cfl grow help

I'm going to be using cfls for my growing. Any reccomendation on which watt cfls to use and how many for a 3ftby3ftby4ft space. I found some 65wat 6500k 4,000 lumens cfls. Would four of these be enough with a few smaller 2700k bulbs. Any feed back is appreciate it

Generally, the more you can pack inside, the better. As long as heat doesn't become an issue.

I'm guessing 4ft is the height so that makes a total area of 9 sq feet. I've seen people go with over 20 * 23W Bulbs in a space like that.

Make sure to stay away from larger bulbs, notice how the larger the bulb gets the less efficient it's output is, so stick to 23 - 26 watt bulbs as they give you more lumen per watt.

Generally people that use HID lights put a 400watt bulb to cover a 3 by 3 feet area(which is a bit overkill imo). A 400Watt bulb (Sylvania here for example) puts out around 45 000 lumen. The average 23 Watt high quality make CFL (Think Osram, Philips, etc...) puts out an average of 1600 lumen. So if you want to match a 400 Watt HID in that space you will need 28 * 23 Watt Bulbs.

Now 28 of these babies might create more heat than a 400 watt will, so you either have to tone that number down or seriously think about upgraded ventilation or a heat shield glass panel.

In your case 4 of these will give you 16000 lumen, add 6 more 23 watt and you will have 25600 lumen. Which is good, but not optimal light for an area like that.

Hope this helps.

Yes the info was very help I've been looking for in depth info like that. The area I'm starting the plants in is 16inches by 18inches by 22 inches for the vegitative grow stage then will switch to the 9sq ft space for flowering.I guess I should of added the 16by18by22 space info sorry. So the less light I can get away in the 16by18by22 space I'm not sure if 20 cfls will fit in the little 16by18by22 space I might just go with a 150hps light for the flowering room. Would the 150 be enough for 9 sq ft and I will also add the 65 watt to the grow room. Again thanks for the input.

Just make sure that you get Daylight CFL for veg, I made a mistake and got Cool White initially and those are the most useless lights spectrum wise.
The number and size of the bulbs deeply depends on your setup and how many you can shove. It's recommended to have 7000+ lumen per plant, 2600 lumen per plant being the bare minimum.

the 150 watt will not be big enough to cover nine sq ft you will need at least a 250 watt to cover a 3x3 room and even then you will want to use some 23 watt cfls for supplemental lighting around the sides of your plant
hope this helps

Qazy,and slim thanks for the feed back. I guess 400hps would be the answer for everything but they are out of my pocket range right now. I basically need something to last the first month till I get my tax return and can afford mh and hps. All your comments have been helpful and made it to me and I will put them all to use I will post pic of the spaces so everyone can see the spaces. Thanks again everyone keep the input coming

cfls are great for veg in smaller plants you can keep them very close to your plants and stack the nodes real tight

i use splitters and get 4 bulbs = 100watts over top of plant, i grow 3-4 feet so i have a couple 4ft shop lights with a veg5000k / bud2700k combo to fill in the sides.

100w equivalent per plant

Thanks for the input guys I just want to make sure the plants get enough lumens to grow I'm guessing the smaller and more is better than getting a couple 65 watt or 125 watt cfls.tokin is your plants 3 to 4 feet or is that your grow space. This is my first time I know I will mess up but I've been studying a lot and am trying to get thelighting right with all the cfl bulbs and setups its hard to go in one direction. Thanks for the advice and pointing medown the right path.