Right I have a 1.9m squared cupboard i plan to grow in using cfl's as money is abit of an issue and i know it'll save on electricity and create less heat than a hid setup. But I'm thinking seeing at the cupboard is around 180cm tall would using cfl's be a waste of potential space? as alot of the cfl grows i have seen on this site have been micro grows and quite small plants and obviously if i have that much height, id like to utilise it the most i can. Also how many plants do you lot recommend for the space i have? and how many watts would i need?
I grew a plant with 200w of CFLs and ended up with just under an oz in a 2x3x5 1/4 ft tent. I recommend T5 or T8 fluoros. You should also LST and Scrog for maximum potential. If your not dead set on fluoros/CFLs I highly recommend you get a 400-600w Air cooled system. After making a few adjustments to my energy consumption such as turning off my computer and lights and other various things my bill went up a mere 5 dollars, HID is worth the investment.