Would these lights from work in house?

Smitty42088

Smitty42088

Well-Known Member
Hey guys I picked up some 400 watt hid lights from work we wasn't using anymore but I'm not sure they would make good grow lights since the hookup seems to be a 220 or 400 so I'm not even sure these would work...Any advice is appreciated..They seem like they would be beast!
 

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Smitty42088

Smitty42088

Well-Known Member
macsnax said:
It sure will. The only problem is the footprint that hood/shade is going to throw. Maybe lose it and consider a vertical grow. And ya you will need to run a 220 line to run it too.
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Thanks for the advice man. One more question...Do you think my electric company would get suspicious if I hooked one of these up I'm already running a 600 hps and two 300 watt LEDs??
 
macsnax

macsnax

Well-Known Member
There are a lot of appliances and household electronics that draw that much power, if you're not attracting attention to yourself you should be fine .
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Look at the ballast transformer, see if it has unused wires with little tags on them. It may have a transformer that can be hooked up for multiple voltages, the wires would say, 120, 208, 240, 277 and 480 (used currently). If thats the case then one can unhook the 480v wire and connect the wire for the voltage they wish to use.

That said these look like they have a lot of miles on them and may not last long.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I use 30+ year old magnetics and they still work fine. Had to replace a ballast in one of the HPS ones and will be getting a multimeter that can test for capacitance to make sure they are working properly. They can still fire a light when they get low but light output suffers. Need one for each of my 2 - 1000W ballasts. One is MH only and the other switchable MH/HPS. To test if the capacitor is dead pull the wires off the top and with a multimeter set at it's highest resistance level hold the tips on the tabs on top of the capacitor and the resistance should slowly rise. If it's dead it won't show anything. Bulging tops or leaks are physical indicators that the capacitor is shot.

That reflector on yours is crap for a grow room but you can remove it and mount the socket in another hood but most hoods come with a socket installed. Just run wires from the ballast to the light and you won't have to hang that heavy ballast.

One of my oldest 400W HPS. Using it right now to veg plants with a 400W Philips CMH bulb. I have two like that and a 400W MH very similar. MH and HPS are virtually the same with the same coils and capacitors but the HPS also has an ignitor to fire the bulbs. Mine are wired 120V but can be switched to other voltages like 240.

400WHPSBallast01.jpg

HpsWithCapacitor.JPG
 
macsnax

macsnax

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
I use 30+ year old magnetics and they still work fine. Had to replace a ballast in one of the HPS ones and will be getting a multimeter that can test for capacitance to make sure they are working properly. They can still fire a light when they get low but light output suffers. Need one for each of my 2 - 1000W ballasts. One is MH only and the other switchable MH/HPS. To test if the capacitor is dead pull the wires off the top and with a multimeter set at it's highest resistance level hold the tips on the tabs on top of the capacitor and the resistance should slowly rise. If it's dead it won't show anything. Bulging tops or leaks are physical indicators that the capacitor is shot.

That reflector on yours is crap for a grow room but you can remove it and mount the socket in another hood but most hoods come with a socket installed. Just run wires from the ballast to the light and you won't have to hang that heavy ballast.

One of my oldest 400W HPS. Using it right now to veg plants with a 400W Philips CMH bulb. I have two like that and a 400W MH very similar. MH and HPS are virtually the same with the same coils and capacitors but the HPS also has an ignitor to fire the bulbs. Mine are wired 120V but can be switched to other voltages like 240.

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Sounds like you got your hid's down, lol. Good to see you around man.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Smitty42088 said:
Thanks for the advice man. One more question...Do you think my electric company would get suspicious if I hooked one of these up I'm already running a 600 hps and two 300 watt LEDs??
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Honestly, keep buying high quality LED lights and put that rocket nozzle in the trash where it belongs.

Top quality LED is going to last and over time will save you more in energy costs than the light itself.

HLG
Timber
COBKits if you want to DIY.

Garbage in, garbage out, brother.
 
Smitty42088

Smitty42088

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Honestly, keep buying high quality LED lights and put that rocket nozzle in the trash where it belongs.

Top quality LED is going to last and over time will save you more in energy costs than the light itself.

HLG
Timber
COBKits if you want to DIY.

Garbage in, garbage out, brother.
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Appreciate all you guys help..And I actually agree man about going a different route these were free from my work so I figured why not grab them up...They look trashy due to coming out of a dusty ass sawmill..Just seems like to much work to mess with to me..
 
Jimdamick

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
I use 30+ year old magnetics and they still work fine. Had to replace a ballast in one of the HPS ones and will be getting a multimeter that can test for capacitance to make sure they are working properly. They can still fire a light when they get low but light output suffers. Need one for each of my 2 - 1000W ballasts. One is MH only and the other switchable MH/HPS. To test if the capacitor is dead pull the wires off the top and with a multimeter set at it's highest resistance level hold the tips on the tabs on top of the capacitor and the resistance should slowly rise. If it's dead it won't show anything. Bulging tops or leaks are physical indicators that the capacitor is shot.

That reflector on yours is crap for a grow room but you can remove it and mount the socket in another hood but most hoods come with a socket installed. Just run wires from the ballast to the light and you won't have to hang that heavy ballast.

One of my oldest 400W HPS. Using it right now to veg plants with a 400W Philips CMH bulb. I have two like that and a 400W MH very similar. MH and HPS are virtually the same with the same coils and capacitors but the HPS also has an ignitor to fire the bulbs. Mine are wired 120V but can be switched to other voltages like 240.

View attachment 4321838

View attachment 4321851
Click to expand...
I was an electrician for over 35 years, and your explanation was mint.
I'd personally toss it and get a new 400 watt digital system, which in my opinion for veg is way overkill.



This dual HPS/MH is $120 on Amazon, but I'd get this for veg which is simply a 4 bulb 4' T5 fixture for $90.



I grow all my plants for 4 weeks under a similar one (have 20 under one right now,) then switch to HPS for finish and they do great, with low energy consumption.

IMG_20190422_214455953_HDR.jpg IMG_20190422_215353550_HDR.jpg IMG_20190422_214415576_HDR.jpg
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I normally use an 8-4' tube T-12 I built in '01 for vegging small plants but the wife is using it to grow her tomatoes etc this year. Can use 2, 4, 6 or all 8 depending on how much area needs covering. Took shop lights apart and mounted the bulb ends on a sheet of plywood with the ballasts on the back. Got a dead ballast so need to replace it with a shiny new one but haven't got around to it yet. The tomatoes are doing great with 6 tho.

GardenPlants.jpg
 
Smitty42088

Smitty42088

Well-Known Member
Jimdamick said:
I was an electrician for over 35 years, and your explanation was mint.
I'd personally toss it and get a new 400 watt digital system, which in my opinion for veg is way overkill.



This dual HPS/MH is $120 on Amazon, but I'd get this for veg which is simply a 4 bulb 4' T5 fixture for $90.



I grow all my plants for 4 weeks under a similar one (have 20 under one right now,) then switch to HPS for finish and they do great, with low energy consumption.

View attachment 4321936 View attachment 4321938 View attachment 4321939
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That looks perfect for what I need...I got clones sitting in a tent now that's holding two beautiful gorilla glue 4s from being flipped there's only two plants in a five by five but I say after I scrog them they will be ready to flip cause their huge already lol.
 
Smitty42088

Smitty42088

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
I normally use an 8-4' tube T-12 I built in '01 for vegging small plants but the wife is using it to grow her tomatoes etc this year. Can use 2, 4, 6 or all 8 depending on how much area needs covering. Took shop lights apart and mounted the bulb ends on a sheet of plywood with the ballasts on the back. Got a dead ballast so need to replace it with a shiny new one but haven't got around to it yet. The tomatoes are doing great with 6 tho.

View attachment 4322003
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Looks great that's exactly what I need another light for...I already have two tents ready to rock all I'm missing is my seedling starter to get me a perpetual garden!!Thanks guys
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
OldMedUser said:
I normally use an 8-4' tube T-12 I built in '01 for vegging small plants but the wife is using it to grow her tomatoes etc this year. Can use 2, 4, 6 or all 8 depending on how much area needs covering. Took shop lights apart and mounted the bulb ends on a sheet of plywood with the ballasts on the back. Got a dead ballast so need to replace it with a shiny new one but haven't got around to it yet. The tomatoes are doing great with 6 tho.

View attachment 4322003
Click to expand...
I've made some silly lights in my time. Once, I screwed half a dozen old bathroom fixtures to two strips of wood, so the wood was like railroad tracks and the 4 bulb fixtures were like the ties. Then I screwed in 24 CFL bulbs and made my first homebuilt grow light!

It was hot but it was the bomb for plants between 3" and a foot tall.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
One of my first big grows had a bunch of lighting that my buddy got when his job was tossing stuff. He was in maintenance at a high school. They had some stadium lights for a football stadium, they were 1500 watt MH. He gave me 6 of those, just the ballast kit with transformer and capacitor and new sylvania bulbs. I used some of those old school large parabolic reflectors. The garage had 12 foot ceilings. Grew the fuck out of some plants lol.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
One of my first big grows had a bunch of lighting that my buddy got when his job was tossing stuff. He was in maintenance at a high school. They had some stadium lights for a football stadium, they were 1500 watt MH. He gave me 6 of those, just the ballast kit with transformer and capacitor and new sylvania bulbs. I used some of those old school large parabolic reflectors. The garage had 12 foot ceilings. Grew the fuck out of some plants lol.
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That's awesome- think about how many high school kids looked at those lights and dreamed of doing what you actually did.
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I've made some silly lights in my time. Once, I screwed half a dozen old bathroom fixtures to two strips of wood, so the wood was like railroad tracks and the 4 bulb fixtures were like the ties. Then I screwed in 24 CFL bulbs and made my first homebuilt grow light!

It was hot but it was the bomb for plants between 3" and a foot tall.
Click to expand...
I found some vanity fixtures at a local thrift store about 6 years ago and bought them up cheap alwaus planning to make a CFL grow light out of the. With the rollout of LED light bulbs I bought a shitload of them for $1/bulb and finally built that light. Don't like the 5000K spectrum tho and wish they made cheap 6400K to mix in.

Mounted them on aluminum angle iron so they have 6" centers from any direction. Not a very big footprint but I have 2 more 4 - bulb fixtures I plan to set up like outriggers so can hang off each side.

LEDFinish05.jpg

LEDFinish02.jpg
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