hi, don't buy cheapo bulbs from places like this unless you absolutely must. Visit a Lighting Store in your area and they will give you face to face service and actually SPECIALIZE in lighting unlike the poor folks at depot who may work in the plumbing aisle one day and the lighting aisle the next.

good COMPACT fluoro bulbs at home depot are few and far between. here is a link to stores in your area that should all carry color (kelvin) specific lamps in various wattages and socket types..

411.com is also very helpful. try bulbrite.com and look on their suppliers list, these are great flouros and high output with low power consumption look at the high-lumen twin tube.

here ya go, manitoba right?

Here is a link that might be useful: mn stores

42W compact bulbs don't do much in the way of light output. I use them in a pinch, but only until I can get my replacement bulbs which are generally 85W 6500K bulbs.

Allotrope should be along shortly to detail his ventures into Canadian lighting suppliers...

Sam

I will have to go to one of the lighting stores then and see if I can get some feedback. Thank you for the help all, if you have any further tips let me know.

Cheers,
Sean

Personally, I think the box stores are a fine place to start looking for compact fluorescents, but you will have difficulty finding very high powers and higher colour temperatures. Most of the bulbs there are aimed at the domestic market where 30W is plenty and 3000K is the preferred colour.

Sorry lifestarter, I couldn't find anything particularly relevant at bulbrite, but there are many other online suppliers.

What particular bulb ratings were you looking for? Just higher power? Or some other kind of information like CRI? The spectrum of 90% of compact fluorescent bulbs is virtually identical, a typical triphosphor with more or less light in the blue/green to get the desired colour temperature. A few bulbs are now offering a slightly fuller spectrum with a higher CRI, and even fewer offer the pinky/purple gro-lux type spectrum (very low CRI but that's not really relevant). I suggest ignoring the lumens and buying a reputable bulb with the desired temperature based on wattage. The total PAR output of compact fluorescent (assuming you stick to the integrated electronic ballast type) just doesn't vary much between different bulbs. One interesting variation is in the startup. Many (most?) of the new spiral bulbs use an instant start ballast which shortens the bulb life considerably. Older designs, usually stick types, have a very slow warmup of several minutes but last about twice as long, which is preferable for a plant light.

Once you get beyond the bulk market of sub-30W bulbs and common colour temperatures then prices inevitably rise and you'll usually have to go to a specialist supplier. If you really need several hundred watts of power then perhaps it is worth looking at a HID lamp? The efficiency is higher and you'll make your money back in electricity savings quite quickly.

GREAT POST Shrubs!
I will attach a link shrubs, to the
bulbs i am using in my new setup
and just as a side note, everyone is
just loving their new home.
I have found that most specialty
lighting stores/elec. supply houses
have a higher quality and/or longer
life spiral CF than big box stores and
usually a selection of twin,tri,and
quad tube medium base lamps in stock
in all the flavors. Just understand
the thread starter stated he has been
using specialized hort bulbs, why step
down? Bulbrite is good but I have been
using a house brand PLL Twin tube bulb
and have found them to be terrific. GE
is a bit better though i never use their
tubular flouros and i these are the only
companies i can report on for the 4 pin long twin.

Here is a link that might be useful: This is my lamp type (proper link)

Thanks for that, are those two-pin tubes? Personally I've never considered using this style of bulb because they fall between the integrated ballast compact fluorescents and the traditional tubes. Straight tubes are available in a bigger range with better efficiencies, while the integrated compact fluorescents are more compact and convenient. I always thought the "2-D" compact fluorescents might be good for compact growing setups just because of the shape.

Here is a link that might be useful: Example of a 2-D bulb

To each his own but this 4PIN flourescent bulb is less than an inch in width/depth socket looks something like this

(socket)---> [[oooo]] 4 pins in a row, clip holds other end of bulb up and even when horizontal. I run (4) 2-light remote ballasts in a fan-cooled box.

i run a system similiar to this as my main propagator, might be selling it this summer. (same bulbs, different setup altogether-100% home made)

Here is a link that might be useful: my lighting

Does anyone know what kind of wattage needed to grow lettuce? I have a
24" x 8" tray with three 5000K, 32 W compact flouro's about an inch above the plants. I thought that would be enough but they are growing so slowly I'm thinking maybe they don't need more light.