Ceramic Metal Halide

I am trying to find out as much information about these lights as i can.

Does only philips have the patent for this technology.?
where can i buy them?
do they run on regular ballasts?
are they worth it?

if anyone has any links i would very much appreciate it.

thanks

They run on HPS ballasts.

i have one and as far as i could tell when i was shopping for them, phillips is the only maker, they only currently run up to 400w and only on magnetic core ballast, they don't work on digital ballast. and they work very well for vegging, and for flowering they make some dense/hard nugs but not as big as with a regular hps. 1oz of nugs looked like just over a half compared to true hps grown stuff.

how would you compare the heat aspect?

are you just vegging with yours?

yeah i would definatly say heat is much lower than a regular hps, but they also don't put out as many lumens, but they do have a more usuable range of light, i vegged and flowered under one. but i decided to buy another 400w hps cause i like to have some mass to my buds like i said the buds get dense and hard but not very big looking had to weigh it out for a friend cause they thought i was trying to screw them or something.

wow. that is actually pretty cool. the denser the better in my book. do you think your yield was higher or equal to a regular hps?

about the same in wieght but very small looking, and you end up going through more than you expected quickly. now that im paired with a regular hps, and can see them side by side and i must say i don't really prefer one or the other by themselves, but together they are badass, so if you plan on using one of these lights, definatly get another 400w hps, i was thinking about modifying my hood to accommodate another socket, but opted to just get another hood. i'll get pics up in a few.

last one is of a purple plant that is supposed to be jockhorror but somehow i doubt it. i have another one that is a lighter purple so i don't know. the other two are regular green.