Considering replacing my 1000 watt HPS with Gavitas. Thoughts?

Oshkoshbajosh said:

Right on brother, that picture is definitely food for thought.

Click to expand...

Thankyou for all your help. 1 last question I may have already asked but what type of footprint do you get off each one?

food for thought indeed...

if you put the 1000DE in a raptor and start chilling it you will lose 15-20% of light. These lamps are not suitable for cooling. And even if you don't chill: there is no reflective material behind the the lamp if I am not mistaken? Given that the lamp is closest to the reflector there that is also a very weak spot which will cost you a lot of light!

Using the DE lamp like this will not increase your light output at all.

There is nothing wrong with using an air cooled reflector in a hot climate, just use the right lamp for it.

ShibaSpeak said:

How close do you keep your Gavitas to your plants? Is it due to actual light burn or heat burn you dont go any closer? How do you cool your grow with them? Ive read most commercial growers use a wind sheer with Gavitas or do you just go overboard on cooling? How big of a footprint does it put out once hung? What kind of yield do you see over 1 1000 watt with it?

Click to expand...

I always get concerned with first time posters who just pop up in time to "market" a new product.....

Oh I have never posted here but I was just randomly googling my light system and saw you were asking questions...

It is UNBELIEVABLE, you must run right out and buy it right NOW!!!!! It is the greatest light system in the world. I get 10x the yeild that I got from 100, 1000 watt HIDS with just 1, 10 watt Gavitas!!!!



If it is too good to be true, it most likely isnt true.

Anyone know the footprint of these?

Thanks,

treetopmmmp

I've read alot about this system. Some good and some bad.

My local grow shop stocks them.

When he told me about them I asked about digital lamps for digital ballasts. He said the Philips green star or green power lamp is the lamp recommended for Gravita systems which are full digital.

Then I find out that this Philips lamp is what used to be the Philips SON-t aggro. That runs on even magnetic ballasts.

So how can this lamp now be specific for digital ballasts when it still runs on mag???

I just don't get it.

So what I'm seeing is an expensive system that uses bulbs designed years ago and rebranded.

The only noticeable thing with these systems is the lumen loss after time is less.

However though for the price of 1x green star bulb I could get 2 grolux by sylvania. Giving me 18months continual use from the same money spent.

Unless I'm missing something else???



J

No, I can see you don't get it and what you are saying is just not true.

The Gavita pro-line uses 400V electronic lamps made by philips, and for the 600W system even the GreenVision electronics by philips. They are called GreenPower Plus EL lamps. Philips has a lot of greenpower lamps, they are just NOT suitable for electronic ballasts: Only the single ended 400V 600W EL and the double ended 400V 1000W EL are suitable for high frequency electronic gear. Other lamps are not suitable for these electronics nor any of the other Philips lamps.

They run on frequencies exceeding 100 kHz which is why we recommend to use them in complete fixtures instead of remote ballasts.

Please read a little about the technology and output before you make comments. We (and philips) do not recommend to use the 1000W DE lamp in an air cooled reflector, as that will not keep the lamp temperature high enough which will cause light losses. With earlier models actually the burners had to be actually heated with little reflectors in some open fixtures to perform at 100%.

The Son-T Agro is (was) a HPS lamp which has added blue light. It has never been very successful because it isn't very efficient compared to the new generation lamps. The GreenPower range followed. Philips keeps increasing the output of her professional lamps. 2 years ago the 100W DE were guaranteed at 1850 umol, the new plus model does 2100 umol nowadays (compare: Hortilux 1000W HPS <1800 and this is a really good lamp).

i would have added the leaflet but the forum does not allow me to add pdfs, so please look for it here

The shown fixture in this topic is a standard Gavita HortiStar bracket, where they (the shop, not Gavita) took off the reflector and rotated the connection box 180 degrees to get the cord out on top probably, and mount it inside an excisting reflector. This is a potential problem. The connection box is supposed to be on the outside of the reflector, not in it. This can lead to a too high temperature of the connection leads in there. We wire the fixture with special heat resistant wire to a cool place outside the reflector: the connection box. Placing this connection box inside a very hot reflector is a serious risk. Of course any modified reflector like this is no longer UL recognized anymore (nor would it ever pass the test) and shouldn't even be sold. Obvious we offer no warranty on any part of this fixture and we do not recommend using it. Safety is not something you should take lightly.

As said, when cooled you lose up to 20% of light from the lamp only, not even taking into account the glass filter or reflector. It's just a bad idea. We tried it, doesn't work. It would be about as efficient (or even a bit less) than a Hortilux 1000W instead of 15% more efficient.

For Sunlight Supply we built a 1000W DE in one of their air cooled reflectors. It did not work so it will never see the market with a double ended lamp or we would have made it already, believe me

althor said:

I always get concerned with first time posters who just pop up in time to "market" a new product.....

Oh I have never posted here but I was just randomly googling my light system and saw you were asking questions...

It is UNBELIEVABLE, you must run right out and buy it right NOW!!!!! It is the greatest light system in the world. I get 10x the yeild that I got from 100, 1000 watt HIDS with just 1, 10 watt Gavitas!!!!



If it is too good to be true, it most likely isnt true.

Click to expand...

If you read what Gavita publishes about their products you will see that Gavita makes no claims based on speculations, but based on trials and science. Please show me one quote where Gavita makes unreasonable claims about yield increase. There is one thing I promise you: If you are an experienced grower having >20% more light (depending on your current configuration) will get you more yield. How much? That's up to your expertise.

I'm with you whazzup, I have been running Gavitas and I am having excellent results all around. I will be posting pics on this thread soon.

Nice. Pictures say a thousand words

Anyways, it's always good to verify things that are supposedly so because someone posted it on a anonymous forum on the internet. That goes for my posts too.

whazzup said:

The shown fixture in this topic is a standard Gavita HortiStar bracket, where they (the shop, not Gavita) took off the reflector and rotated the connection box 180 degrees to get the cord out on top probably, and mount it inside an excisting reflector. This is a potential problem. The connection box is supposed to be on the outside of the reflector, not in it. This can lead to a too high temperature of the connection leads in there. We wire the fixture with special heat resistant wire to a cool place outside the reflector: the connection box. Placing this connection box inside a very hot reflector is a serious risk. Of course any modified reflector like this is no longer UL recognized anymore (nor would it ever pass the test) and shouldn't even be sold. Obvious we offer no warranty on any part of this fixture and we do not recommend using it. Safety is not something you should take lightly.

As said, when cooled you lose up to 20% of light from the lamp only, not even taking into account the glass filter or reflector. It's just a bad idea. We tried it, doesn't work. It would be about as efficient (or even a bit less) than a Hortilux 1000W instead of 15% more efficient.

For Sunlight Supply we built a 1000W DE in one of their air cooled reflectors. It did not work so it will never see the market with a double ended lamp or we would have made it already, believe me

Click to expand...

Can you please explain to me why it still might be less efficient than a good HPS bulb that has the same air cooling and glass filter? I dont THINK the ballast is still attached to the hood but I could be mistaken about that and theyre telling me it does nothing to void the warranty (assuming you get it back to its original state beforehand)

This is from one of the "major" hydro shops in my state and I do trust the owner to pass on good information but maybe hes just not fully informed on the Gavitas?

Thankyou again.

I'm not talking about a connected ballast, this fixture was made from a HortiStar reflector for a remote ballast. Up to the connection box the fixture is wired with silicon wiring (in EU) and with special UL approved heat resistant wire (US). The connection box is normally outside the reflector so safe to put in a terminal for the lamp cord. It's not designed to be INSIDE the reflector. Also the bracket and lamp base are now inside the reflector instead of external, and will be extremely hot. Designing a light fixture isn't as easy as just fitting a lamp. I am not sure either if the lamp is in the focal point of the reflector.

The Philips lamp is nitrogen filled and requires a certain operating temperature. When you cool it it will not come to power.

Here are some pictures of some nice buds grown under a gavita 1000 watt.

gavitas are meant to hang 9ft of the ground, giving it a 6x6 footprint

sorry? 9 ft? 90 cm comes closer for the 1000W, and they will never give you a square footprint.

My next 1k I'm going for a gavita. I run a 1k now in a xxxl hood with no glass in a 4x4ft tent with no problems so I don't see a problem with the open gavita's if you have the right air extraction and intake set up.

I actually am only running a 450cfm intake pulling from out side to cool then tent and provide fresh air obviously. Tent stays at like 75-78 and night time I get about 69-60 temps.

Ive found modifying my gavitas by removing the factory 220 plug and replacing it with a directly wired 12-3 copper wire seems to run cooler and more efficient. The pic of my lady is ending its second week of flower.

it doesn't change he efficiency nor the operation of the ballast but it does void your warranty. The plug and cable provided are good for 15 amp, while the fixture uses less than 5 so they are more than capable of doing the job.

Well how about this, why dont you keep telling me about my grow room and what its do ing? Between me and a friend we are currently running more than 10 of these lights. Every single aspect of the grow has changed for the better. Comments like your last one are what makes me despise the internet forums, clearly you must know more about electricity than my father who is an electrical engineer by day. But hey were just sitting here in southeast Michigan averaging huge yields and your on the internet telling people about my lights...

No offense, but we are horticultural lighting fixture manufacturers and the makers of these fixtures. I congratulate you on your success using these lamps, clearly they produce more light and that translates in good results. I just warned about the implications that such a construction could have and that we do not recommend to do it this way.

Proof is in the pudding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1PWUu3Hncs

A Sannie grow. 3 minutes, quick watch and interesting.