Which is better, fewer lights of higher wattage, or more lights of lower wattage?

I have an old 4 light bathroom fixture I am going to re-wire with plug in for my CFL light bar. The space I am growing in is small 26x19 roughly. I was thinking about using 4 42 W CFLs. Then I thought that with 8 26 Watt CFLs on spliters I would get greater coverage of the growing area without sacrificing lumens, and I could get a better cool/warm mixture for veg and grow.
Am I correct in my thinking?

The 42W do put off a fair amount of heat, especially in an enclosed space. And you are correct that in a good CFL grow you want light all around the plant. So my vote is 8 23W CFL's. When you purchase them, ideally for veg you'd want 6 6500K's and 2 2700K's; and for flower you'll want 2 6500K's and 6 2700K's.