Which would be better?

CFLs will put more lumens in a smaller area

 

lol....


HPS are generally the best you can get for growing. However, they arent IDEAL for vegging, but work just fine. You can use CFLS or fluorescents for veg, or MH.

HPS are however AMAZING for budding and will increase your yield substantially.


With all that being said, many a successful grow is done using only HPS, you will still get alot. It all depends on if you're planning on doing 1 grow at a time start to finish with one light, or if you're planning on having seperate rooms/chambers/boxes for vegging/budding. If you are the latter, then you dont have to buy 2 HPS's, buy one good HPS and some CFLS and you'll be golden.

 

LOL pirate, i wasn't being a smart ass LOL
He says he cant afford a HID at the moment and his question was:
'A compact fluorescent light or Fluorescent light fixture?'
I meant the CFL is compact which will put more lumens in a smaller area compared to a long fluoresent. LOL

 

Depends what tube really. You can get 2 foot flousent that puts out 10,000 lumens. That's alot more then a standard cfl.
To the orignal poster if I where you I would use a combo of both like maybe a longer T5 on top and the smaller CFLs on the sides where the tube does not penatrate. Another suggesion is a lower wattage HPS is pretty imexpensive. Check out htgsupply.com they have many affordable options but remember to budget in ventilation.

 

I think you would be surprised, by the time you buy the fixtures, bulbs, splitters, wiring, you could of just gotten an HPS. Stage building is harder on your wallet. Do it once and do it right

 

If you are worried about cost.. go to econolight and get you a 150 watt hps for like 50.00 bucks. any monkey could rewire one....http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HC1H151Z

The supplement them with some cfl's clip on shop lights will do nicely...