Ill post pic of my contraption when i get off work
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Think what you think but this is a single CFL on babies. Which is what I saying in reply to @newb2.0 on the subject on keeping cuts going etc. Iāve used CFL on small tasks since I began growing however the light splitters are obviously better for growth with 8 fittings in 1. Depends how big your grow op is I suppose 
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Oh yeah cfl will work on babies n small plants
but i was saying overall to flower and all the screw in led flood bulbs with caps popped is as good as my hlg qbs.
Which means theyre pretty damn good and cheap.
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I use screw in LEDs in my clone cab and veg tent, along with a cheapo Chinese blurple 1000w equivalent. They work extremely well, I built all my fixtures to mount them. I have a mix of 2700k, 3000k, 5000k and 6000k and a couple of full spec bulbs. They run between 11 and 16 watts each. There are 22 in the veg tent with the Chinese LED. I just have 7-8 running in the clone cab which is 32x42x36 inches and probably a bit too much light for it.
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Thanks for the replies everyone! Iām thinking of running a 10 bulb fixture. Should be able to put it together for about $50-60 with the Walmart bulbs, about $30 for the bulbs and another $20-30 for the fixtures and everything. 4x2700+6x5000=4080K with the mix. Could flip it the other way and the mix would be around 3500K, but I think the extra blue would be good to keep the nodes tighter.
@Explorer, toasty is actually the reason I decided to look into this route and I just scanned through trevorās post last night. Really great stuff.
@anon58740919, thanks, I wasnāt sure if that was reliable enough. I would think Philipās would be better than great value or Duracell, but the lumens for the Philipās is actually lower for the same wattage. The price is significantly higher though.
I momentarily considered CFLsā¦ my first grow ever was a 6cfl micro cab. Grew an absolutely fantastic girl, just very slowly lol.
@rooted, thanks for the info, but where are you finding 24w bulbs? All the bulbs Iām finding are the 100w equivalent, 14-16w actual.
@Jay, I thought preferred spectrums were the other way around, 2700K for Veg and 4-5000K for Flower.
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No higher K (more blue) is generally preferred for veg and lower (more red) for bloom. I think your mix will be great.
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Thanks beacher! My minds starting to turn to mush trying to figure out how to get this off the ground lol.
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Straight 3500k best of both worlds. Cheapest to highest output of wattage comparably. And Bam. Screw em in
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I havenāt found any straight 3500K bulbs. 6x2700+4x5000=3620K on the mix with 140w is about as close as I seem to be able to get without buying a bunch of extra bulbs.
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I know I am a rookie still, so I can only tell you from my own limited experience with themā¦ but if anything helps you decide, then it was worth itā¦
I was skeptical about LEDs at firstā¦ not anymoreā¦ and SILs are cheap and easy to replace for me as I am not technologically advanced enough deal with Solstrips, QBs, etcā¦
and I like to re-purpose and DIY as much as I canā¦
After a bunch of reading, and being confused as hell from it, I finally decided on a colour spectrum of ~3500K as @anon58740919 has stated, as it seemed to be a good compromise. In my setup, using a 7 way splitter and 5 way splitter hanging from chain, 8X15W @2700K & 4X15W @5000K gives me an average of 3467K, and so far I have been pleased with the resultsā¦ For 180W, I canāt complain now can Iā¦
The only issue I think I have with my setup, is that the circular design does leave a couple corners that lack light, even in a small spaceā¦ If I raise the light to provide a better pattern, I find the lights lose āintensityāā¦
I am hoping to remedy that situation soon as I am part way through building a DIY light rack that is square and will better suit my cabinet, but will also add 4 more sockets (total 16) to let me play around with lighting even more. It should be fun in a 20"X20" cabinetā¦
Itās using pieces from an old aluminum window screen, and each rail will have 4 sockets, and I can raise and lower as neededā¦ simple and hopefully more effective for my next scrog attemptā¦
Anyways, hope it helps @ChronicMcBudzā¦
Peace
DaFozz
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Looking good @anon95954822! Iāve been following your auto thread but didnt realize you were using SILs.
This leads me to another question though, most recommendations Iāve seen are 30-40w per sq ft with LEDs, but youāre pushing about 65w and adding sockets for roughly 20w/sq ft extra. Do I need more light when using SILs vs other LEDs?
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You have $120 wrapped up in bulbs that will need replaced. On HLG you can buy the 132 for $109 it the version1 that will give you 300 watts. You can source a cheap non waterproof driver to mount outside. Lrs 350-36 iirc. That would be $140 and some change for a better quality light.
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I actually have the bulbs sourced @ $30 after tax for 12. 10 receptacles are $10-20. Wire and plug maybe $10. I actually would like to go with QBs or solstrips, and will likely upgrade for the 2nd run. Right now Iām trying to build a cheapest I can go while stealth (oh crap my wife and our friend we just rescued smoke too much I have to hide and divvy the stash) kind of boxā¦
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Another reason to use Screw in bulbsā¦ You can fine tune your setup better than a fixed position strip/board.
See my ghetto little infographic for a basic idea of what I mean.
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Ya I responded before I scrolled down and saw DaFozz bud. I was gonna edit it and say do whatever heās doing lol.
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Your right i just looked and my bulbs Are14w. The screws in corn con type onesi got from Amazon are24w but they arent as good as the flood bulbs
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I know that I am basically pushing the limits I think with W/sq ft but it has worked out decently for me so farā¦ Adding more lights like I plan will let me test out higher Wattage, as well as different combinations of light spectrum, and find out what works good for my space. Number of Watts can be controlled better because I can always get 9W(60W equivalent) etc. and mix it up that way.
Part of my reasoning of wanting to boost W/sq ft, and I may be wrong, but I would have to think the diodes and hardware used in cheaper SILs is probably not near the quality used in higher end lightsā¦
Hope anything helps, but they do work pretty goodā¦
Peace
DaFozz
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Yea, looking around I considered the 60w equivalents because I can do more for less cost, but the lumens are higher per watt on the 14w bulbs which makes me think theyāre more efficient. Could just be stoner logic though.
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Make sure you look at ALL the different ones. Basically all the same with 2-3 of the same design. Just different grades of cheap material.
After trying 5 and 7 splitters i think ill just use 5 now.
16w in each socket(max 60w but in reality its 50)
It SAYS not to exceed 220 but its really 110.
So my 7th bulb keeps going out.
The splitters are wired in parallel so it doesnt affect the others, but creates a dead spot.
So either wire up sockets yourself, or use less watts overall. 5 X 22w = 110w each splitter. 3 in a 2x4 or 4x4 space 330w of concentrated led.
Good Luck and Happy Growing
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I used to only buy Philips but Iāve found those Walmart bulbs are just as good. IMO
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