Cfls or 150w hps?

HID are always beter 150 of hid put out way more lumens than 150 watts of cfl's just count the watts and lumens up. why not use both. if heat might be a issue keep the cfl's

 

Hps man all the way, i went with cfl my first three grows fourth got a hps 150wat from hydrofarm for 70, basically doubled my yield man

 

HPS gives off more lumens so I'd go with that and use cfls as side lighting.

 

900watts lol

 

it fully depends on how many watts your cfls are. calculating the actual watts used by cfls or small hps there is not much difference in the output if you use the correct amount of space for the lights used

if you have 900watts of CFL this will give you a fuck load more bud than a 150w hps

with 900watts of CFL you should really have about 9 square foot to make the best of the watts consumed. a 150w hps isn't going to cover much more than 1 square foot as the spread will be so small from the one bulb, but you will be able to grow the plants taller and still make use of available light

but dude, if your using 900watts why don't you just buy a 400 or 600w hps, save yourself some electricity cost and get much more bud at the same time. a 400 or 600 hps will cover the same amount of space (about 9 square feet) and you will only have one bulb to adjust, and you won't have to do anywhere near the amount of training that you have to with CFLs

 

Are you talking about 900 actual watts or 900 incandescent equivalent watts? I'm guessing its the latter as 9 100w cfl probably would have cost you over $400 and you would have considered hps a lot sooner.

Cfl's work well, but they don't penetrate nearly as well. Their lumens fall off very quickly if they are more than a foot away from the bud sites.

 

forget "equivalent watts". that just compares them to incandescents, which are not suitable for growing plants so the figure is irrelevant.

so at a guess I'd say each of those 9 bulbs are about 25 watts each. so about 225 for the lot. if used correctly that will give you as much bud as a 150w hps but the grow box will be differently shaped. taller and narrower for the hps and wider and shorter for the CFLs.

for personal preference I would go with the hps as it just one bulb and less training

a 400watt digital dimmable ballast only costs about £70 from UK eBay. man, lights are expensive in your country

 

that sounds like a bargain. if you bought that and felt it wasn't dishing out as much light as it should then buying a better quality bulb should fix that. however, the difference in bulb quality is pretty dam minimal. as far as ballast quality when it's dimmable and digital I don't know how you would tell any difference. the reflector quality can vary a lot but non of this would make anywhere near the difference that bumping up to a 400w would make

 

When it comes down to 150hps vs CFLs, I would say CFLs. Ive rand my 150 a few times and You can get the same amount, if not more light with CFLs and less heat.

 

I run a 600 watt Apollo set up from Amazon. It was cheap, and is actually quality. I really like the hood, and ballast. Dimmable, and the hood is very high quality. Just doesn't have a "brand" name on the side. Go for a 400 watt. Just save up a bit more. You will be pleased in the long run. Next thing you know you will want a 1000 watt. Lol.