Check out my thread (sig) and these Philips Elite Agro 315w CMH bulbs, they're blowing me away. Highly efficient, no heat like hps (closer to LED's), faster flowering/finishing times, and a 315W setup can cover 3' x 3', highly recommended...
Check out my thread (sig) and these Philips Elite Agro 315w CMH bulbs, they're blowing me away. Highly efficient, no heat like hps (closer to LED's), faster flowering/finishing times, and a 315W setup can cover 3' x 3', highly recommended...
There are few ballasts that support these bulbs, Philips makes one, and Ceramatek makes a good one but will only run @220/240v, they're (Ceramatek) also very expensive. The cost of a Ceramatek ballast kit with just the ballast, bulb and adapter is about the same as the LEC Sun System 315w/120v I have (2 now, just waiting for a second unit to show up any day), everything packaged into a ready-to-go kit which will run on 120v, including a very nice/high-end vertical reflector hood. Well worth it imo, depending on what you pay for power, one to two grows for payback in reduced heat and increased yield.
You can flower with MH,HPS, CFL and incandescent. Led would be cool, but I would only use it as a supplement. The led setups seem nice, but they're fucking expensive.
IMO For the most part it seems like bulbs are pretty comparable. The difference is gonna be the quality of materials used. So, they may lose lumens faster, not work in a digital but work in a magnetic ballast, or burnout faster. I've done grows with streetlight bulbs from ace... It's all in the care and environment.