I'm going to be making a grow box by bolting two 45 gallon rubbermaid tubs together, and I'm debating on wether to use cfls or hps when it comes time to flower. I don't know too much about hps lights, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some information on using them in a grow box.
sounds like for your situation, i'd go with a cfl setup. they're cheaper--both to buy and run, provide good results for a small grow, and produce less heat.
Yeah that's what I think I'll probably do, it will be a lot easier than hassling with an hps setup. Do you know what stores I could find the warm cfls for flowering? I've looked at a few different hardware stores, but none them sell the warm cfls only the daylight.
you want daylight bulbs for veg, soft white bulbs for flower. Home depot has 4-packs of 26w daylights for $12, 6-packs of soft whites for the same price. $25 for the bulbs, $10 or so for the hardware, $10 for the fan... and you're growing. I threw something together for a bonsai mother I had... cardboard box, fan, cfls... literally cost me nothing since I had it all lying around. there's a wiring tutorial in my first blog for this kind of thing if you're interested. Don't put too much into a cfl grow, they really don't need much and you'll find that you've wasted your money if you invest in activated carbon, duct boosters/pc fans, etc etc. By the time it's all said and done you could've bought a decent light in the first place, and your duct booster/pc fans won't move much air at all with a filter on them, leading to heat issues... I recommend against diving into a fully-equipped cfl grow but if you do... save your receipts. Personally, I'd recommend a 150w hps.