Lights ~ HID (MH or HPS) or cfl’s or T-5’s etc....
I've just finished my grow box,its 4"hx3'wx4'L,made mostly out of osb board
using a 3 zone media(hydroton bottom 3rd,rockwool middle 3rd,soil/perm/verm mix top 3rd).using gh floranova hydro-organic for nutes.
need to buy my lights,will 2x250W cfl's be sufficient(with 2x43w to supplement),almost 600W right there.live in an apartment and am concerned about heat,so i was thinking cfl,but will they produce buds?i mean big,stinky,juicy,mind-blowing buds?

I copied this from an old post of mine
I am flowering under the stairs in my place in a 2.5'x5'x 4'tall box. Due to height restrictions I am using a 4 bulb 4' t5 for top lighting and the same fixture on the back wall. I also am using 4 23w cfls around the bottoms of the plants for a total of around 500w. I am also using 42 and 23w cfls in a veg box. I am currently using bag seed while i figure things out. One more group of plants to flower and then i will take my reccomendation to the club and obtain the genetics i really want I have had some issues with the first set of plants mainly because i am a nooob, but also because they were in mystery soil with no perlite in 5 gallon pots and pretty much too tall for my space before they even started fowering.

Flourescent lights put out as much heat watt for watt as hid lights they just distribute it better. They also put out less lumens per watt(65-90 vs. 110-150) In a sealed box the heat must still be exhausted with a quality exhaust system. My lights seem to produce reasonably dense buds, but I have lots of light within an inch or two of my plants.

23w cfls get hot to the touch, but can be placed within an inch or so of your leaves. The 42w bulbs get much hotter and will burn your plants if placed too close. I have no experience with the larger cfl's but expect they would get even hotter. I paid about 12 dollars a bulb for the 42's and just got a 4 pack of 23's sponsored by so cal edison at the hardware store for 2.98. you do the math. I also think its better to put (2) 23's really close to your plant than worry about cooking leaves with a 42, so I am slowly phasing out my 42's

CFLs are cheap, easy to find, easy to move around, easy to swap, ... They are great for the beginner/ micro guy because of this. I have ende up using them as supplemental lighting. I wanted the even light distribution of a t5 and they also fit my space great. My main light source 400w comes from two t5 fixtures. These were not cheap(300$+ together), and they are not real easy to find in my little town. I have seen people build their own t5 fixtures for much cheaper, but the 4 bulb units just seemed so slick.

Flourescents lack the ability to remote ballast, unless you are electrically inclined, and dont really have a cool tube option. This makes it more difficult to control humidity and co2 because you must be constantly venting the whole grow area. If I had no height restricions I would probably be using a 400-600 hid switchable remote ballast with a cool tube, but have been happy with my results with fluro.

Ohh yeah I veg under 6500k and flower under 2300k with a little bit of 6500k. This advice is worth what you paid for it
Also check out this thread t5 vs cfl's

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My six plants are 100% legal. Thanks prop 215

you think cfl or hid?

Your best bet for big sticky buds woud probably be a 400w hps in a cool tube housing, but you still wont be able to put it right on the plants. Not sure but you will probably still need to keep it 6" of the plants and the light and housing will take up about 6" and your final pots are probably at least 10"-12" tall which leaves you only 2' to actually grow in. Not really ideal unless you are doing a sea of green. SCROG- Screen of Green which will give you the largest harvest for your area. you can get a bunch of 23w cfls (the cheap way) or some t5 fixtures(not so cheap) the t5 bulbs are 4' and 2'. the 4 ft fixtures work well for flowering, but are about 4.5' long so might not fit in your box. I am using t5's on top and a t5 on the wall and some cfls for supplemental lighting. The high wattage cfl bulbs are a waste of money imho. They put out just as much heat as the hid, but without the lumens or penetration. Check out some of the grow journals on here to get some ideas

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My six plants are 100% legal. Thanks prop 215