250w Floralux or 400w system?

Hey guys. I'm doing my first grow right now with cfls and I hate it. I'm tired of moving the lights around everyday. I swear I move them every single day cause my babies are moving up fast. I decided I'm going to go ahead and get some better light. I saw that HTG had a Floralux 250 watt HPS/MH system for $229. But today when I went to their site they had a 400w hps/Mh system for $165. Now I like the price of that one. My question to you guys, would the 400w system be overkill for a 3'x2' grow space? I'm only looking to do 2-3 plants at a time. Also the 250w system appeals to me because of the lower wattage and less on my electric bill. I saw a couple threads where people played out costs on 400w systems. I wanna say the guy said on average it would cost like .25 to run a 400 watt hps a day for 18 hours. Maybe I'm wrong. Well sorry for blabbing on. I can't wait to order but I just wanted to get some advice from the good people on this board. Thanks

Read through some of the older threads here in indoor lighting.

Lots of problems with HGT stuff. Especially digital ballasts and bulbs. Good Luck.

Here's just one...http://boards.cannabis.com/closet-ca...-out-alot.html

I'm with Dutch Pimp...I've heard lousy things about digital ballasts. I've never used one, but I've read in several places that there have been problems. My guess is they'll have it figured out in a couple of years...but, still, it's a concern. Like I said, I've never used one...I'd check around this site and google about potential problems.

The electric bill difference between a 250w and a 400w lights won't be huge...but you'll need more ventilation and fans. That will add to both energy and potential stress. A 400w is, to an extent, overkill in a 6 sq. ft. area. But that area is stretching what you can cover with a 250s...if you use the whole area. You say you're only going to grow 2-3 plants? Unless they are seriously huge, you won't use more than 4 or 5 sq. ft. If you go 24â?� x 30â?�, a 250w is fine for that. That's more or less my grow space, and I can get four medium sized plants into it.

Btw...you'll still be moving your lights pretty often, at least for a few weeks. The difference between a plant being comfortable and getting some heat stress is pretty small with HPS lights.

About the electric bill: say you have a total of 20 incandescent light bulbs in your normal lamps and such in your home. Let's say they are 60 watt. If you switch 10 incandescent to 10 13 watt CFLs, thats about, what, 450 watts saved on those 10 bulbs? Of course, granted, you probably don't run those lights like you will your grow lights. OK so... my point. You should save enough on your energy bill from switching to CFLs that it should almost cancel out the cost of running your new lights. See, CFLs are good for more than growing.

Well, yeah...but that's more of a general lighting issue. CFLs are much more efficient than incandescents. If you have 6 100 watt incandescent bulbs that you use 3 hours a day, and you replace them with 26 watt CFLs, you're going to save around $3.60 a month (at .09 a kwh). That's nice. CFLs are definitely good for more than growing.

But, really, that's not the issue here. HPS are always going to be more efficient than CFLs, too; sometimes much more so. No matter what, you're going to use more energy using CFLs as grow lights than you will using HPS or MH lights that produce the same amount of lumens. I think you're suggesting that you can make up the amount of energy you use on grow lights by switching over form incandescents to CFLs. Maybe. But you'd save even more by using HPS rather than CFLs.

For instance, in a 2' x 3' grow space, you'd want around 30,000 lumens. There's a 270w Growlux bulb that works in a 250w ballast that puts out 29,000 lumens. That's very close to 5,000 lumens a square foot, enough for a good grow. To get 29,000 lumens out of CFLs bulbs, you'll need over 400 watts..more like 425, in fact. So if you're really concerned with energy savings, switch the incandescent bulbs in your house to CFL, and use HPS for your grow.

Btw...quick and dirty estimate. 250W going 24/0 in veg = 180 kwh in a 30 day month. (250 x 24 hours x 30 days/1000.) At .09 a kwh, that's about $16 a month.