17 65 3400 52.3 .007
29.92 85 4200 49.4 .007
32.65 105 5000 47 .006
These are all daylight or veg bulbs at 65K. Similar results for the 27-30K CFLs. As you can see, the cost per lumen goes up after 40 watts. And the lumens per watt efficency goes down. The price can affect the lumens per dollar so shop around.
Another point. We know that light intensity drops off dramatically with distance. Two 23 watt lights spread out are going to cover more grow than one 46 watt. This is another part that makes this work well. Why buy a crazy expensive 105 watt light, that is as weak as a 23 watter when you get a little ways away? Why not replace that 105 watt monster with four 23 watters, for ALOT less, and get better coverage? I've seen packages of 4 27k 23 watt cfls in a local store for $ 5. Thats what this is all about. 65k cfls tend to be a little more, but not much.
Back to safety and basic electricity. Again, for newbies or those not familiar with basics to keep your wiring safe.
To figure out electrical circuits, multiply the following...
Resistance X Current (amps) X EMF (volts) = Power (watts)
Divide to go the other way...
Power / EMF / Current = Resistance.
Why is this important? Your circuit is only as safe as it's weakest link. Put 2000 watts through a wire or socket designed for 750, and you have a problem. Always make sure that your end use (total wattage of lamps) is never more than 80% of the rest of your wiring.
Our circuit will always be 120 volts. (220 for the europeans) so that's constant. We're working with low wattages, so its hard to overdo it, but be aware. Lets do a hypothetical set up.
Lets say we're going to do 8 23 watt lights. Thats 184 watts. Divided by 120 volts, thats 1.53 amps. Get it? That's important.
Normal house circuits are 15 amp, sometimes 20. Thats what can run on the circuit in total. Using a circuit with other lights, power equipment, etc? Take that into account. The least that could happen is you pop a breaker. The worst that could happen is a fire. Don't take a chance.
As you can see, using CFLs don't push a circuit very hard. But we also have wire and components.
The cheap extension cord below has a tag that says 13 amps, 120 v, 1500 watts. Thats alot of lights. So once again, this is safe but not if you don't use common sense.
So, with this system you can put out alot of light, where you want it, cheaply. Get yourself the following while at your local home center...
A 6 ft (or 2) extension cord $1 apiece
A few quick connect sockets about $2 apiece
A few socket splitters about $2 apiece.
Total cost for 8 lights on two cords... $18 not including lights.
2 cords $2
4 sockets $8
4 splitters $8
Catch a special on lights and maybe get 8 of them for $10-12. Add a timer and maybe a power strip and you're good to go.
I found these at a local dollar store for a buck apiece. They go around the burners on a stove for easy cleaning. Optically correct as reflectors? No. Do they reflect back some of the light that would otherwise be wasted going up? Yes. You can see it on the plants when you move them around. Cheap, reusable, adds to the efficency. Slip them over the light before you screw them into the socket.
Take your cord, cut off the end. Split the ends apart just a bit so they can't touch. Or don't, and leave it hanging or plug another cord into the end. Your choice. Take your sockets and add them roughly where you think they'll need to be. You'll need to split the wire apart with a knife in the spot you want a socket. Split the wire about for about 2 inches. Be careful to split right in the middle and not into the wire itself. There are a couple styles of these sockets. The one shown has a screw-on cap. You lay the wire onto the contacts and screw the cap on. Tight. Add a couple of splitters. Add two to one socket and make a trio of lights. Tailor it to your space and grow. Generally more light is better, but hey, I've found that three 23 watt lights over 3 or 4 small plants works great until they start to get pretty big and ready to flower. The nice thing is with this, you can add as they grow, move them around, etc. There's nothing unsafe about an empty socket as long as its not touching anything that can make contact inside. You can start with 2 lights and screw in a few more as your plants grow.
I use some cheap flexable wire (like baling wire) to hang the sockets from hooks. Always make sure they're secure and wont fall on your girls.
Here's part of my current grow.
And the lights above.
Three 30 watt bulbs are doing these young girls just fine. I'll add 2 more by the time they are ready to flower.
Sidenotes:
Personally, I feel that it doesn't take much to grow some perfectly acceptable personal stash with some decent soil, inexpensive nutes, and some floros from start to finish. Better than compressed brown dirt weed any day. When you tend to just a few plants you can keep the males out and cut when they're mature and have much better smoke than the parents of your seeds that were grown in a field, neglected, and mass produced. I don't have much experience with high end genetics but if you're on a budget or don't have access to them, I guarantee if you read up on just the basics of how to take a seedling up through flower, and harvest at the right time, most anyone can put out some buds that they and their friends will be happy with passing around the campfire or bbq with a couple of brewskis, from just ordinary seeds. With a bag of $10 good soil, a little basic nutes, some bagseed, $30 worth of lighting, and a cabinet, you can have some stuff you grew yourself.
Now as for growing the top shelf stuff, I'll leave that to the pros. I hope this is helpful to anyone considering a small personal grow, it's my attempt to give back a little for all I've learned here. Peace.
