Supplemental Lighting: LED BULBS vs CFL BULBS... Which Weapon Would You Choose?

[GreenArmadillo]

Hey guys and gals. I have a single light socket on the roof of my grow room, and am thinking of taking advantage of it, using it to add some supplemental wattage to my grow room. My main grow lights are 300 watts of T5's and a 400 watt HPS floodlight.
So to take advantage of this unused light socket on the roof, I ordered a 4 bulb extension connector.



I'm gonna hook the extension connector to my roof socket, and attach 4 light bulbs, and switch it on and off manually before going to work and after coming home, coinciding with my lights on and lights off.

So my question is should I be using 4 CFLs? I've found some 45 watt warm light bulbs that would be good for the job. (Total would be 180 Watts)
Or should I go with LED bulbs. The problem with these is that the max wattage i've found per bulb is 14 watts (warm light), and they are 3 times more expensive than the CFL bulbs. (Total would be 56 Watts)

Which option would be more preferable?
Also, what distance would the LED bulbs have to minimally be from the flowering girls? Is it the same as when using LED panels?


May as well do as much as possible to boost up my flowering buds. So let's do this! Thanks peeps. <3

[DW2]

Howdy GreenArmadillo, I have not heard of anyone using the 'household' type of LED bulbs for growing. I use 55 watt CFLs in a four lamp set up (for 220 watts total). I do not think that there will be a noticeable effect of an extra 180 watts up on the ceiling as the 'sweet spot' for the CFLs is very close to the lamps, 6" to 12" away from the plant. That being said, one will never know without ever trying, I would recommend getting either the lamps as close to the plants, or the plants as close to the lamp to get the best effect.
Good luck with Your grow.

[9fingerleafs]

I agree. Those led have too low wattage and a poor spectrum. It will not aid at all. Get some cfls

[GreenArmadillo]

Alright. Good to know guys. What about LED bulbs that are specific for growing. They sell them in a gardening store here. They're pretty chunky, like the size of my fist, and maybe 20-24 watts per bulb. I just remembered about them now. They look pretty much like this:




The question is, would it be more optimal for me using LED over CFL even if the LED wattage was lower?
Because of the type of light being emitted maybe.
Like, the roof of my grow room is about 12-15" away from the tops of some of my bud sites, so maybe LED would benefit the buds more, because CFL doesn't travel far enough for it to be effective. Am I right in assuming this?

[GreenArmadillo]

Also worth mentioning, and this is very saddening, I just checked the 4 bulb connector and it says max wattage <60 watts. Now that's very low. I am very disappointed. I expected it to be able to cope with higher wattages.
But then again, what is a standard maximum wattage for a light socket on a roof. I don't actually know. (We use 230-240 volts in this country)

[9fingerleafs]

i think those leds are a whole different story, its going to depend on the wavelength of the light they emit, but essentially those "lots of reds and a few blues" are the right ones for flowering.
about the light, yes you assume right, at medium and far distances the light emitted by the leds will travel better than cfls and most likely "suplement" better even with lower wattage, about the socket, im pretty sure its 60 wats each, it would make no sense to have 4 bulbs but all under 15 wats, why all the trouble when they sell 65 wat cfls.... so if i were you i would get 4 of those growing leds of 24 wats and connect it somewhere else to test it in case smtng goes wrong your grow room is safe, and if its all good then use them and let us know how they work

[9fingerleafs]

after a few hours you should know if the connector works or ends up all melted