Thanks for the replies, defiently some food for thought. Yeah I was thinking I would need a ballast for those VHO T12's, thanks for mentioning that.

So with CFL's, it seems the higher Wattage you use, the lower your watt to lumen ratio gets.

26W CFL = 2400 lumens = 94.4 ratio

65W CFL = 300W output 3900 lumens = 60lumens per watt (at lowes)
Plus, these guys are 17-19$ a pop

So as I mentioned, I was doing a closet grow, with 3-4 ladies in a line, making the 48" tubes seem most appealing. Check these VHO T12's
Sylvania 25249 F48T12/CW/VHO/LT
115W 7500 lumens for a ratio of 65lumens to watt. These are 32$ a pop, not quite out of my price range but getting close (haha). 15k lumens (overkill?) Having a lot of trouble finding a ballast with a r17d base? Would I need to find the sockets that adapt the ends to a more common base?

"Look into what physical temperature they get their maximum efficiency at"
How would I find this out? Is the kelvin temp a factor?

I'm thinking to cover about 48" with CFL's, you would need 4 of them(and with them spread apart over 4ft, each plant is getting maybe 3900lumens x2 at the most, which seems plenty), pretty much 1 per plant, with the cost getting towards 80$, pretty much what those bulbs would cost (not counting the ballast of course). Cant find a ballast for comparison of price

Sorry for the long post, but the feedback is greatly appreciated, and I'm trying to be as prepared as I can before I start