Right now I am on my 2nd week of flowering 2 blue dream chickies. Im growing in a 3'x4' area. I currently have 4-42 watt 2700k cfl's and 4- 27 watt 2700k cfls as well as 4- 13 watt 5000k cfls on a 12/12 schedule. I've read somewhere that adding a 70 or 100 watt hps to all the cfl's is a good idea and will increase yield. Yes/No?
the only problem with mixing types of lamps is that the cfls need to be very close to the canopy, around 1-4 inches. adding an hps that will need to be further away you end up having the cfls bulbs "shading" the plants from the hps. that's a lot of cfls. how come you haven't just gone for a larger hps? a 400w hps would fit nicely in there and would be less work adjusting the lamp
you could get a dimmable 600w ballast that switches between 300w, 400w, 600w, and 660w and run it on 300watts. this would be running about the same amount of watts as you are now but you would get more bud with it. plus you will always have the option to switch it up to a 400 or even 600w if your ventilation could take it
I have a very half assed setup right now that I started on a minimal budget, Over the next year I will be upgrading my setup and I am looking to buy a 600 watt hps.
fair enough, well to answer your question, yes, it would increase yield, no doubt. it may require some creative arrangement of the lamps though. I guess the hps in the middle with cfls lighting the periphery I recently bought a dimmable 250w ballast for just £57 delivered from eBay. it switches between 125w, 190w, 250w and 275w. when it's set on 125w it gives off hardly any heat. I can get the plants within about 4 inches of the bulb
I run 2 400watt hps in the same space as you...a 600watt light would work really well in this space...
it would depend on the height and the quality of the ventilation but I have a 1.5' x 2' x 4'(h) and I have a 250w hps in there with no issue with heat