Lightening.....Which is best for what

Now I presume that this answer depends on what you are planning.
Im looking to devote some space for cloning.
My first baby girls arrived somewhat ahead of schedule and I placed them under a normal fluorescent light with twin tubes.
I had some reasonable success as in I Kept them alive.
I know there are many different lighting options available.
If one of you guys or many of you could help me out by explaining the differences.

An Thanks

CFLs are fine if you can use the heat (in a cold environment?). If heat is a problem, replace them with the Cree LED A19, A21 or Par38 floods at Home Depot. (Not the plastic "4Flow" model, but the heavy ones with cooling fins near the base, glass globe. The globe has a rubber coating. Dig you fingernail into it and rub your finger over the scratch to roll the rubber up like contact cement. This increases the light by 10%. The Par38 doesn't have rubber coating.).

az2000 said:

CFLs are fine if you can use the heat (in a cold environment?). If heat is a problem, replace them with the Cree LED A19, A21 or Par38 floods at Home Depot. (Not the plastic "4Flow" model, but the heavy ones with cooling fins near the base, glass globe. The globe has a rubber coating. Dig you fingernail into it and rub your finger over the scratch to roll the rubber up like contact cement. This increases the light by 10%. The Par38 doesn't have rubber coating.).

Click to expand...

What's your opinion on the GE Bright Stik?
http://www.cnet.com/products/ge-bright-stik-led-3-pack/

Looks like 76 lumens/watt. That's not much better than CFL. The Cree LED lightbulbs/PAR38s are in the 95 L/w range with the rubber coating removed.

There is a teardown here. If you removed the transluscent cover it might be reasonably efficient, but a possible electrocution hazard.

I don't know which diodes it uses. The teardown says SMD. But, I don't know if that's 5630. You can get strip lighting which runs 12v and make your own small "panels" which would be even more efficient than the Cree lightbulbs. SMD5630 strips are supposed to be about 110 L/w. You can mix cool, warm and red and blue to get specific color balances for veg and flower.

If I just wanted a bulb replacement for CFL, I would do Cree. If I wanted to do something more creative, the SMD strips sound interesting. I'd like to do that, but I'm heavily invested in the bulbs.

Here are some threads about SMD5630 strips:

EDIT: Also a thread about high-output strips

You can also buy "corncob" bulbs containing 5630 diodes. Google for it sold as GetinCoin or BuyBay (on AliExpress). The only downside with those is that they don't use the advertised watts. They only use about 3-5w. So, for a large plant you'd be stringing quite a few bulbs. But, they run very cool and you can get them into the plant with less risk of burn (especially the smallest 9w version, which really uses about 3w.). For the price, it doesn't hurt to look at those. They'd definitely be good for a seedling (when heat is unwanted).