Originally Posted by Dubstepsoldier

So I am doing all the math for my CFL setup, trying to find the most lumens at the best wattage and price. I found the most cost effective to be 96watt CFL's which produce 8600 lumen at 5000k and under, and 8100 lumen at 6700k. would The K on these are not the best for veg...try to find something (6500k) for a vegging and a better blend of usuable spectrum and keep the 2700k for flowering For roughly 5 sq. feet of grow space I was thinking about going with two 96 watt and two 28 watt (each 2100 lumen) giving me a grand total of 20,900 lm for 248 watts. a bare minimum of 3000l for flower, but 5000 to 7000l per ft2 is superior, you are in OK shape but could add more to get up to that 5000l per ft2 threshold
I have noticed that most people doing CFL have 6 to 10 lights between 30-45 watts each. Is there an advantage to having more lights at a lower wattage than having only a couple at a high wattage? Where I live a 36w CFL cost $20 while the 96w cost $34. In genral whatever the manufacutures claim, larger CFL's produce more lumen and less heat per watt The added bonus with the 96 watt is that when I change the spectrum for flowering I will only have to buy 1 or 2 bulbs instead of 6 or 8 new ones all over again.
The only thing that I can think of is that with more bulbs you can spread the light better. However, the 96 watt lights are 2 pronged long, skinny guys, so If they sit horizontal the light should spread out fine.
Will I have heat issue with higher watt lights? again smaller CFL's produce more heat per watt than larger in general

And lastly, is there and advantage to the coil lights versus the 2 (or 4) pronged lights? I hope all of this is coherent! Thank you!!