What would YOU do with 6800watts of HIDs?

So, a few years back I rescued a 400watt highbay light from the garbage, refurbished it (partly because it's condition was unknown, and partly because it didn't have a multi-tap transformer), and it works great... Just recently, I was lucky enough to find a local business who replaced their HIDs with flourescents and was giving away their old lights. (2x)1000watt MH, and (11x)400watt MH, all with bulbs, and a box of extra bulbs. I had to drive all of 4 minutes away, and load them up.

I've never had the opportunity to use this much lighting, and i'm looking for some ideas. One idea that I had, was 2 seperate 2600watt flowering rooms, each with (1x)1000watt on top, and (4x)400watt for side lighting. That would leave me with (4x)400watt for vegging moms and clones, or whatever else I felt like doing. If I did this, I would probably run them so that one room was on it's 12-hour dark period while the other was on it's 12-hour light period, so my energy consumption would stay constant.

Anyways, i'm just looking for some ideas from people who do have experience with this much lighting, or know someone who does.

Some input on the reflectors would be great as well... Will these reflectors work? The highbay that I used before didn't come with a reflector, so I just took a piece of specular aluminum and bent a batwing style reflector for it. Room height isn't a factor for me, but i'll probably mount the ballasts remotely like I did my last highbay.

Here's a couple pictures. The first picture is of a couple mums I vegged with my refurbished highbay a couple years ago. The second picture is a half dozen bagseeds that are vegging under it now, just for fun. The last 2 are the truckload of free lights. They just need to be switched over to 120v, and have some plugs wired on.

So let's hear some ideas. What would YOU do with 6800watts?

well not saying u cant flower with mh but hps would be way way better and ur going to have alot more heat with mh i would keep a couple of 400 and try to sell the rest on ebay to get money to but the hps

XraySalami said:

So let's hear some ideas. What would YOU do with 6800watts?

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i would try not to raise any red flags that im growing large amounts of marijuana...be careful

I suck at these message boards, so i'll probably mess up my replies... I was a long time lurker at Overgrow but never really posted, I just sat back and learned. Horticulture is really just a hobby of mine; Mycology is where my heart is.

I didn't really check out the bulbs out since I was trying to get all the lights in the truck before the guy changed his mind about giving them away, but they're probably the wrong spectrum, so i'll be replacing those. I was thinking of trying some of those conversion bulbs. Anyone have any experience with those? Do they work ok, or should I just get an actual HPS?

Also, it's legal to grow in my area, but i'd probably grow WAAAYY over the limit if I used all of these. Just brainstorming really...

I would sell a bunch of them on ebay like this guy said and just invest in some hps. not only hps , but a variety of nutes and gadgets to further improve my room. Shit !! you could even trade some off and get other cool shit for them . the possebillties are endless man.. MH are always in need and if you have a good price on those heads , you'll be seeing a quick profit.

Fortunately, I already have alot of cool stuff like outdoor timers, waterproof HANNA ph/ec/tds meter with calibration chemicals, remote controlled oscillating stand fans with built in timers and thermostats, rubbermaids, buckets, air pumps, nutrients, sprayers, a weather station with wireless temperature and humidity probes, etc...

So I will check around and see if any of my buddies might have or know someone with a couple HPS to trade.

Besides the fact that they're all MH at this point, how would you use a pair of 1000s and a dozen 400s?

I would keep the 1k and rid of the 400 except for 1-2.

yea if ur legal swap em for hps and grow some big buds!!!! send em my way

Well that is a lot of power. And it's gonna cost you a lot of money to run this but it's doable. Those who listened SeeMoreBuds know that you can flower 12/12 with 100% MH bulbs. HPS are far better for the same amount of power but if you only have MH bulbs i would use them in a Vertical setup maybe 8x8 with 4x 400w or something like that.

As for the power consumed if you have access to more than a single room to flower it's the ideal, you can run 2 12/12 cycle, one over night and one during the day. Like that you are using constantly the energy and no 12/12 cycle. This can avoid suspicious thing.

Your gonna need some A/C keep em all do something don't be afeared. go hydro get some large fans and some panda film.