Growing with Car / 12VDC HID Lights

wow they look pretty good for being in them solo cups im subd

I think what really interests me about this is using it for sub lighting with LED. That way you get all the spectrum that the LEDs miss. Especially since car HID kits can be had for super cheap.

How many weeks into flower are you?

Can you post some pics of how you have the fans cooling the ballasts? I just quickly put together a similar setup using 6000k and 3000k HIDs from DDM tuning and I noticed the ballasts get quite hot. Have you thought about using some sort of a reflector to focus the light?

Also, apparently this does work well because people are stealing car HID lights for growing in Amsterdam:

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/02/thieves-stealing-porsche-headlamps-for-marijuana-grow-lights/

alex303alex said:

Also, apparently this does work well because people are stealing car HID lights for growing in Amsterdam:

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/02/thieves-stealing-porsche-headlamps-for-marijuana-grow-lights/

Click to expand...

ahahahahaha that sucks man!!

Hey doomsday lets see the ladies yea? its been about two weeks since we last saw them i wanna see there progress

I will post up some pics to tonight. My power supply went out so I had to toss them in my main flower room but should have it all back up and running his weekend. As for cooling the ballasts, when I get I there to fix my power issues ill take a few pictures to help ya out.

dont get to a computer much as regularly as i used to... here is a somewhat decent picture of them coming out of the bin and before seeing a bit of HPS lighting. i was away on vacation for the weekend so i have no idea when the powerbox went out. these ladies could have been siting in darkness for 3 days, or only 45 minutes until i noticed it wasnt on like it was supposed to be.edit... looks like ill be posting them once the pic manager is actually working again...

Totally Awesome!

This is so cool and opens up so many other possibilities.
Growing in camper vans/caravans. Growing with solar panels/wind as the power source without the hassle of expensive invertors etc.

i do agree. this is a big open for alot of people to really start playing around with these lights. i have had a few things come up lately that have forced me to have to postpone fixing that power source and getting these back up and running. but as for now, once im able to upload pics again, i will show you exactly what came from only 12V lighting... it isnt anything more than a few solid nugs, but the proof is there that it works and that is all i wanted.

Your grow is unique and awesome because I have not seen anyone getting that kinda yield with HID's AND I have never seen such big plants using only solo cups

Question to all the growers following this thread... How much yield is possible with only using solo cups?! And dont give me that "depends on the strain" because I know it does

post updated pics!!

i dont know the advrage party cup yeild but there was a 12/12 party cup competition thread a while back. Try searching that I remember seeing results from some of the grows but im not sure how much per on adverage.

weird shit. lol. their growing! personally the bigger the pots the bigger your buds and plants can essentially get.. since more room for root mass! If your limited on space use smaller pots. but if you got the room go big as you possible can fit, for your plant to room ratio

Every day I turn on my headlights (3000K DDM's) I wonder if this would work ... Now I don't have to guess.

I don't think I'm going to change my plan for when I build my cab/room, but I love the fact that you tried it.

Far from true on the pot size my friend. Many stains actually tend to put out a bit more when their roots are bound. I have many personal examples of this.

As for people's interest, thanks! Hope you guys try something like it! I have a lol project going right now with these bulbs again so expect another thread.

Hey man, any updates on this? I am also thinking about using 4 55 watt 3k bulbs along with my Backstar LED.

I wanted to see if it would work so I planted one seed at the end of November. Two 35W 3000k HIDs lights wired up to a computer power supply and a 36W 6500k T5 Fish tank light I had laying around. I didn't take any pictures of the seedling so the first one was just around 4 weeks in. Around that point I decided to change from a 20/4 to a 18/6 schedule which improved the growth rate. Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics.
Dec 26

Jan 9th

Jan 13th


I think this is working so I will try with a few plants this time. Thinking of flowering this one in a few weeks.

Looks good man, keep us posted!

Took some better pics today. The plant has grown even more since I moved it to this pot. It is about 16 inches tall now.
I also took a picture of the actual lights in case anyone is interested. I kind of put it together really quickly so it looks ghetto but it works great. I will make something better for the next grow.
Jan 16th