Quick question on lighting

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
I just got a couple 315w cmh's and the ballast is 240 volt wiring and has all types of warnings about making sure I'm using the correct wiring.

I'm no electrician, this is suppose to be plugging into a 3 prong outlet in my home, is that fine?

All these different voltage warnings are confusing.

No you want to use a 110v outlet. A 240 is like the 3 flat prong larger plug on an electric clothes dryer.

It requires a double circuit breaker at the board.

there are plenty of 110 volt set ups available.

Or you can have a circuit installed at the board.
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
No you want to use a 110v outlet. A 240 is like the 3 flat prong larger plug on an electric clothes dryer.

It requires a double circuit breaker at the board.

there are plenty of 110 volt set ups available.

Or you can have a circuit installed at the board.
Wait a minute! I should have looked at the pic first. That's the ballast I have. It runs on both circuits. Mine came with the regular 120 v plug for normal 15a outlets.

Does the power cord it came with plug in to your outlet?

The other plug holes are for a standard ballast/ reflector cord from the lamp.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
Wait a minute! I should have looked at the pic first. That's the ballast I have. It runs on both circuits. Mine came with the regular 120 v plug for normal 15a outlets.

Does the power cord it came with plug in to your outlet?

The other plug holes are for a standard ballast/ reflector cord from the lamp.
Yeah these have the standard 3 prong plug ins on the end with the strange flat and round prongs that plug into the reflector lamp.

So then that must mean that it's all good to go..?

You really scared me with that first reply lol
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Yeah these have the standard 3 prong plug ins on the end with the strange flat and round prongs that plug into the reflector lamp.

So then that must mean that it's all good to go..?

You really scared me with that first reply lol

Sorry about that. I should have deleted it.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
All systems are a go :razz:

HOWEVER: Just taking that pic I notice all the lines across the screen, I thought that high frequency(less efficient) ballasts such as traditional hps show the bars and I thought the low frequency square wave (efficient lec ballasts) did not put off the bars.

From what I read the bars are because the light is actually flickering at a crazy high speed and our eyes can't pick it up but the cams can.
And the low frequency square wave does not flicker like that making them more efficient.

Am I correct here?

Says right in the instructions low frequency square wave. False advertisement or maybe faulty ballasts??

Or is that information I read completely wrong?
 

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MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
All systems are a go :razz:

HOWEVER: Just taking that pic I notice all the lines across the screen, I thought that high frequency(less efficient) ballasts such as traditional hps show the bars and I thought the low frequency square wave (efficient lec ballasts) did not put off the bars.

From what I read the bars are because the light is actually flickering at a crazy high speed and our eyes can't pick it up but the cams can.
And the low frequency square wave does not flicker like that making them more efficient.

Am I correct here?

Says right in the instructions low frequency square wave. False advertisement or maybe faulty ballasts??

Or is that information I read completely wrong?

My pics were clear under it. Maybe it has to burn in. I didn't take pics the first days. There are specific instructions in the light bulb box for how long to wait to turn it off and on and such in the beginning.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
My pics were clear under it. Maybe it has to burn in. I didn't take pics the first days. There are specific instructions in the light bulb box for how long to wait to turn it off and on and such in the beginning.
Gotcha. Yeah i think you're right because I did read on the ballast instructions that it's important to let them run atleast 10 hrs their first use before turning them off.
However I didn't read the instructions for the bulb, figured it was pretty common sense, plug the bulb in. But I'm gonna dig those instructions back out and make sure that there aren't any special requirements for start up on the bulbs.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
Also something pretty interesting is my 630w de cmh from growers choice is reading out less ppfd than my two 315s @ equal distances.. about 75 umole/sec less. And that's at about 3 feet where I have my de from my seedlings. The 315s also reach the ball park of 600 ppfd sooner than my 630. By about 4 inches...
and also with less heat.. :confused:

Thinking back I didn't read any instructions on leaving the de run longer @ first use and I'm pretty sure when i tested it was only on for a little bit, less than an hour and then put back away.
I'll look back to the instructions again, maybe I didn't read all of them.

BUT if there's nothing noted about longer run time for first use than I think it's safe to say that I screwed up getting that de rather than a 315. Still a good light, plants are happy, but with what I'm seeing, 2 315s over a de630 are the winners any day.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
is your 315 bulb vertical? and isn't the 630 horizontal? wonder if that makes a difference? the 315 was designed to be run vertical by philips
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Also something pretty interesting is my 630w de cmh from growers choice is reading out less ppfd than my two 315s @ equal distances.. about 75 umole/sec less. And that's at about 3 feet where I have my de from my seedlings. The 315s also reach the ball park of 600 ppfd sooner than my 630. By about 4 inches...
and also with less heat.. :confused:

Thinking back I didn't read any instructions on leaving the de run longer @ first use and I'm pretty sure when i tested it was only on for a little bit, less than an hour and then put back away.
I'll look back to the instructions again, maybe I didn't read all of them.

BUT if there's nothing noted about longer run time for first use than I think it's safe to say that I screwed up getting that de rather than a 315. Still a good light, plants are happy, but with what I'm seeing, 2 315s over a de630 are the winners any day.

Try a lumen meter. Plants grow bigger from intensity (wattage) than they do from the myth of proper par. Plants also transfer photosynthesis to the strongest wavelength. So the De will win every time because of the stronger red spike.

And the de has a more balanced spectrum than an se hps bulb. I wish I had high enough ceilings to run them.

I am not all that impressed with 315's as a stand alone flowering lamp. I would combine them with the de for best results.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
is your 315 bulb vertical? and isn't the 630 horizontal? wonder if that makes a difference? the 315 was designed to be run vertical by philips
Yes that's correct. The 315 is vertical and 630 is horizontal. Non the less you would still think that 630 would be blowing the 315s away, not underperforming
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Yes that's correct. The 315 is vertical and 630 is horizontal. Non the less you would still think that 630 would be blowing the 315s away, not underperforming
you'd think so huh? i've been using cmh tech since the 400cmh came out before the 315. and witht the LFSW ballast, philips really put out a great product i think. and the spectrum is so realistic compared to the sun.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
Try a lumen meter. Plants grow bigger from intensity (wattage) than they do from the myth of proper par. Plants also transfer photosynthesis to the strongest wavelength. So the De will win every time because of the stronger red spike.

And the de has a more balanced spectrum than an se hps bulb. I wish I had high enough ceilings to run them.

I am not all that impressed with 315's as a stand alone flowering lamp. I would combine them with the de for best results.
Yeah I have the two 315s on each side of the de and that's my plans for the run. Problem is the more I work with this 630, the more the plants are showing me signs of too intense of light.. and I already have it 3 feet away. The closest I got it was 24 inches I believe and the morning after my plant was not happy. Have been dealing with other problems with the plant though so maybe coincidence, maybe the light was too close. Either way I raised the light after that, the plant was so dropped that morning. That specific plant is not shown in these pics. 6 weeks old, I have it in a tent in a separate room until I can figure out the problem.

Another interesting thing to note though is even though ppfd is low with that de, everytime I have to work underneath it for whatever reason, it burns my skin pretty good, I ducked a couple feet under the 315s just a bit ago and I don't get that same sensation. So there's gotta be another factor here, probably the one you pointed out.

I'm afraid I may not be able to finish with this de but we will see. I can't say if light intensity is the problem with my bigger plant, I highly doubt it(just got this plant isolated today and made three changes, it actually seems to be getting better in just hours, I'll probably make a post within the next day or so on the topic that I think could've been the issue, still learning). But my seedlings are showing borderline too much light @ 3 feet, I know seedlings are more sensitive though so hopefully that's it. Ceilings are only about 6'10". I'm thinking flowering at around 2 foot canopy (from the floor) and hopefully finishing around 4 feet. That's probably about the most I can afford height wise with this de. And that's if I'm lucky I'm thinking. Ill be trellising though and lst'ing so that should help fill the canopy at a lower height
 
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