depends on how many plants your growing but get 6500k daylight cfl's for vegging i usually get the highest wattage i can get so i wud get the 26w cfls(100w equivalent) and you can get some bulb sockets at home depot thats where i got mine
cool,I plan on just doing a couple plants in about 3 ft tall 2 1/2 feet tall
so all those cfls will be good up to flowering and then should i add more than 4-5 lights ?
if your going for cfl get the envirolite it is great you have blue for veg and red for flower i am just starting to use 2x 200w environlights on the sides of my plants to supliment my 400w hps in flowering and it shows a difference straight away and the buds on the bottom are looking a lot firmer
they come in 125w 200w i paid £40 for a blue 200w worth every penny they stay so cool i can keep it round 5 inches away
and i have seen the 125w go for 25 quid
no ballast you just get an e40 fitting for like 8 quid and plugs straight into the wall
At the moment i Cannot afford a HPS or anything like tha im just trying to stick with flouresent,and CFL'S i got some started under 1 cfl light and there doin pretty good byt deff gonna get like 6 more