real watt for CFL

[mephistopheles]

it says that 125 Watt pulp for red 2,700k and for blue 6,400k. and offer 12,500 lumens. but when I looked at local stores I found pulps with descriptions like "105W White (actual wattage: 40W)". so which one of them is the right one for me?

[Roofie]

I'm guessing that the 105W is an equivalent incandescent bulb. They're just telling you how bright the lamp would be compared to an incandescent. You want 125W actual wattage. They are specifically for growing so local stores may not stock them.
It's a pretty hefty sized bulb so there will be no mistaking it. It should be around a foot long, maybe a few inches longer.
Check them out online. Ebay always has a wide range and sometimes a second hand one from somebody who has started to grow then given up. Sometimes the price difference between a 125W and a 200W makes it more sense to get a bigger one. More Watts is going to get you bigger buds. If you only upgraded one I would upgrade the red (2700K) as this is the one that promotes flowering.
Hope that helps.

[mephistopheles]

so, if I need lights for 10 or 15 square feet how many of them (125W or 200W) I may need?

[richkel]

First you need to determine how much light you need. From what I've read, you need about 5000 lumens per sq ft. (midrange amount). For a 10 sq. ft. room that would be 50,000 lumens total. If you want to use 125 actual watt CFLs (smaller CFLs are more efficient I've read) they put out about 6500 lumens each. So 50000 / 6500 = 7.7 bulbs (use 8).

ymmv

Rich

[richkel]

I guess I should point out that (8) 125W bulbs adds up to 1000 watts! That's allot of heat to contend with. The minimum lumens per sq. ft. (I've read) is 2000. You may want to go closer to 2000lumens per sq ft for heat reasons.

[Dreadzone]

I think if you are going to end up using a load of cfls you might as well bite the bullet and get yoursaelf and HID. cfls work great for small areas and grows on a tight budget. if you end up using a 1000 watts worth of juice though, why not use a hid and get much more bang for your buck?

[mephistopheles]

thank u all, guys, but 1000W its too much . I found in a store a CFL pulp and it was about 14$ and a 600W HID is 45$ and it fits much more with buds. and the heat is also needed because we still in the middle of the winter , even if it was summer I could dissolve heat with a little bit of vantilation. I think i will stick with HIDs for now