ok first off, what is a ballast? and if i get an HPS ballast system, can i just screw this MH bulb into it? http://www.insidesun.com/index.php/action/item/id/150/prevaction/category/previd/6/prevstart/0/ also.. why the hell is the 1000 watt bulb so much cheaper than the 600 watt?? and one more question, for now, whats the hortilux upgrade when you buy the system? i need someone who bought from this site before
All i know is you need a ballast for big lights ( ex what you want ) also yes you can use that light....the 1000w light bulb thing i really dont know either hope that kinda helps
ballast convers the electricity coming out of your wall to the electricity your lamp needs. The 1000W is cheaper A) because it is a dogshit ballast and B) because it is used/refurbed
dogshit ballast? how can a ballast be bad/good? and where is that 90 dollar 400 watt system everyones talking about
Correct me if im wrong but I believe 1000w HPS systems are meant to have some sort of cooling device? I ordered a 600W HPS and it gets decently hot. I cant imagine how much heat a 1000W light would put out.
The hortilux upgrade I believe is an upgrade from a standard 400w bulb to a hortilux 400w bulb and the places i have seen usually costs between $40-60 USD.
The difference in the bulbs are the spectrums and lumens they emit which directly effects your photosynthetic available radiation. The effective PAR from a 1000w light will reach about 3' into the plant canopy so if you plan to grow your plants tall then use one. If you want to grow short plants or ScrOG or SOG then your better off just using a 400w on a light mover. Or variations depending on what you are trying to accomplish. This will also help control room temps and electricity costs. You want efficient and effective.
BTW Metal Hadilde are good for vegative growth as it's light spectrum is mainly blue. High Pressure Sodiums are better for flowering as they are mainly orange-red. Full spectrum Floros cover all bands. So using MH & HPS would be the most effective if not the most efficient... But 2 400w'ers, one HPS and one MH on a light mover would be high end light for a nice grow. You need different ballasts for each type of lighting as well.
i know but that doesnt answer my question about the hortilux bulbs, go to the site and click on a purchase and it says hortilux bulb upgrade for 40 bucks extra
Hortilux is design to cover more light specturm. There are several brands/styles of bulbs that you can use that are designed specifically for growing and try to more closely cover the bandwidths that plants use. Sort of like using a MH and a HPS together. For instance an HPS would try to cover more blue spectrum. You can find studies comparing the brands/styles all over the net to find what you think would be best for you. Depends on what you plan on doing too. Like if you are going to have 2 lights you might as well get a MH and a HPS and use both with reg bulbs. This way you have a one time cost rather than high cost every bulb replacement. You can find standard bulbs easily locally anywhere and for a much more reasonable price.
The regular 400 watt HPS bulb will give between 50,000-52,000 lumens. Hortilux is the bulb manufacturer that makes that bulb. The Hortilux bulb also has a new and improved spectrum that is the closest an artificial bulb can come to resembling the flowering spectrum of the sun.
trust me. the quality of a ballast can vary greatly. For starters, the quality of ignitors is one of the things that gets cheapened. Then there is the fact that a lot of manufacturers use capacitors that have lower temp ratings. Open up a couple different ones and you will see differences in how they are assembled. Some are just all thrown in there. Some really nice ones (like Sunlight Supply's) have isolation walls built into them for better cooling. Some are enclosed in cheap-ass thin metal. Some are enclosed in really nice thick extruded alluminum. I've seen some that use cheaper wiring not rated for the drastic temp changes and hot/cold cycles that go on inside a ballast. One company sells dogshit ballasts and claims they are "open air" as an advanced feature rather than telling you the truth about how they are ineffeicient dogshit ballasts that can't be enclosed because they will get too hot and fail sooner. Lower quality ballasts also operate with less efficiency. This means the money you are paying to power the thing isn't being transferred into light as well as it should. A cheaper, less efficient 400W ballast will pull more than 400 watts to put out the equivelent of a well-made higher efficiency 400W ballast. 400W does not always equal 400W.