Lumens are not an issue in my system. it has more lumens than hps. lumens are measured at one foot below the source. my fixture is 1/2 inch from the plants. with 40000 initial lmens at one foot how many do i have at 1 inch. At least 16 times more i think out of my head. look at it like this. you have to much lumen loss over distance with hps.
that goes for all light eevry foot away from the light will lose 1/2 the light, when shining a 1000w - 140000+ lumns at 2 feet its still putting down 35,000 lumens + its over a larger area if you stick the 1000w in a cool tube and get it down to a foot above the plants and your giving your plants 70,000 lumens CFLs cant put out no ware near the amount of light an HPS light can. watt for watt CFL give off more heat than HPS you put 5 x 200 CFLs in a small set up and put a 1000W in the same set up the 5x200watt CFL room will be hotter although you can get the lights closer to the plant the heat from 5x200watt CFL is higher than a single 1000w bulb. for the home grower the most efficant light watts of power to light is the HPS
Incandescent aprox 20 - 24 lumens per watt and is the least efficient of all the bulbs.
Halogen aprox 30 - 36 lumens per watt make it more efficient than incandescent bulbs; bright light burns very hot.
Fluorescent (tubular) aprox 60 - 100 lumens per watt, bulb burns cooler; very efficient, comes in different color temperatures.
Compact Fluorescent 60 - 80 lumens per watt
Metal Halide 80 - 125 lumens per watt extremely efficient; give a brilliant light, good color rendering
Mercury Vapor 40 - 63 lumens per watt lowest efficiency of the HID type bulbs; dims rapidly; bad color rendering
High Pressure Sodium 100 - 140 lumens per watt extremely efficient, long lasting produces yellowish light; slowly lose their brightness with time
back to PAR its sales banter most of it. proof is in the growing not what a pice of paper tells you
hps have been used gor growing for a long time they are proven lights that grow lots of bud thats why almost every professional grow room green house use them over any other light they are more efficient at growing plants than any other light
more light for the same power used = more bang for the buck.