W
Woall
the T5 units in hydro catalogues go for hundreds of dollars, so they must be much better than the $20 shop lights at wal mart that use T8 bubls. T8 and T5's have similar lumen outputs I thought, am I missing something?
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The short answer is yes.....
I have done it and it did produce big buds. I made a few mistakes though. I had a light leak for a large part of flowering(light bouncing through vents), and I used too much blue light. The advantages are healthier plants, almost no stretch(my seed plants stretch about 25%, my clones about 10%).
Still if you can combine it with an HPS, the results will be even better.
Here is a pic of my 512W T8 flowering cabinet:
No idea what the yield was, but it wasn't bad.
I have done it and it did produce big buds. I made a few mistakes though. I had a light leak for a large part of flowering(light bouncing through vents), and I used too much blue light. The advantages are healthier plants, almost no stretch(my seed plants stretch about 25%, my clones about 10%).
Still if you can combine it with an HPS, the results will be even better.
Here is a pic of my 512W T8 flowering cabinet:
No idea what the yield was, but it wasn't bad.
W
Woall
so different ballasts can't bring out different results from the same type of bulb. the shop lights are so cheap! How much do you think you could yield with two shop lights (4 T8's) combined with a 100 watt HPS?
Throwgar
Member
I've always used standard T12's for vegging. I'd pay more attention to the lumen output and the color range. I know the last time I got some 4' bulbs, there were 2 generic kinds, one had a 3k lumen output, the other had 6k. The higher the lumen output and the blue(r) the color range, the better.
Yield questions are extremely relative. You're talking about 356W total, so I'd guess 356G absolute maximum. That's guessing on the safe side, but really you should figure for half of that. Of course pot size, food, style of growing, shape of cabinet, strains, etc. all factor in. If you get 150-200G off the cabinet the first time I'll be impressed. It takes a strain that suits the particular system to maximize yields.
W
Woall
The T8 bulbs are 32 watts I thought, so it's a total of 228 watts, not 356, right?
Did you have 16 bulbs in your grow? to get 512 watts? I must be incorrect on this.
Did you have 16 bulbs in your grow? to get 512 watts? I must be incorrect on this.
lloyd
Member
these shop lights work fine for veg. as long as you switch to hps for flower. for best results any way... I use 4 shp lights all the time for veg...
W
Woall
Yeah I'm trying to decide if a 100 watt HPS combined with 2 shop lights will be enough to get good results from two plants.
There are two bulbs in each fixture, so 4 fixtures = 256W, plus 100W for the HPS(not adding ballast), so about 356+W
Yes, I did have 16 tubes to equal 512W.
Yes, I did have 16 tubes to equal 512W.
W
Woall
oh I meant that I only have 2 fixtures, 4 bulbs. Did you use power strips to plug in all 8 of those fixtures? I would like to add more shop lights, I just worry about overloading the breaker. I have a separate breaker for my grow so maybe there is no chance of that. I got 2 fans, a 100W HPS, and 2 shop lights, I wonder how many more shop lights I could have. I know it's a matter of amps, I just don't know how to figure out how many amps I'm using with all this stuff.
I have run them off power strips. Not the best way though. I ran new outlets in the wall for my new cabinet. I have 8 outlets total on a ground fault protector. 2 fixtures and 4 bulbs won't stress even a crappy power strip.
lloyd
Member
you would be getting close to breaking the amps. I would assume you have a 15 or 20 amp breaker. I think you could possibly plug one more shop light into it, and useing a power strip is fine. honestly I just wonder how big of a fan I would assume a smaller since its 2 plants. some fans can suck up the amps. and you might have to stagger the lights on with timers so they dont all turn on at the same time possibly overloading the breaker. The more light you have the better the results.... Good luck hope all works out for you...
Sorry lloyd, I am not sure how you are figuring that. 2 shop lights and a 100W HPS uses about 2 amps maybe 3 on startup.
