watts and lighting

[muskieswen]

This may be a silly question but it seems that all the lighting issues deal with wattage and kelvin color scale. There are rules of thumb that say so many watts per gallon. Is this really acurate? Shouldn't it be the lumen output of these lamps not the wattage? I mean a 60 watt incandescent lamp has less lumens then a 40 watt fluorescent. Does anybody see where I am going with this? Am I wrong on the way I am thinking? Sorry if this is a silly question, but I was bored and got to thinking again. It always gets me in trouble

[TKOS]

The genral rule of thumb of watts per gallon is based on normal output or NO flourescent lights. This changes with power compacts and MH lights. So yes, the wattage per gallon genral rule of thumb isn't terribly accurate but is a good place to start with standard lighting systems. And incandescent lights don't really count for anything when it comes to growing plants.