what are you opinions with these double ended hps bulbs and set ups like the gavita do they really preform better then the old school screw in bulbs ? on paper they may look better and with out glass the numbers will always be higher . but in the real world how do they work ? solis tek and now hortilux make double ended bulbs . is it worth spending the extra cash for this upgrade . i currently burn solis tek ballasts my bulbs are a year old its time to buy bulbs . thanks guys and ladies .
Double end bulbs do have higher output. If you can afford the switch and need a bump in lighting, I would absolutely recommend gavitas.
I've seen a couple of people try to use their commercial fixtures in tents with the built in ballast and they couldn't keep them cool. They're made for high ceiling long light distance open spaces with AC. If you want to run the gavita stuff in a tent get their remote ballast. Eye Hortilux is releasing Ceramic HPS bulbs soon. It's a new innovation similar to CMH bulbs. They're supposed to have a great spectrum. I had a post about them a few months back. This is the gavita pro remote ballast. It does DE Gavita Pro Remote Ballast 1000W 1000w Double Ended (DE) Bulb & Lamp Comparison Review & Test Including: Philips, Gavita, Ushio, Hortilux, and More. "So let me pull it up right now, so here's a chart that shows off you know, what we think is probably the best number to focus on to figure out what lamp really did best in this test which is the total par, which means taking every point that we measured and adding every point that we measured and adding light that turned out to give us the most amount of light using the same ballast and reflector was the Philips Green Power 1000 watt DE HPS and we I honestly our hypothesis was that this lamp would probably do best because we heard from other lighting manufacturers who have done similar testing or even testing using equipment that's far superior to ours including like go Neal motometers and you know 520,000 lighting instruments and things of that sort they were saying that you know Phillips with some of its patented technology they have is really producing just about the best DE lamp out there." Double ended bulbs degrade slower. After 10,000 hours they still retain 90% of their output. Seeing Double: Double-ended, High Pressure Sodium (HPS) Lighting "Next, the spectrum and relative energy measurement dictated in micromoles far surpasses that of the industry-standard high intensity discharge (HID) mogul technology. Micromoles is a term we are hearing more and more in our industry. It’s a measurement that provides a comparative reference to understand what crops need in terms of light level requirements for particular crops and their various phases of growth. The double-ended HPS lamp has been recorded to produce more than 2,000 micromoles, whereas traditional mogul-based technology falls as low as 50 per cent less with identical variables. Think of it this way: you’re using the same amount of energy to produce up to 50 per cent less usable light to your crop. In some cases, this variance is the difference of up to double the yield per lighting fixture replaced. Aside from use during blooming, fruiting and flowering production, double-ended HPS lights work great for promoting vegetative growth as well. However, the concentrated wavelengths of lower nanometer range spectrum, a.k.a. red light, is favorable in blooming production areas. In other words, these lights excel in bloom production scenarios. Double-ended HPS bulbs are more stable than traditional, single-ended HPS bulbs, and this allows them to have a 10 per cent increase in light intensity and PAR output over traditional single-ended HPS bulbs. Double-ended HPS bulbs also emit more UV and IR light than traditional bulbs."