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hcmcdole wrote: Shop lights are typically 4 foot in length. Due to it being such a standard that it is the most economical way to go. For four foot bulbs, the wattage is 40W per bulb, so a double light (preferred shop light) is 80W. There are 34W bulbs but don't buy those unless your fixture is designed for that wattage - you will have problems otherwise. There are other sizes as well but I don't know them all. 18 inches, 2 foot, 3 foot, 8 foot, circular, U-shaped, etc. The four foot will be your best bet though for growing because of its price and availability.
Halogen lights are brighter, a lot hotter, and cost more but I wasn't aware of any for shop lights (at least that run in fluorescent fixtures). Another way to go is HID but these are quite expensive but are the premium way to grow show plants (a lot of news stories tell how marijuana growers using these give off so much light that they are easy to spot for Narcs).
The cost for running these are typically small for a few lights. You would have to find out how much your electric company charges per KWH (Kilowatt-hour). The electric company here charges roughly 8 cents per KWH. So for 1 light running 12 hours the cost would be 80W (two 40W bulbs) / 1000 (Watts per Kilo-Watt) * 12 hours * $0.08 is roughly 7.7 cents per day. This is about $2.30 a month. So for 60 lights it would be about $138 a month. If you increase the hours to 16 a day then for the same 60 lights the cost would be about $184 a month.
Make sure you get a good timer as well. Mechanical timers are good but for a little bit more you can get a system that can be controlled by your computer. The modules cost no more than a mechanical timer and the controller and software don't cost much. Check it out at X10.
As for rude clerks (sales associates or whatever moniker they go by), that will happen. For every bad one (or one that is having a bad hair day or had a death in the family), there should be several good ones. Home Depot has gone through some rough times the last few years but at least the management has changed (yay, except for the severance package of the outgoing honcho ~ 210 million for resigning). Hopefully they will get their morale restored else they may go the way of K-Mart and other stores. I haven't shopped at K-Mart for several years due to the employees' attitudes in the past. They may have changed but it would be hard to get me back into one of their stores.
P.S. use tie wraps (cable ties) to neaten your cords. Here is a picture of mine.
