The key to lighting systems is "what ever works for your environment"!

I tried everything. The shop lights were economical (cheap) but I found
myself having difficulty reaching under them to bring plant out to
water/inspect/etc. I would always catch the leaves and flower buds on the
sharp edge and tear them (and then would be ****ed at myself for weeks).

I moved to HID (both MH and HPS) and now I had plenty of room to work on the
plants. Of course this increased the footprint of the plant racks and soon
they over took the basement. Additionally my electric bill went from
$70/month to $200/month. In the summer time I was heating the basement with
the HID lights only to cool it with the A/C....talk about electric bills!

I found the quality of the plants under HID to be better than the
fluorescents. Fluorescents were great for the small plants but as they grew
up the light just didn't reach the lower leaves enough to keep them green.

Eventually I put the HIDs on chain driven light movers which increased the
growing space without increasing the heat/electrical requirements
significantly. I had also reached the point where additional lights would
have blown the circuit breaker. (I had to turn the lights off to run the
vaccuum cleaner in the basement!)

This addiction is dangerous!

Good growing,
Gene