Can a 630 watt CMH match a 1000 watt HPS?

MMJ Dreaming 99

Well-Known Member
There are some newer Chinese double bulb 630 watt CMHs which are pretty cheap or around $360. The alternative would be a 4 board QB whihc would be closer to $560 but I am not sure the QBs can pull the same numbers as HPS.
 

thccbdhealth

Well-Known Member
Ohh Do share the performance of them.
Are those from gr owlights.ca?
Can the Ballast be placed remotely with a longer lamp to ballast cord?
I have a 315cmh, and after the exchange rate and shipping i paid about the same.
and I Think I want more light.
But I also need more time for experience with it.
 

Flash63

Well-Known Member
Ohh Do share the performance of them.
Are those from gr owlights.ca?
Can the Ballast be placed remotely with a longer lamp to ballast cord?
I have a 315cmh, and after the exchange rate and shipping i paid about the same.
and I Think I want more light.
But I also need more time for experience with it.
Yes it's from growlights.ca,says you can ignite the bulb from up to 20m.also dimmable 700,630,400,300 watts..I'll be firing her up in a couple weeks.
 

genuity

Well-Known Member
It's threads on these lights already, they are good..not that new,but not lots of info,on the forums...
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
CMH lights have been around for 20 years. These new ones are no different in performance than the Philips 400W ones that run on my 30 year old 400W HPS magnetic ballasts. They are designed to run on those ballasts.

Magnetics are all I own and if I get a couple 600s while here in BC I'm getting nice new magnetic MH/HPS ballasts for half the price of E-ballasts and way longer bulb life. My 400W EYE Hortilux conversion MH bulb that runs off a HPS ballast is 16 years old and vegs plants just fine. Last summer I bought a 1000W EYE conversion Super HPS bulb that runs off my magnetic MH ballast and flowered plants nicely for the 30 plant grow I did a few months back. It's going to be my star to grow a 4tub DWC in an 8x4 space hanging off a light rail. Love that rail!
 

a senile fungus

Well-Known Member
CMH lights have been around for 20 years. These new ones are no different in performance than the Philips 400W ones that run on my 30 year old 400W HPS magnetic ballasts. They are designed to run on those ballasts.

Magnetics are all I own and if I get a couple 600s while here in BC I'm getting nice new magnetic MH/HPS ballasts for half the price of E-ballasts and way longer bulb life. My 400W EYE Hortilux conversion MH bulb that runs off a HPS ballast is 16 years old and vegs plants just fine. Last summer I bought a 1000W EYE conversion Super HPS bulb that runs off my magnetic MH ballast and flowered plants nicely for the 30 plant grow I did a few months back. It's going to be my star to grow a 4tub DWC in an 8x4 space hanging off a light rail. Love that rail!

They're not exactly the same. The new CMH lamps run on low frequency, square wave digital ballasts. This allows them to have more "on-time" than their magneticaly driven counterparts because they don't oscillate in a sine wave, its a square wave.

So, you couldnt just plug a 315w into your old 400w magnetic ballast and assume it'd be fine. The magnetic ballast is too high frequency and it would rattle the bulb apart.

Just trying to correct that misinformation. Hope it helps ...
 

cookie master

Well-Known Member
I used to run the phillips cmh 400 before they disappeared, I think these are better. These are designed for agriculture. The plants do perk up, its similar to a hortilux blue but those wear out fast.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
So, you couldnt just plug a 315w into your old 400w magnetic ballast and assume it'd be fine. The magnetic ballast is too high frequency and it would rattle the bulb apart.
I wasn't recommending anyone do that. There are 400W bulbs for the HPS ballasts not made by Phillips who made the first ones. They were actually made for lighting up stores, warehouses etc as a retrofit bulb to run off the HPS ballasts that were in common use in places like that but as we all know the colour sucked . That's what they were supposed to correct. Growers noticed the great spectrum they emitted and found out they grew plants from clone to crop just great all on their own. I could only get them in a case of for $300 and never had that much to spare.
 

cookie master

Well-Known Member
Phillips does have 830 watt cmh I think which plugs into a regular 1000 mogul and ballast. Not quite as advanced as the315 but probably pretty good bulbs.
 
Ahhh :) The fact is you would need at least 2 630 watts to out perform the 1000w (Gavita comes to mind). Or 3 315s as OldMed says this technology is not new, however, this is true but there have been significant advances in power consumption and ways the heat is vented. In other words, save your money and just buy one gavita or an Epap. I am a big fan of dimlux
 

criddopher

Active Member
All the info I've seen a 630 cmh does indeed perform as well as a SE hps. It has a umol/j output better than any hps. The same way these cob LEDs replace 1k lights at 600w or so, the CMH is also a much more efficient light. These new CMH are NOTHING like the old 400 watt ones. Again the umol/j output is much better on the new ones, the spectrum is far better on the agro or red enhanced bulbs. No offence but I feel like a lot of you are throwing out comments and you have no idea what you're talking about in this case. I see the well known member tag and I know my name is new here so put me down as you will but there is a ton of inaccurate info in this thread. No way it would take 2 630s to outperform a gavita. I wouldn't be surprised if you could match a DE with 945w cmh. Plus youd have less heat being that the CMH is more efficient than the DE hps, more of its energy goes to light than heat compared to SE or DE hps. Shit there is side by side videos proving they are better than hps. SLide over to ICmag and check out hammerheads stuff with the DE 630s. They are killing it
 
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