I can get them both for around the same price so what I'm asking is which is better for the plants and for my electric bill! I do NOT want a battle of the lights going on I'm just asking for your opinion!
I vote 150w hps. I was on my first grow using cfls only for a month. Short story, I spent a lot of time adjusting lights for best proximity to plants. Once I fired up the 150w hps and used 2 85w cfls for side lighting, life got a whole lot easier.
Me myself.. having grown under both CL and HID in low light and small environments..
I'd go with the 250 of CFL .. 150 HID isn't a very big footprint.. I could fit more plant and yield more with the CFL.... long as I kept em short and spread out.. I can do 24x24 with about 250 CFL.. close enough to get some coverage as long as they are short and trained.. With 150 watt HID.. I am trying to convincingly get 10 solid true coverage inches up as close 4-6 inches away... LOW light HID are not that efficient.
By 250 of CFL. I mean a few 42 watt, maybe 1 65 dead center, and some lower watt down on the side or each corner.. Not a single 250 watt CFL.. I've never done a big bulb like that, but If I did I am certain it would be up top, with many other smaller bulbs embellishing light along the way.. A 'single' 250 watt CFL vs a 150 HID? Why.. why not go more diverse.. spread that low light out more effectively.
I say go with CFL all the way. I haven't grown with an HID before, but CFLs contain more usable light than an HID due to the fact you can place it closer to the foliage. Which leads to another reason; less heat.
Less heat = more efficiency and even lower power bills; not to mention happier plants and tighter buds (theoretically) because you can keep the lights close. At the distance you'd have to keep the HID, you've already lost more lumens than the CFL light is providing.
I've run cfl's with decent results, then tried T5's. The t5s did a lot better, higher yield denser buds.
I then went to 600hid, and it blows both the t5 and cfls away. A lot more yield, and hard dense buds.
If you run an air-cooled hood, you can drop tye 600 right on top of them.