CFL vs. HPS

I'm currently planning my grow, which will be in an attic. It's not my house so I can't exactly start drilling holes everywhere, but I think regardless it's a little drafty so it may ventilate itself! Haha. There is a window which I could use though.

But my question is: CFL bulbs REALLY are attractive because of how low their watt usage is - but can you really go the whole grow with CFL bulbs? I would like some tips on this, as well as the pros and cons. If an HPS is just simply better, then I'll spend the $200.

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Originally Posted by Backpacker420

can you really go the whole grow with CFL bulbs?

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Yes.

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I would like some tips on this, as well as the pros and cons. If an HPS is just simply better, then I'll spend the $200.

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But you'll be happier with the results if you use HPS.
It depends on what's important to you.
Lower cost and profile (CFL), or higher yield and quality (HID).

Is the difference significant?

Which is 'easier'?

I believe in the HPS over CFL's by about 300%. I started out using CFL's exclusively, In time I learned that not only do HPS have better Lumen per Watt which means less heat per watt, They also have a much higher PAR which is a measure of how much light is actually used by the chlorophyll. PAR stands for Photosynthetic Active Radiation. Science talk for "plants only use red and blue not green".
A CFL bulb is coated with 3(usually) coats of phosphor, 1-red 1-green 1-blue to make white. They use different exact color phosphor depending on the desired kelvin(color temp) output. But even though it sounds great, in actual spectrum terms it sucks.
The HPS on the other hand uses actual spark. This "Spark" more closely simulates the spectrum of the sun. The sun gives off all light colors intensely(instead of just 3 for CFL),
This leads to More PAR.
Just look up all the terms that I've used and you'll understand completely.
CFL's are a waste of money, electricity and time.
HPS = More PAR per watt/less heat per watt

How much will my bill go up with HPS, like $15-20 a month or something?

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Originally Posted by Backpacker420

Is the difference significant?

Which is 'easier'?

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Yes. The difference is quite significant, but many people grow happily using CFL's.

Once they are set up, there is no difference in how easy or difficult they are. The timer turns them on, the timer turns them off. The difference is in how much heat they generate, and therefore how much temperature control you will need.
How much your bill goes up depends on a lot of things, and probably can't be accurately answered here without a lot more info.

It costs no more and no less. 70W HPS is = to 70W (3*23W)CFL in Cost.
It yields more per watt though if that answers your Q.
The thing with CFL's is, walking into home depot and walking out with CFL's SEEMs less conspicuous. But if you really think about it, Walking out with 1 HPS every 6 months is much less so.
The only REAL hard part about the HPS is getting your fixtures above say 150W. The 150 is about as big as it gets in HD or Lowes. They carry the bulbs for larger lamps but not the fixtures.
I ordered mine online taking a HUGE risk. Don't order EB@Y what ever you do. I chose Am@zon, but I won't be able to tell you if they decide to bust down my door for a suspicious purchase(it has happened to people before ie. eb@yers).
I got it delivered to my address right before I moved, I also used the anonymous prepaid creditcard.

Wow. Ordering from eBay is really that bad? What if I buy from someone like High Tech Garden supply?

I cant tell you any what ifs.. I can only tell you that I have read enough articles about these busts going down.
During "discovery" you eventually find out who originally started the ball rolling, In these cases it turns out the ebay/paypal team are hard at work reporting suspicious activity. They probably get some type of cash "reward". Without rats this country would have no convictions.
I'm not against reporting crime, just against the punishment.
IF you order from ebay, be careful where you ship and what account you use.

I've always had good luck with eBay, except that once when a guy said something was new, and it obviously wasn't. Negative feedback for you dickweed. Just make sure they ship discretely if that kind of thing is important to you. Some do not. I just hate it when my package gets delivered to my parent's house and the label says it's from "Cannabis and Drug Related Supply International"? I much much much prefer to go to a real store though. There are many things as or more important than price.

CFL's are wonderful, and according to the numbers they're just slightly less efficient than HID. I've seen many wonderful grows that used only fluorescent light. You just have to remember the correct colors for the stages of growth, and preferably have a mix. Plants like a spectrum. Sorry Zcomp. We usually see eye to eye, but I got to disagree about the green light thing. I realize I'm in the minority here, and I used to believe as you, but I've done a lot of reading lately about actual plant physiology rather than what stoners are saying. There is a reason for every color of the visible and invisible spectrum. Not all 16 billion or whatever, but they all work together like individuals in an ant farm or bee hive. Get rid of the ants that carry out a certain function, and the whole colony dies or at least suffers some. Green light has more uses than to bounce off plants.

Sorry, got a little off track. You can use anything to veg, but incandescents don't do so hot. Believe it or not they do pretty well at budding though, you just have to have even more shitloads of them than you do with CFL's, and that kind of set up gets real hot. What's important is when you start to bud. Then the light is critical. You'll either want as many reddish fluorescents as you can stand to buy (mixed with a little blue), or HPS, preferably mixed with less MH or a little blue fluoro. At this point there is no comparison to HPS for making the bag appeal; those deep and wide, dense, dripping, sugar frosted corn cobs. That is except perhaps for that new one you can't use yet, xenon or something? Bright as the sun or so?

One huge consideration many people seem to overlook until it's too late, is the fact that HID lighting gets hot. I always say that with HID you should plan on spending as much money on venting as you do on lighting. If you don't, make sure you don't put your ducts behind a wall like I did, cause they'll be coming back out. In my opinion this is the main advantage of fluorescent lighting, and it's a big one. Just throw a fan or two into the grow area and your venting issues are covered.

So you see, I hope, that both ways have advantages and suckinesses. Just depends on your budget, time, desires, space, etc.