2 150w Vs. 250w - -Heatwise- -

OSHiT

Well-Known Member
dont be an idiot... why would 250 watts of hps make more heat then 300 watts of hps... use some common sence ;)
 

regrets

Well-Known Member
Don't forget that ballasts give off heat as well, won't be a lot of heat with those watts but the 300watts with 2 ballasts will certainly give off more heat. However the heat will be dispersed better with the 2 lamps so you may actually have less temp problems and could possibly get closer while avoiding burn. So technically the 300 will give off more heat into the room but that heat will be dispersed better so the temps above your plant may actually be lower.
 

upinchronic1

Well-Known Member
dont be an idiot... why would 250 watts of hps make more heat then 300 watts of hps... use some common sence ;)
Whos being an idiot? Yeah i should have created my own heat equations, my bad. Its more power in one bulb with greater heat output than two smaller power bulbs with smaller heat output. I think it makes complete sence to ask such a question. Not everything with electricity is so straight foward. So call me a newb, but not an idiot.

Anyways, cool, i kind of thought itd be the other way around, so thanks much, everyone exept ohshit!
 

upinchronic1

Well-Known Member
Don't forget that ballasts give off heat as well, won't be a lot of heat with those watts but the 300watts with 2 ballasts will certainly give off more heat. However the heat will be dispersed better with the 2 lamps so you may actually have less temp problems and could possibly get closer while avoiding burn. So technically the 300 will give off more heat into the room but that heat will be dispersed better so the temps above your plant may actually be lower.
That was another point i was thinking about, thank you. Great point. Plus with two seperate cool tubes i could could get those bitches touching my buds.
 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
Haha, nice avatar, thanks, anyone know for sure? Tried both?
2 150s are hotter. Basic physics. 2 Bulbs, 2 ballasts (running somewhere south of 95% efficiency)

Remove the ballasts from the 2 150s and also from the 250 and have them remotely located, the 2 150s still produce more heat.

now a perk would be that you can spread out the heat. Depending on venting this could be better or worse.
 

Hawk

Well-Known Member
Seems like a (correct) answer has been arrived at. So mostly I'm just repeating what's already been said. But just for the heck of it, lets attach some numbers to the two scenarios. We'll use 3.4 BTU's of heat per watt. I'm getting that figure from the data in Eye Hortlilux's literature.

(2) 150w = 1020 BTU's
(1) 250w = 850 BTU's

(2) 150w = 30,000 Lumens
(1) 250w = 26,000 - 30,500 Lumens depending on the price of the bulb

There's no doubt that the 2 150w bulbs themselves will produce more heat than a single 250w bulb. BTU's per watt doesn't change according to the data on Eye Hortlilux's Super HPS bulbs. But the higher wattage lamps are more efficient so you can get almost as much or a little bit more light intensity from fewer watts. And that doesn't even take into account the idea that you can't really "add lumens" across bulbs easily. As far as light penetrating a canopy, I don't think 2 15,000L sources can reach as far as a single 30,000L source. You might be able to distribute the light across the top of a canopy better with multiple smaller sources but I don't believe (I could be wrong) you'll ever penetrate as deep.

And then there's the ballast heat. I don't know the facts but it seams reasonable to me that a single 250w ballast will output less BTU's than a pair of 150 watters.
 
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cheetah2007

Well-Known Member
dont be an idiot... why would 250 watts of hps make more heat then 300 watts of hps... use some common sence ;)
because two bulbs are hotter than one man....there isn't much diffrence between the heat from a 250W hps and 400W hps bulb
 

upinchronic1

Well-Known Member
Alright, alright, cool, great info, it seems a 250w would be the smart choice... But shit i already have the two 150 waters...

butterballs - yeah again a good point brought up with dispersing the heat, since i will be using the bottom half of a dressor, this should work well. Two cool tubes exausting the heat straight out, cause at it makes sence, each source adds up to more heat, but if your cooltubin both, you have less heat to deal with from each, making it possible to get way closer to the buds... So this topic turns into A density question.

Are 150 watters typically rated for 15,000 watts? CAuse mine are rated for 17,500.

Now one last question of density, as i am a perfectionist thinker when it comes to light power. I feel like id rather be safe and stick a 400w in a dressor for max lumens then do what most people would go by, the 250 which is rated for 3 by 3 gardens, which would make it optimal, but idk, i just instintivally feel like they could always use the extra. Yes the sun produces 10k lumens, but what if the enviroment was BETTER than the naturuall, creating better buds then nature ever has? No?

So if i go cheap and use my two 150 watters (70 bucks for both on ebay
)
and put them in cool tubes, getting them touching - inches away, CAN I STILL GET THE SAME DENSITY as a higher watt? I mean if the sun puts out 10k, im putting out f17 in a givven space, i should be able to atleast duplicate the suns power right? I just dont get it, i always here 'oh your just not going to get the same density from a 150w as opposed to a 400w' im like wtf, why not, you can get more than the suns power from both!?!?!???
 

Hawk

Well-Known Member
.... Are 150 watters typically rated for 15,000 watts? CAuse mine are rated for 17,500...
I'm assuming that was a mistype and you meant 15,000 lumens, not watts.

I simply went to 1000bulbs.com and looked at some 150w HPS bulbs. The two they had were both 15k L. Pretty sure that's typical. I think I've seen 16k L but never a 17.5k L. That's not so say they don't exist--I've just never seen one that high.

About the sun and all that--I don't know if comparing the sun to an HPS lamp is quite fair and it might be somewhat misleading. Lumens is a rating of light visible to the human eye. The light plants utilize (i.e. the light they "see") is similar but not exactly the same. I'm no expert on the subject but I don't think it's quite accurate to say, "well, the sun at high noon puts out X lumens so a lamp in my closet that puts out the same X lumens should be just like the sun." I think there's a lot more to it than that. The sun puts out all kinds of rays that our eyes can't detect. And I'm sure there's all sorts of other factors too.


Light plants "see":




Light we see:






About light penetration, the research I've done suggests you just can't penetrate as deeply into a canopy with a lower wattage lamp. And it doesn't matter how many lower wattage lamps you have. You can't just add up the numbers and figure you'll have the same penetration as a single lamp of the same power. A 150w lamp will only penetrate so far no matter how many other 150w lamps are in the area.

The ability of the lower wattage lamp to be closer to the canopy helps bridge the gap but the taller the plants are that you're growing, the less this will help.

Here's a link that makes sense of some of these ideas a lot better than I can: YOR - Lighting Resources
 

upinchronic1

Well-Known Member
I'm assuming that was a mistype and you meant 15,000 lumens, not watts.

I simply went to 1000bulbs.com and looked at some 150w HPS bulbs. The two they had were both 15k L. Pretty sure that's typical. I think I've seen 16k L but never a 17.5k L. That's not so say they don't exist--I've just never seen one that high.

About the sun and all that--I don't know if comparing the sun to an HPS lamp is quite fair and it might be somewhat misleading. Lumens is a rating of light visible to the human eye. The light plants utilize (i.e. the light they "see") is similar but not exactly the same. I'm no expert on the subject but I don't think it's quite accurate to say, "well, the sun at high noon puts out X lumens so a lamp in my closet that puts out the same X lumens should be just like the sun." I think there's a lot more to it than that. The sun puts out all kinds of rays that our eyes can't detect. And I'm sure there's all sorts of other factors too.


Light plants "see":




Light we see:






About light penetration, the research I've done suggests you just can't penetrate as deeply into a canopy with a lower wattage lamp. And it doesn't matter how many lower wattage lamps you have. You can't just add up the numbers and figure you'll have the same penetration as a single lamp of the same power. A 150w lamp will only penetrate so far no matter how many other 150w lamps are in the area.

The ability of the lower wattage lamp to be closer to the canopy helps bridge the gap but the taller the plants are that you're growing, the less this will help.



Here's a link that makes sense of some of these ideas a lot better than I can: YOR - Lighting Resources
Alright, yeah i was kind of thinking about the same thing, i guess there is alot more to the spectrum side of lighting when it comes to the sun.
Thanks for the visuals, and link, good shit. Yeah im not to woried about penitration, im just going to lst them, get like 2-4 small colas per plant, keep up reall small and compact. By density i mean if i have my buds touching the cool tube, are they not going to be just as dence as of any buds from a 400w light? seems like someon has to know.

Haha yeah, my 150 w is rated for 15,000 watts, i plan on lighing up a barn, im going for 20 footers. Ha

But yeah i meant lumens, and yess my lamps are rated for 17,500 lumens, there the RABB security lights, check ou their site. Maby its a high output bulb?

Cheetah- alright, strange but good to keep in mind.
 
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