I just bought 13amp cable and plugs in the UK include a 13 amp fuse. You can. Replace it with a smaller fuse, in this example 3a fuse is about right.

Sure. You could add a fair bit of power into the rig before it became dangerous. You could safely triple it I imagine (although I'm not an electrician)

Might as well just go for the 60w cfl. Also it might be my imagination but i swear the brand name lights (phillips...) give off a better light than cheaper cfls

Where? I've looked and cannot find a reflector that cheaply.

The light spectrum changes with bigger bulbs. You get more spectrum with smaller bulbs.

This is bull shit, did a search and theres nothing like it..

More misinformation, you're paying at least 100 bucks or more for 250 watts.

Actually 45W is the actual output per CFL. The equivalent is over 100W per CFL. (I know 23W CFL gives 100W) So 6 times 45W equals 270W with an equivalent of over 600W.

RR B That's not how it works. He's using 270 watts in total, but he's still only getting the brightness of 27W(100wEq), he's just got it focused onto a larger coverage area so the lumen depreciation occurs at a further distance

So you can't sum the wattages? My lamp got four 20W with 100W Output CFL and two 18W T5 lamps. The 20W Lamps are 1300 lumen and the T5 lamps are 1250 lumen. What's my total wattage and lumens? Btw thanks for correcting me!

RR B You can for power consumption, not brightness. You can be using four 20W (80) but if the bulb's lumen rating is say.. 1200, and you have a single 40W with an lumen output of 2400, the single 40 will give more light output than the four 20s. In my aeroponic system I run two 400wEq CFLs only because I want the total lumens to be as even as I can get it across my grow-tub. If I only had one right in the middle, only the middle plants would get the full 6500 lumens, and the outter plants would get significantly less- depending on how much light you lose. So imagine if you have a room, you have 1 light in the middle that isn't very bright. It won't light up much of the room. But if you add more lights, more of the room with light up, but it still is going to be the same brightness, the light will just be able to illuminate further from the source. TL;DR: you're total watt for power consumption would be 116watts, but you're maxing out at 1300 lumens in total(assuming the lights are all focused in one spot). It won't be as bright as a true 116watt Fluorescent bulb

Princess Lemmy "That's not how it works." - When calculating light needs for your plants, a general rule of thumb is to supply at least 2000lumens per sq.ft.. With CFLs youre dealing with a problem of low light intensity (penetration) leading to airy bud, so for CFL I would be happier with 3000-5000Lm/sq.ft. as well as placing the lights ~6" from the plant keeping in mind that distance spreads lumens dramatically. optimally you want about 50watts of 70Lpw (Lumen per watt) or higher cfl per sq.ft. of canopy. Your 1x 40watt cfl output ~2600lumens (65Lpw) = Adequate lighting for 1 sq.ft. Lowes 1x 26watt cfl output ~1800lumens (69Lpw) *4 = 7200, placed every 6 inches would give 3600lm/sq.ft.. so basically assuming Lpw are the same it allows you to spread light more evenly over your canopy (or between plants) as well as use different spectrum lights dispersed throughout. other than that there's no difference. Additionally, that many CFLs do create a good amount of heat so a convection vented cab or tent is a huge help, optionally add an exhaust fan for peace of mind. If youre wondering what makes HPS so much better, it's that Lpw number. A 600Watt HPS can put out 96000Lm (or more) making it 160Lpw!!! This light is usually used for a 4'x4' or 5'x5' area meaning it would deliver 6000Lm/sq.ft. or 3840Lm/sq.ft. respectively. TL/DR? More Power(Watts) = More(Brighter) Light. Also, HPS can be more than twice as efficient as CFL.