I know how you feel, i also DONT buy online, i cant trust anyone.

And now, Low Pressure Sodium... Something i haddnt heard ANYONE talk about untill very recently.

I saw a chart, and the lumen output of a LPS is higher than a HPS.

It went:

Flous
MH
HPS
LPS

LPS being the highest lumen output. With 250 watts you should get some very nice buds, and its certainly beter than using CFL's, although high wattage CFL's in the right spectrum can be VERY good too, but nothing can match HPS/LPS.