8 bulb or 12 bulb CFL grow Cabinet?

I am in the middle of planning out my grow cabinet and need some advice from all you seasoned veterans out there.

The cabinet will be 35"x 20"x 48. I am trying to figure out if I should have a 8 or 12 bulb setup.

*both setups are shown in a mock up in the picture above*

The total expense for the 8 bulb setup is would be $185.

Twin Plug Adapter - 6 - $18
Clamp Light - 2 - $20
8 - 6500K CFL's $107
8 - 2700K CFL 's $40

total --------------------------$185

The total expense for the 12 bulb setup is would be $266.

Twin Plug Adapter - 6 - $18
Clamp Light - 6 - $60
12 - 6500K CFL's $139
12 - 2700K CFL 's $49

Total --------------------------$266

Is it worth the extra money to have the 12 bulb setup.

The space that I am working with is pretty defined so my cabinet dimensions are essentially set in stone. I am going with CFL's because of the typical reasons ventilation will be limited but available and any HPS setup would be far too much heat for the area.

So what do you think, 8 or 12 bulb CFL setup up?

Thanks for taking a look! Would love to hear everyone's opinion.

great setup and i love the plans...but where are you getting your cfl's...thats an awful high price for cfls...ive got about 15 cfl's and dont have half of that invested into my setup.for the heat that many cfls is going to put off...and trust me they do get hot...might as well get an hps for flower and use half of that amount of cfls during veg.but i would personally go with 12 smaller cfls surrounding the plant then 8 large cfls

12, cause with the extra clamp lights you have more flexibility as far as adjusting lights. You have more options to raise and lower the lights, allowing for you to keep the maximum amount of light as close to growth as possible...not to mention with CFL's more light is always better, I have 18(16 x 23w, 2 x 42w) in my flowering cab over 3 plants currently.

P.S.-I have probably close to 100-130 bucks invested in the flowering cab, what wattage CFL's are you buying? 6500k 26w CFL's at Wallyworld for 8 bucks a pair!

so, how many watts of cfls?

and you are going by experience about the hps heat?

cause its usually hps virgins that talk of that or someone living in high heat temps to begin with.

i actually find hps easier to cool (more light, less watts to cool and the ballast is remoteable)

i'd go with the design on the right. and i'd try to incorporate some sort of reflector

Why you posting duplicate threads, dude?

Sorry about the double post, if a mod would like to delete this one or the other I would be more than happy to see if go away to clean up the space.

djruiner said:

great setup and i love the plans...but where are you getting your cfl's...thats an awful high price for cfls...ive got about 15 cfl's and dont have half of that invested into my setup.for the heat that many cfls is going to put off...and trust me they do get hot...might as well get an hps for flower and use half of that amount of cfls during veg.but i would personally go with 12 smaller cfls surrounding the plant then 8 large cfls

Click to expand...

I have been looking at 1000bulbs.com for my CFL's. I have been looking at the 42 Watters for everything, for veg and flowering.

So you would go smaller 23 watters for veg and then switch to 42s when inducing flowering?