Would this work?

I'm trying to help a buddy design a system that works for him. He's the type with a lot of money and no patience or time so the system has to virtually be a KISS ( keep it simple stupid ) type system..

The area is 20"L x 36"W x 96"H

The decision has been made to not use a 400 or 600w HPS or MH because of the heat and I still don't trust LED's to grow anything substantial without hords of them at a very high price. So we began looking into HO flourescents and CFL's. I could make 2 custom reflectors out of oven trays and fit 400w of CFL into them. ( 14" x 20" )

Or we could go with 24" or 36" HO Flourescent tubes. What are the advantages or disadvantages of CFL's vs tubes? Does it matter if CFL's are facing straight down to maximize the amount of lights in an area?

I don't know if anyone's looked into these lights. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170403276602&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=WXF?&GUID=d5d5d6301250a0aad24091b0fa117d33&itemid=170403276602&ff4=263602_263622

I thought it might allow a nice mix. It features a G12 socket type HID Metal Halide and HO Flourescents. The "aquarium" unit comes with 10,000k tubes which could be switched to 2700k and the 250w MH bulb is a G12 type which is also available in both 3000k and 6500k.

What the hell is a G12 type bulb and why is the MH a specific color temp?

REF: MT25083-G12
250w G12 Ceramic Metal Halide 3000K - 250CDMT830 - 208019

Click to expand...

http://www.lampco.co.uk/results.asp?page=3&search=cer

It appears 250w G12/T6 metal halide bulbs provide more then 20,000 lumens and a CRI rating of more then 70. So what do you guys think of this "aquarium hood" being used as a light source for plants?

the CFLs and the fluoro tubes will work, but if you really want to K.I.S.S....

400 watt digital ballast that will work with MH (for veg) and HPS (for flower)
for that matter, you could run the HPS from beginning to end and never have to swap.

In those confined quarters, consider either a cooltube or a cooled hood. The heat will get wicked no matter what lighting system you choose. Keep any ballasts outside of that enclosure.

if you want to use fluorescent your probabley going to need to use the tubes in conjuction with some pretty good sized cfls if you want to grow anything substantial. If he's got the money he'd be better off buyying the MH and using it with some cfls. With the tubes and cfls your only going to need a good sized fan depending on the size of the room. with MH you need a cooling device.

I don't know if explained what we're looking at well. My thoughts were kind of scattered in my original post. I guess what I'm asking is which fixture will provide better performance?

Fixture 1
400w HPS (45,000-55,000 lumens) w/ 6" cool tube
(Total 45,000 - 55,000 lumens @ 400w @ CRI 20+)

Fixture 2
250w MH (20,000 - 24,000 lumens) rated @ specific 3,000k + (2) 24" HO Flourescents tubes (4,000 - 5,000 lumens)
(Total 24,000 - 29,000 lumens @ 300w @ CRI 75+)

Does the "color specific" ability of the tubes and the color specific ability of the G12 metal halide make up for half the lumens? How much harder is it to battle heat of a 400 HPS vs a 250w MH?