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 crackrocker00
Stranger
Registered: 05/03/11
Posts: 12
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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 Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? 
#552862 - 05/03/11 06:45 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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I only intend to buy one light setup at first. Should i get a light setup with a ballast that works for hps AND mh or just get the HPS setup and get a HPS to MH bulb for the vegetative growth? I ask because in the Indoor Growing Bible, Cervantes mentions that these ballasts that are MH/HPS burn out the bulbs quicker and arent as efficient/dont put out as many lumens and the dedicated ballasts.
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crackrocker00
Stranger
Registered: 05/03/11
Posts: 12
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: crackrocker00]
#553249 - 05/05/11 10:52 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Wow i thought this site would be flooded with people compared to the shroomery, assumed more people were growing pot. Anyway............
Part 2 to that question - If i do get a HPS system and just use a HPS to MH conversion bulb for the veg, do the HPS to MH conversion bulbs work horizontally? I know MH bulbs usually only work vertically besides the ones that specifically say they work at any angle, but Cervantes says these MH bulbs that work at any angle are much less efficient? THOUGHTS?!?!!? SUGGESTIONS?! COMMENTS?!
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MushrooMan420
Muncher
Registered: 12/23/09
Posts: 467
Loc: CA
Last seen: 7 years, 9 days
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: crackrocker00]
#553355 - 05/05/11 06:55 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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You posted in the wrong section which is probably why no one has helped you...your in the soil and organics forum.
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crackrocker00
Stranger
Registered: 05/03/11
Posts: 12
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: MushrooMan420]
#553588 - 05/06/11 03:09 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Which section should it be in? outdoor/greenhouse or hydroponics/aeoponics. You would think a topic like lighting would easily fit into a forum category but I dont think any of those r appropriate
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 Hawksresurrection
Registered: 12/04/08
Posts: 13,464
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: crackrocker00]
#553768 - 05/07/11 11:55 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Well to answer your question. Go with the switchable ballast. I've used them for years with no problems whatsoever.
Of course they work horizontally. All bulbs are designed to work that way.
--------------------
Dude she isn't as young as she use to be.
-niteowl
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couchlockd
Stranger
Registered: 05/07/11
Posts: 11
Last seen: 13 years, 6 months
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: crackrocker00]
#553769 - 05/07/11 11:59 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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hey hey, im new here to the shroomery/growery.
but not new to the art of cultivating fine cannabis.
if you are reffering to a magnetic coil and core ballast, one that is switchable compared to one that is not, there is not a "better" type than the other, actually the switchable HPS/MH magnetic coil and core ballast has the advantage over the non switchable mag. coil and core ballast, due to the fact that you can strike both types of HID lamps most commonly used in indoor growing.
par for the course would be to veg under MH and flower under HPS, as im sure you already know.
and the switchable magnetic coil and core ballasts that run both MH and HPS have basically all the componets of a HPS and all the componets of a MH ballast, and whatever way you have the switch set, either MH or HPS is the ballast the switch lets work, and it shuts the oposing side of the ballast componets off.
also "conversion bulbs" or "retro fit bulbs" are not the way to go, as for instance a 600 watt hps puts out any where from 88,000 lumens (hortilux) to 95,000 lumens (many others including generic industrial lighting bulbs like ge, sylvania, phillips, etc. or horticultural bulbs like ushio, plantmax,sunmaster, etc.) as compared to a conversion bulb that will be a MH type of arc tube and spectrum but being able to strike and fire on a HPS ballast, like lets say hortilux conversion bulb, the conversions use a lot of energy for the conversion and produce noticably less light/lux.
the digital ballast, many of them, have been having reports of way too premature bulb failure, due to the lamps being designed to run at 60 cycles per second (standard US electric 60hz.) and the digital electronic ballasts use 60hz AC current but the bulb gets ran at 44,000hz to 100,000 hz. ( 44K to 100K cycles per second) which in turn creates somewhat severe harmonic distortion in the arc tube support, and in some cases actually melting the arc supports and physically crashing the arc tube into the inside of the outer jacket.
hotilux bulbs are the bulbs that you hear of most doing this, also lumatek electronic ballasts are also the ballast you hear of most doing this, so lumatek ballast running a hotilux bulb= pretty likely to fail prematurely.
i personally have FUTURE-BRITE ballasts, the importer is a local place to me, and the guys hook me up right, but also, most importantly, i have NEVER had a bulb fail prematurely with these ballasts, and i have a 175w, 250w, 400w, and 2X 600w. the 175 and 250 have been runing 24/7 since the day i got them 5 years ago, and i have used multiple brands of bulbs both MH and HPS.
also some digital electronic ballasts can NOT be hung verticle or they will "leak" out the RF shielding, which happens to be a sticky gooey brownish black resin.
if you have some more questions, let me know, or pm me,
a really extensive cultivation forum called ICMAG.com is were a ton of legit growers and most good seed breeders hang out, cerventes is even on there form time to time as is resenthal, breeders like REZ DOG, SOMA, LUC, ETC. all frequent there almost daily,,
come check it out.
now on the topic of Digital/electronic ballasts versus the magnetic coil core ballast, there are many pros and cons no matter which type you choose, be it digital/electronic or mag. coil and core. lets begin.
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crackrocker00
Stranger
Registered: 05/03/11
Posts: 12
Last seen: 13 years, 4 months
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: couchlockd]
#553814 - 05/07/11 03:32 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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THANK YOU. thats exactly the kind of information I was asking for. Yeah that indoor medical growing bible was last revised in 2002 I think and the technology changes fast so I could see that stuff being wrong. Guess i wont really consider it the "bible" for indoor growing like it claims to be.
Yeah looking around at bulbs and stuff made me think that sideways bulb question was silly but Cervantes really emphasizes that the MH bulbs that set horizontally are bade, but what yall say is more consistent with what im seeing.
Couchlock - Please elaborate on the digital versus mag coil difference. I know the digitals were usually dimmable, but i was wondering wut the differences were.
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couchlockd
Stranger
Registered: 05/07/11
Posts: 11
Last seen: 13 years, 6 months
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Re: Dedicated hp/mh ballasts better than interchangeable? [Re: crackrocker00]
#554197 - 05/08/11 11:46 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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i really dont agree with diming a HID bulb at all, as most experienced growers dont either. the difference is that they use less watts, basically a magnetic coil ballast that is 1000 watts really uses about 1100 watts or a little more, and a 1000 watt digi, uses about 1040 watts.
how a mag coil and core ballast works is this, if you put a MH or HPS bulb in the lamp holder (were the bulb screws into) and plug the other end of the lamp holder directly into a household socket, the bulb would instantly light bunr to its brightest and then burn itself out.
what a mag, coil ballast does is "balance" the bulbs draw of current, by pulling all but what ever the bulbs wattage is, and the rest of the current the bulb wants to draw is converted to heat by the tranformer in the magnetic coilc and core ballast.
the digis/electronic ballasts do this with a seires of transitors, resistors, relays and such, all on a digital leval, virtually negating all the heat a traditional coil and core ballast generates.
in a perfect world, were i had all the indoor garden space i could ever want, i too would use a switchable traditional magnetic coild and core ballast. but i cant, as i grow in closets and cabs, and they are really confined and the ballast i use has to be in the garden with the plants, and that alone forces me to use a digital ballast.
i do have some digis that dim, but never use that feature, what you really want is a ballast maybe that dims like from 600 to 400 watts, so then you can actually use a seperate 400 wat bulb in the ballast on the 400 watt setting.
and i have a recomendation for both types of ballast.
for magnetic coil and core, any ballast by either hydrofarm, or sunlight supply, that is switchable between HPS/MH.
stay away from any coil and core THAT DOES NOT USE either advance, universal, venture, or magnatek components.
for digital/electronic ballasts, i recomend the only two that i tried that didnt give me any problems, and brother i tried them all. i recomend FUTURE BRITE ballasts with a cooling fan as my first and personal chioce, it what i curently use, and secondly i recomend QUANTUM digital ballast, which i also use too, but not as much as Future Brite. with any digital ballast i recomend the bulbs mad eby a company called USHIO. they are said to be digital ballat friendly, and i have not had one burn out on me yet, i have had 1 hortilux bulbl dies, but after a power failure, and a repeated attempt at hot starting the bulb, and it was covered under the year warranty and got replaced no questions asked. and now i have a brand new hortilux as a back up
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