Silly newbie question here about CFL light set up

I am trying to figure out some things here about CFL vs the other high end lighting, because of the wattage being used since it will be a fairly small indoor grow area. My question which I haven't found yet searching the net..... is..... say one is using 100watt twist CFLs which are rated at 1600 lumens (each) and 5000 kelin each.... Now lets say your going to run four of these bulbs in a reflector hood of some sort....I am guessing that the kelin would remain at 5000 ( if thats right) but what about the lumens...are they added up for a total of 6400...or no...??????

Kelvin is the color of the light spectrum. As long as all the bulbs are the same you have one kelvin rating. As far as lumens, yes they can be "stacked."

i use 6500 kelvin bulbs for for veg and a mix of 2700k 3200k and 6500k bulbs for flowering seem to be doin just fine i use alot less lumens for veg than flowering btw

what you have will work fine for veg and yeah the lumens stack forgot too add that in there good luck man

Thanks Man. I have no idea what I am doing till this site which everyone has been very helpful... thanks again

Thanks for your help. ....

Yes the lumens stack, but those numbers drop exponentially as the light travels.away from the bulb. So keep em close and as they get tall, consider adding some side lighting to keep the lower plant illuminated.

42w bulbs are most efficient. 2 6500k to 1 2700k for veg and vice versa for flower. 5000k suck compared to 6500k. Don't need any other spectrums as these are best. They have to be within inches of foliage. Pain in the ass to monitor and adjust but they definitely work! Go for 50 ACTUAL watts per square foot. Ignore the lumens and equivocal wattage. Good luck.

as red said, the watt equivalency is just a marketing term and is not useful for your purpose, the actual watts are what matter. and they don't really stack, that's not to say that more watts isn't better, but, more bulbs is going to cover a bigger area more than it will be more intense. as far as comparison to hid lighting... it's really not comparable. cfl are cheap and work. its good for small spaces and low budget grows, also alot of ppl use for veg and for clones. hid are more expensive in general but produce much more intense light (also a lot more density and yield). also watt for watt hid are more efficient. hth