Light Question Small + Cheap

I have very very little room for various reasons to grow in. Ive recently seen cfl's being used with success so I check out the local market around where I'm at and find the 23W 2700K flowering lights only . Ive got a room for a box about the dimensions of 38'' tall by 24''X12'' and I think I'll try to train a plant 1 or 2 in this box around and around with string. My main question is : I see people in this forum say .......# of luminous per square foot, and I'm a bit confused. It seems to me it would be cubic feet not square feet. Is the measurement placed on the lights pattern on its final serfice or the volume of space it occupies. My thought is that 10-12 1600 luminous 2700K 23W lights should fill be sufficient for this space and 2 plants of witch 1 maybe male and get cut any way.
I've been addicted to watching things grow since the first time it came to pass for me and cant afford to go all out. Living with what I can get is a requisite and a small highly reflective box is it.

i think t5's would be better. just saying.
if your going to go cfl, i would use nothing smaller than a 43w lamp

Like I said .... I got to work with what I can. Seems its on the lucky side to me that I can at least get the flowering lights. If i only could get the veg lights I'd rely be a one legged man in the ass kicking contest. however the square feet vs cubic feet still evades me...

go with t5 lighting cfl are shit who ever uses cfl has no idea they produce shit weak plants ! go for t5 personally i bring my clones up with 600 watt MH then straight too 600watt HPS perfect srong plants everytime

my question is about square feet vs cubic feet not type of lighting . I cannot help ,but only use what I can afford/get my hands on and expect only a result. If I had 300 bucks to throw at it ... I would .

The reason people use lumens per square foot - is because thats how lumens are measured. 1 lumen is the amount of light that 1 candle puts out and hits a surface of 1 square foot exactly 12 inches from the candle.

So, I understand what you are saying, but lumens just ain't measured in cubic feet.

You really need 6500k or 5000k bulbs for the veg stage. Save the 2700k - 3200k bulbs for flowering. You should be able to get 6500k bulbs at the local lowes or home depot or wally world. They are very common and not expensive.

Some people have reported stunted growth and even failed grows using 2700k for vegging. Just sayin' ...

If you want to go batshit crazy, you can find 42w and even 85w CFL's at Amazon dot com in the correct color spectrums. Light up your little cabinet with 4 or 5 of those 85w babies and you'll probably end up with some really nice smoke.

TY for the lumen info. So I should measure the amount of square feet (walls,roof,floor) and that is the amount of square feet my light must cover. And I'll see about other types of cfl lights.