Which lights for yield v overall running costs?

I am currently building my own ebb and flow system I have 6 feminized seeds to get me started.

I was going to buy myself a 400w HPS light but with the cost of electricity here in the UK im not to sure if I can get away with a CFL instead.

Any ideas to what would be best guys.


Also looked into buying blue LED boards to cut down on electricity during the veg stage when the lights are on the most. But still unsure if these are any good especially the ones on ebay im looking at.

I only recommend you buy a 600w hps for flowering, 400 wont take care of those 6 fems and CFLS flower shitty

I seen plenty of threads on here where a 400w hps has been sufficient for upto 10-15 plants and with good yields too.

Maybe your setup is flawed

HPS is the most efficient light you can buy that will do the job. People think that CFL is more efficient than HPS, but its not. You get way more lumens/watt with HPS than you do with CFL and less overall heat also. HPS is the way to go until they can bring the cost of plasma lights down.

CFL's do work though and will grow YOU enough to always have smoke. If you need or want to grow more than just for you alone then HPS is the way. But then again there are HPS lights in the 250 range and lower too, all the way down to 70watters which do work better than CFL's given comparable lumens of either.

LED's that are cheap are crap and LED's that are ridiculously expensive are almost as good as cheap CFL's.

IF you just want to grow a personal stash hop on over to the CFL subforum under indoor... Even if you choose to use a better smaller hps rather than CFL see what they have cooking for little grow boxes in the 2'x2'x4' range. That's big enough to keep you supplied for yourself forever and you can grow perpetually in one so that you have 1-3 plants to crop out every single week. Just look for the guys growing in 16oz or similar containers with small single cola plants.

Thanks for the great info guys.