My Grow Light questions CFL vs. HPS...

Hey guys,

This is my first grow, and I have a lighting question for my future grows. Here's a little background.

I'm 4 1/2 weeks into flower and my buds are looking pretty good. I say pretty good because in comparing my CFL based bloom against others HPS blooms, mine seems too be lacking overall size.

I knew this would happen and it's not big, big deal. I grow in a tent 4ft long X 2ft wide X 5ft high. I have over 500 watts of CFL in the tent and I do mean the big CFLs the 400Watt equivalent bulbs. They use 105 watts of electricity each. The 2 plants I have growing are rather large, by the way.

Now the bulbs give off heat. I should say the ballasts connected to the bulbs vent hot air. Being my first grow...I was naive and didn't think they would heat up at all...duh...

Get ready... Silly Questions:

If I were to purchase a 400 watt HPS with a vent-able hood, could I ever place a 250 watt HPS bulb into it and expect to use only 250 watts of electricity? See what I'm saying? Could I save a little money and electricity by placing a 250 watt bulb into it?

One more thing With the 500 watts of CFL lighting I'm currently using, If I purchase a 400 watt HPS will it result in money saved due to less watts used in my next grow?

I just want to be safe with the amount of electricity I'm using. That's the main thing. My electric bill, growing hydroponically, only seems to increase $10.00 - $15.00 a month max. A small price to pay for heaven...

Thanks for your Help...

P

HPS is the way to go... trust me, use the cfls as side lighting for your plants so you get the best of both worlds.

If you buy a 400w hps with ballast you will not be able to run a 250w bulb in it - the bulbs must be matched with the ballasts - very important.

At the end of the day its all about lumens... a 250w hps can give out about 30,000 lumens and i have 2 additional red spectrum cfls which give out 20,000 each - you need high lumen output for decent results.

Good luck

The more lumens you can give your plant the more bud your plant will give you, and a lot more potent too. Use a mixture of both and you will love the results you get, trust me.