check out this setup

Hey growers. Let me know if i'm leaving anything out or suggestions. I don't wanna go through the hassle of cooling with metal hydride or sodium vapor lamps, so i'm going fluorescent.

The room is a closet, about 22 inches deep by six feet wide by 8 feet tall. Walls are covered in aluminum foil, stretching 1 foot from the floor to 2 feet from the ceiling.

four 4 gallon tubs with drain holes at the bottom, filled with a pure topsoil blend. Soil smells very strongly of humus. Two 4 foot twin bulb fluorescent fixtures with 4 GE 40 watt plant/aquarium lights. Package says "Designed specifically for growth and flowering of aquatic and terrestrial plants." 7600 lumens from these bulbs alone. They stay about 4" from the top of the sprouts.

Right now I only have an 18" GE plant aquarium lightstick and some kind of light that I picked up at Walmart on a whim that only says "Plant Grow light." Strength of the 18" light says 33 watts, with a lumen power of 750. No ideal of the lumens of that walmart light, but it says it's equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent grow light.

Eventually I plan on getting another five of the 33 watt GE fixtures and placing two along the back wall of the closet, two along the front walls (w/closet door) and one on each side of the closet, all vertically to get the maximum amount of light from each fixture. This setup would put my light output at 12,100 lumens..not counting that 75 watt walmart lamp.
I think I can add several (read: many) fluorescents without drawing too much attention. My current electricity bill is insanely low anyways.


Any suggestions, other than the "get metal hydride and HPS" replies? I can't do a full ventilation setup because of the need to be discreet. I don't own my own house; I rent. The risk of my landlord coming in to do an inspection is miniscule, but i'm a big fan of "never saying never."

RC

 

6 feet by 22 inches is roughly 9 sqft. Each plant will need at least 3000 lumens per sqft.
A 4ft 40W florescent tube will put out up to 2000 lumens, not per sqft, in total.
'Grow bulbs' are not worth the extra money.
So 2000/4 is 500 lumens per sqft using 1 tube. You will need about 6 to 8 tubes for every 1foot by 4foot area. You would need roughly 15 to 20 tubes. And then only the top 6 to 12 inches of your plants will be getting adequate lighting. The buds on your plants will be light and fluffy, instead of dense and heavy.

You can get compact florescent bulbs that will fit into regular light sockets. They will be better, since you can get better bulb density, and they are a bit more efficient in lumen/watts. You will need at least two to three 23W CFL's per sqft.

You can get large compact florescents, made for growing. They require special sockets, but you can get them in 200W bulbs (about 15000 lumens).

If you will use tinfoil, put the dull side out. It helps to diffuse the reflected light more evenly. Also, tinfoil is known to cause a magnifying/laser affect that burns pinholes in your plants because of all the wrinkles, the dull side is less likely.
Better yet, invest in a roll of mylar. It's more reflective anyway.

When you have enough flos in your closet to provide adequate lighting, you will find that you need ventilation and cooling anyways, and the bulbs will have to be replaced more often and will cost more altogether. In the long run, yer better off to invest your money in a HPS with a full spectrum bulb and the required equipment to go with it.

Flos can be good with the proper setup, but not for growing trees. You would want to setup a dwarf farm.

 

Nickelbag has some good points ... 4 a start any reflective material absorbs light, that's how colours and images are seen in/on reflective surfaces, the better option is to use a white plastic, just plain matt or gloss white ... and if ur using a closet for ur grow room you shouldn't need a cooling system if u use a 400W HPS lamp, jst leave the door open for bout half an hour a day, this will refresh the air and cool the room enough, and use a small fan just for circulation (which u'd need with fluro lamps anyway), u can pick up a decent fan for circulating the air in the room for anywhere from $10 - $50 (i mean like a little office or house fan, not one of these $1,500 extractor fan systems with climate control and everything lol ... if ur plants are any good they won't mind the slight fluctuation in temperature and humidity ... i hav a 400W HPS in my closet and no extractor fans or air intakes and it pumps out the production and the power bill's not to bad either ... anyways i no u didn't wana hear bout HPS lamps bt they're the best 4 growing and flowering and the area u hav could handle one without damage to ur plants or closet (make sure its bout 50cm above plant tips, and budding smaller plants more frequently produces more bud then budding big plants less frequently, i no this from experience ... i'll leave u an example after this comment thingy) and so long as u leave the door open a fraction 4 about half an hour every day or second day if ur likely to forget lol. cheers mate, cya.

The example:

In ur closet u have either:
2 big plants which u bud once every 8 months and they produce between them about 12-14 ounces of smokable bud

or

8 small plants which u bud every 4 - 6 months and they produce 2 ounces each, total of 16 ounces per harvest and u can get about 2 small plant harvests in the same amount of time as 1 big plant harvest bcoz ur wasting less time in the vegetative growth phase

Total:

Big Plant Harvest, Once in 8 Months = 12 - 14 Ounces
Small Plant Hravest, Twice in 8 - 12 Months = 32 ounces

(I'll try finish up now before u get completely bored with reading my crap lol) ... That's just an example but my mate did 2 big plants and it took nearly a year for 1 harvest, he got some killer size buds and they looked wicked bt he totaled bout 15 ounces i think it was while in the same time i got 3 harvests outa my small plants (which were clones from his lol) and my bud total was over double his and i got 3 freshly harvested bud in a year so the smoke didn't turn to shit or get fungus or anything ... just think bout the different options and then decide what u wana do, a few big plants or lots of little plants

 

Richy and nickelbag hit it. First don't use tin foil, use mylar or black+white, or paint the walls flat white. Second if you must use flo.(wrong answer by the way) at least get some CFLs made for growing. I have a couple if 125w that I use for veg. that have reflectors to max the output. If you got a few for the top and used your tubes for fill on the sides it might work. No matter what you still need to refresh the air as said above, and you definataly need to move the air around in the closet.