Why do people here use smaller multiple CFL's as opposed to one or two big ones?

Same as title: I am curious as to why people use, for examples sake, 6 small CFL's instead of 2 big ones?

i'm not an expert, but by having multiple 42w or more cfls, i'm able to manipulate the lights around the plants, not just over them. thus, the buds in lower leaf levels are still looking good.

You can position 6 small ones around a plant to be more effective than two large ones, small ones give off much less heat, smaller ones have a better lumen/watt ratio... there are many reasons.

i use 1 125w 6400k in my 16"x15"x20" veg box, can fit 4 small plants under it, got 1 plant flowering under it atm.

how about cost vs availabilty ? for myself, the net/ebay is my only option for the larger grow style CFLs where as I can pickup small 23-42 watt bulbs locally for next to nothing.

I've been switching over to 26w from 42w because of cost per lumen. 3.50 for 26w @ 1700 lumens, or 10.00 for a 42w at 2800 lumens.

look at it like this:

$10.00 = 2800 lumens (1x 42 watt)-280 lumen/ $1.00 US
$10.50 = 5100 lumens (3x 26 watt)- 485 lumen/ $1.00 US

Since i move my lights to be within an inch or two of the plants, i can get more light into the the plant, spread out more evenly with smaller bulbs. If i were to just use toplights, i would use the biggest bulbs i could get, or go with HPS.

the smaller ones are so much more cost efficient, lumen to watt efficient, and you can place them around mroe, plus they're lux are better for the power used. i got like 13 26-42 watt cfls on 2 plants and i maneuvre them about like 2-3 times a week to adjust to the GIGANTIC colas forming for me, im just beginning to flush, virgin harvest all thanks to the cheapness of cfls(around here a 3 pack is 6 dollars flat of 2700k 26w 1850 lumen bulbs, whereas a 42w 2800 lumen is 10bucks flat, so i just dont waste my money its just simple economics and math fuck those HUGE CFLs too they are like 200 bucks for 125 watts of it, i spend 12 dollars and get approx 150 watts from 2 3 packs, like its a joke man stick with the smaller power the only problem is extra wiring, but its worth it for the cost and shit man trust me

SenorSanteria said:

You can position 6 small ones around a plant to be more effective than two large ones, small ones give off much less heat, smaller ones have a better lumen/watt ratio... there are many reasons.

Click to expand...

i second this statement ^