The best lights

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
I'm building a 300W LED panel for a friend. For a closet grow. LED tech is advancing faster than computer tech. The game changed when the "white" LEDs came out. Broad spectrum, very bright and cool(er) running. There are some very impressive LED threads out there.
Good shit Rrog! You have to be one of the most informative members here. I really appreciate reading your stuff.

Respect
 

Timmahh

Well-Known Member
What ballast would work with that bulb?

treetopmmmp
any 1000w HPS or MH Magnetic. These are listed as All Start Bulbs. (not sure if it is electronic ballast compatible or not. the kink in electronic ballast is most operate at 180Hz, while the mags like most everything else operate at 60Hz).
 

zone5bmi

Active Member
no ones running the plasma lights yet? im super excited to see those in veg, hard to drop 1400 on it though. ive always tried to add 10-20 percent blue light, anything over seemed to get fluffy, no solid data to confirm that, just a stoned observation one evening. any 600w fanboys? ive been all over the wattage spectrum and these days i only run 600's. i feel i can cool them much better which allows me to drop them down on my canopy lower than ever. only draw back really is the added hoods, ballasts and bulbs. not to mention the needed amps available to power everything, but if your run much more than 2 600's im sure you have been at that cross road already. i like to run 6 600's in a 8x8 room, being laid off made me cut back to 3 600's in a 4x8 however. sunpulse 3k or 4k i forget, in the center, and two hortilux's on the sides. not sure how i like the sunpulse's for the money, but alot of bulbs are 100+ so..idk. i cant complain with the final product. :joint:
Whats your method on cooling in those rooms? And do you run a dehumidifier?
 

mushead

Active Member
Whats your method on cooling in those rooms? And do you run a dehumidifier?
well for starters im in a basement, which is a headstart in my opinion. i have all big kahuna hoods from htg supply which cool nicely compared to some of the crappy hoods ive had. a 6inch inline fan and a Ice Box Heat Exchanger(summertime if it gets to toasty out). water chiller for the ice box of course, and i have a separate humidistat built into my furnace that deals with my humidity. my issue is getting too dry, ie 15% eww! there's hepa and carbon filters in there to but thats more about air quality for me, and my plants benefit from it second. i have lung problems. with 2 1k;s in a 4x8 i had to run the ice box all the time when the lights were on, same hoods, fans and air flow. also for ciculation i have 20in box fans, one at each end, i hoping to get a big 4 foot shop fan, give them some strength. with c02 i let the temps get to 85 easy, maybe even 90 some days, night temps stay at 75-80 depending how high i push the heat in the day. i try to keep it with in 10 degrees F between night and day, and similar temps all week long, meaning not 90, 80, 75, 70 85.. a lot of room to experiment here. especially the night temps
 

Kite High

Well-Known Member
...i know the 1000 magnetic metal halide will work, i'm not sure about an HPS.

peace, bozo
Well this isn't technical but a friend of mine has one in a parabolic hood and a switchable ballast. He's run it for months then one day when cleaning and straightening the room out he discovered he had the ballast on hps so it worked and still does fine. He left it on that setting. That and the "All Start" labeling indicates it does work fore either. But NO digital or electronic ballasts as Timmah is correct the high frequencies are beyond the design parameters and will vibrate it apart. These lamps were designed as replacements for hps yellow light to white light and digital ballasts were not out in the field yet for those applications. Actually there use still is not common on new installations as the businesses know they do not last like mag coil and offer very little in the way of energy savings as I have read many tests that show most of the time they are not even 1% more efficient. But cost over 3 times as much as mag coil and we all know that mag coils last forever with only a capacitor and/or igniter change.

And Bozo I totally agree with your sig. And am definitely defiant to the cannabis prohibition laws.
 

justanotherbozo

Well-Known Member
Well this isn't technical but a friend of mine has one in a parabolic hood and a switchable ballast. He's run it for months then one day when cleaning and straightening the room out he discovered he had the ballast on hps so it worked and still does fine. He left it on that setting. That and the "All Start" labeling indicates it does work fore either. But NO digital or electronic ballasts as Timmah is correct the high frequencies are beyond the design parameters and will vibrate it apart. These lamps were designed as replacements for hps yellow light to white light and digital ballasts were not out in the field yet for those applications. Actually there use still is not common on new installations as the businesses know they do not last like mag coil and offer very little in the way of energy savings as I have read many tests that show most of the time they are not even 1% more efficient. But cost over 3 times as much as mag coil and we all know that mag coils last forever with only a capacitor and/or igniter change.

And Bozo I totally agree with your sig. And am definitely defiant to the cannabis prohibition laws.
thanks man, it's good to know it'll work with either.

...and another advantage to magnetic ballasts over digital is that sometimes digitals cause rf interference and you don't know it until you get a knock at the door wanting to know what it is you're running that is phucking up the neighbors cable TV!

...and thanks for the props on the quote, them founding fathers really knew their stuff!

peace, bozo
 

Timmahh

Well-Known Member
thanks man, it's good to know it'll work with either.

...and another advantage to magnetic ballasts over digital is that sometimes digitals cause rf interference and you don't know it until you get a knock at the door wanting to know what it is you're running that is phucking up the neighbors cable TV!

...and thanks for the props on the quote, them founding fathers really knew their stuff!

peace, bozo

that Interferance from the cheaper Electronic ballasts is also due to the 180Hz operation. 99% of Items run at 60Hz, so when you run something with 180Hz, that higher frequency feedsback over the powerlines and causes the buz or hum in things like TVs, Radios, Phones Ect.... the High end EBallast should have proper filtering.

On another side note, the Quantum Brand Ballasts (the Orange units) Operate on a 60Hz cycle, so this should work just fine, though I am only presuming here.
 

mushead

Active Member
where you find these electronic ballast that run up to 180hrtz?? all my ballast run at 60.. some are even lower. at that high of hertz there is no point to buy it, the whole theory behind e ballasts is to use energy better and hum less. only advantage to a magnetic is reliability and cost. which cost is not dropping as fast as electronic ballasts are. ive use a magnetic ballast that was older than me and it still works. ive been thru 4 electronic ones. all had fans in them..
 

bottletoke

Well-Known Member
. note: it is a Vertical ONLY bulb!
Not true but they are specific. When u order u have to specify vert or horz and cant run it in the opposite position.
I have 4 horizontals on order. When I ordered them I initially thought the "hor" in the part number meant horticulture, luckily I ordered the right bulb cuz it means horizontal.
 

Kite High

Well-Known Member
Not true but they are specific. When u order u have to specify vert or horz and cant run it in the opposite position.
I have 4 horizontals on order. When I ordered them I initially thought the "hor" in the part number meant horticulture, luckily I ordered the right bulb cuz it means horizontal.
you are referring to the 400 watters...the 830 watter is only available as vertical...unless very recently they released a horizontal 830 watt but I am not aware that they have
 

Kite High

Well-Known Member
where you find these electronic ballast that run up to 180hrtz?? all my ballast run at 60.. some are even lower. at that high of hertz there is no point to buy it, the whole theory behind e ballasts is to use energy better and hum less. only advantage to a magnetic is reliability and cost. which cost is not dropping as fast as electronic ballasts are. ive use a magnetic ballast that was older than me and it still works. ive been thru 4 electronic ones. all had fans in them..
exactly why I run mag coils they last forever
 

snakekeeper

New Member
I have seen plants grown under T5, 4000k metal halide, solarmax veg 7200k metal halide, hornilux blue MH, and HPS.

You will get the fattest stems and most robust growth with a blue MH. Both the solarmax and hornilux blue are good MH lamps. HPS and T5 cause very thin and week stems. You will also get the best yield with a blue MH.
 

VaporTrail

Active Member
I use Eye Hortilux super hps for flower, blue mh for veg, and I'm not here to debate it either. Most important Oldhippy, is Genetics thats where it ends. Without Genetics you dont have shit.;-)
 
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