how much light can one get away with minimum?

I am consider a very small 2-4 plant grow. I have ruled out metal hylide and high pressure sodium. I am thinking of flourecents only this time aroung for veg and flowering. My question what is the tru minimum I want to use to produce a decent yield? I have one nice suspendable flourecent fixture that hold two 40 watt T12 type bulbs 80watts total. I was told this was sufficeint for vegging if it's lowered about 4"-6" above seedlings. However I know I will need to addmore for flowering? How much and what would you suggest. Would another identical fixture and 160watts of cool white be sufficent. Or do I need to add other types of bulbs emmiting different color spectrums. Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Those will not be enough to flower, much less get you through veg.

You are correct, you will need a "warmer" spectrum to flower with.

I would recommend a 100watt CFL to veg 2 plants.

To flower, you'll need at least 3 42 watt (actual watt) CFLs per plant.

After considering cost for these lights, you will find gram/dollar ratio is better with a 400watt MH/HPS setup.

Hope this helps.

Excuse my ignorance. But by CFL do you mean compact flourecent light? Are those the commons spirally shaped bulbs you can put in a regular incandecent size socket. Are you saying to use a 100 watt CFL instead of the long flourecent tubes that carry 80 watts with two tubes? What are a source of the cheapest fixtures to get allot of theses bulbs going. How much do you think I'll need to veg and flower with nothing else but flourecents?

Use 3 of those 42 watt CFL "sprial" bulbs....nothing less than that will even produce a "bud" on your plant...keep your "long tubes" as side lighting...and keep lurking in the Grow area.... you will come to realize that ya cant grow an ounce of good ganja with a lighter and a dream.... no disrespect...your intentions are great...but theres a little more to it than that...

Go for a 4 bulb 24" T5 unit. they can support 4 plants in 2g pots easy, put out a ton of light, low heat, and only uses 96w of electricity. They rock.

Spiral bulbs are better than T12's, I'd put them on the same level as T8's but I'd much prefer T5's for flowering over spirals. I flowered a few times using 3x54w compact T5's in the hood and a bunch of T8's as side lighting. 250w HPS produced a bigger yield and was easier to keep cool with an air-cooled hood. I moved the 3x55w compact T5 hood into the veg cab. Does a great job there.

get you a good t5 8-12 bulb and use cfl's and fluros fro side lighting