need help with grow light

can someone tell me where to purchase a good grow light, looking to get a mh/hps, preferably at a good price and with built in fans to help keep it cool.....i usually only grow 2-3 plants so it doesnt need to be a big light, the best one ive found is this one from htg

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTGSupply-Ultimate-400w-HPS-&-MH-Grow-Light.asp#

the mh/hps one, the only thing i dont like about it is its not air or water cooled, i dont want my grow room to get too hot so could i just have a small stationary fan aimed at the fixture to keep it cool? i know people will say "htg is shit dont buy from them thats why its so cheap" but others have said they have and they like the lights and since im only growing a few plants i dont need the most expensive light

i cfl grow right now(broke college kid) with 9 42 watt and 3 55 watt cfls....does anyone know how much my electric bill will change from switching from the cfls to the grow light? should it go down since the grow light is only 400 watts and all the cfls combined is 543 watts?

I got my 150 from htg ,

well i ordered it off of ebay but it shipped from htg supply

i would go on ebay and see what else they have cuz you can get lights from htg cheaper their their ebay

here check some of these out

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&_nkw=hps+grow+light&_sacat=See-All-Categories

150w hps is pushing it for 3 plants. If you keep all your floros then yeah it'll work, but a 400w from HTG isn't a bad buy. I have a fellow gardening enthusiast who owns one and was happy with is purchase. You can find them used for cheaper but if you don't know where they've been .....

Be forewarned it will produce a shit ton of heat, even a 150w hps. Make sure you have enough space and ventilation otherwise check out using leds. I got rid of 2 400w hps lights and switched to led cause the heat was oppressive and the electricity bill was getting out of hand.

hoss12781 said:

I got rid of 2 400w hps lights and switched to led cause the heat was oppressive and the electricity bill was getting out of hand.

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How long have you been using led my man ?

Do you happen to have a thread of any of your grows under the leds ,

i would like to see the results from it , iv thought about getting a led set up but i haven't really read or heard any good reviews on how they work for growing marijuana

it seems like the plants would stretch under leds since the lumen output is not high , ( well i assume its not high )

i dont really know thats why im asking

from what i hear the leds are the new hps and are really good but hoss do you know how many volts your hps put out? on the htg site it doesnt tell volts or amps so i can figure out how much more it would cost

my 1k from htg pulls 9.2 amps. a 400w hps would pull about 4 amps. 600w is the most efficient hps out there. i'd wait on the led's. the technology is there, it's just not there for mj imo. hps will penetrate far better than cfl's or led's. a small fan probably won't cut it. depending on your room's set up, you may be able to use a 400w hps with an air cooled hood and a duct fan instead of the vortex fans. you can get a diy 400w hps for $54 from htg if you don't mind wiring it up. i've bought 2 1k diy kits from them and they've been running for well over a year.

ok thanks i meant 1-2 plants and they are in my closet so heats an issue so ill probably end up getting 150watt one and im gonna start doing 12/12 from seed so ill end up just getting an hps only no mh so hopefully i can keep the heat down and the electric bill down....one 150 watt hps should hopefully be about the same as my 12 cfls

The 180 Pro Grow's I'm using take in 130 actual watts of power. They produce 8500 lumens, but what you needs to take into consideration is this lumen output is directly targeted at what plants need to grow. Yes a 400w hps puts out about 45000 lumens but a lot of that is wasted on improper spectrum and heat. I'm half way through my first led grow and can say that the 180 Pro Grow is almost equivalent to my 400w hps, probably about 350w. Still I am able to drastically reduce watering, I have no more heat issues in my limited space and have thus far achieved equal results using way less power. I was paying with HPS, CFLS, and exhaust fans close to $50 bucks a month to power my set up. Not vey efficient. Two HPS lights is gonna consume about 900w of power as opposed to 260w with my led set up. Not trying to change anyones mind here just sharing my experience. I'm all about testing and figuring out the cheapest, safest, most effective way to grow nugs. I also travel a lot for my job. The idea of having two 400w hps lights going while I'm out of town was a bit sketchy imo. I'd hate to burn my house down to get some smoke.

ok thanks but i got plenty of cfls for side lighting but i think ill either go with this http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTGSupply-150-watt-High-Pressure-Sodium-Grow-Light.asp or this one http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-FLORALUX-150w-HPS-Mini-Grow-Light.asp what do you guys think?

t5's are an excellent choice if you want to want to bump up to that wattage and keep power costs low, low heat properties as well

the t5s are a tad bit more expensive and the lumens arent there compared to a hps

FYI - I have a floro lux 150 hps. Don't use it anymore. It will probably be in ebay soon. It will cover one plant very well. Coverage is limited by the physical size of the unit. 3 plants may be stretching it a bit unless you have additional side lighting. If you're intent on going HID, this will work but I'd suggest checking out www.1000bulbs.com look up CLFs. They have 105w CFLS in 5000k and 2700k spectrums, are only 20 bucks a pop and fit into a standard edison socket. That is the largest wattage clf you can buy without having to use a mogel socket. They are bright as fuck and would work better than a t-5 set up since they are way more modular. My first grow years ago was accomplished using this combination and I was happy with the results. Best of luck man.

thanks for the info, i use 42 and 55 watt cfls right now but i only wanted to switch to hps because i hate adjusting them almost every fucking day so they stay around 3in from the plant without burning it, its such a bitch and with as many cfls as i have in there right now it still gets pretty hot so i figured the electric bill would be about the same along with the heat

Agree, adjusting cfls is a huge pain in the ass. It always a bitch when the hinge dies on reflectors and your plants get burned too. The heat with hps is far greater than that of a cfl at any wattage. Electric consumption won't jump much with only 150w hps.