Will CFL COST MORE in the long run?

I've been hearing that CFLs will end up costing more for replacing bulbs and that they don't give enough heat. But I've seen the buds on this board and I think they are wrong about the heat.

But how many grows will I be able to do if I order 1 200Watt CFL 5000K, 1 200Watt CFL 2700K, and I have a reflective hood and LOTS of reflection in my box.

Will this method be worth it?

Please Someone Help! I need to know before I order!!

then way a see it, hps and mh lights are better buys for your money and more powerful. the only advantage to using cfls is they can be placed literally right on the plant. it will be more expensive to replace the cfls. and they wont save much energy either, because youl likely end up running the same amount of watts with either. the hps and mh lights also give you alot more lumens per watt, so id say mh hps is the way to go.

running watts on a cfl are lower than light output ^ so the math your going does not add up

o no it adds up perfectly when you consider the lumen output.

i use 300w 2700k cfls and i dont think they use as much power as a 300w hps or mh or maybe im not understanding what you mean

lol yes but was is a 300w light or a 300w equivalent? big difference. my point is simple, 400w of cfl light and 400w of hps light cost the same, it is 400w either way. but the 400w hps light is pushing alot more light then that of 400w cfl

I don't need anything close to 400W I'm only guna do 2 plants.

it was an example. get a 250 or a 150 if you want samller.

The other thing though is that I have to get a ballast. How much more does that make it?

Also, I've got a cardboard grow box in my closet. is it guna get too hot in there with HPS?

yes equvalent to but not drawing the same power your 400 hps/mh is costing more to run than a 400w cfl am i correct or not

how is it not drawing the same power? 400w is 400w.

Lights use power based on KiloWatt Hours.

A Watt of power is a watt of power. simple as that.

cfls are usually marked as a lower watt because of the lower amount they use but it equivalents to a higher luminous output

EX. people use 13w cfls in normal lighted rooms.....They are 60watt equivalents and put out 900 lumens

Also, I figured out what I'm using.

6 42Watt CFLs for 2 plants in 3 square feet of space.
I'm using soft white 2700K for Budding and Full Spec 6500K for vegging.

I've seen good results in the CFL forums and I just can't use a HID where I am.

Thanks for your help

Cfls are cheaper, but u lose the money you save with the complete hassle they are. i have growin with cfls before. i sold them all to buy a MH, it works 100X better. the growth is so slow with cfls while flowering. so if you add on that extra time it might be cheaper to just go ahead and spend the $200 bucks on a 4oow light.

Oh to the contrary, it all depends on the setup that you're going for. Most people use CFLs cause they do save money and you can some decent yields if you do you do diligence. Im using 9 CFLs in my setup and getting close to 20000 lumens and with that and everything I use around my house on a daily basis, my power bill stays around the 50-70 range a month. So thas not too bad, but yea HIDs are good if you can do that why not I'd do it too. But CFLs are in no way going to cost the same as using 300 watts of CFL to 300 watts of HID. Were all here to grow our own different ways so with that said here's what I have to back what I said...

1st Pic...Is the top half of the 2nd pic with the 4 42 watt CFLs 4 23 watt CFLs and 1 26 Daylight CFL. It has a 5 inch fan pulling the heat from the lights and a computer fan on the side that you cant see blowing air across them to keep the heat down. And in my avatar I have another 5 inch fan moving air around inside.

2nd Pic...Whole Rubbermaid setup in its glory

im only veggin with cfls. im using 16. 6 23w 6500k, and 10 14w 5500k bulbs on homemade hoods. but i think they are working great. there are some good pics of my setup im my gorw. good luck with your project.

yo man i did my hw too, i grew with cfls for a while. time = money cfls take alot of upkeep.
keeping plants away from lights or always having to move the lights them selves. also the growth is a lot slower in flowering with the cfls. which mean you need to use more electricity because the grow takes longer.

just invest up front....

Well im sorry to hear about your woes with CFLs tryingtogrow, if I could do some HID i would but like surf88 he cant do it either. But electricity wise, I have the proof to back that CFLs dont use the same amount of electricity as an HID and its less heat. Your girls look good though tryingtogrow.

Oh and I've been using the same CFLs since Jan., havent broken one or anything yet lucky me i suppose...