I just bought a GE Lucalox 600w HPS bulb and a 15ft Lamp Cord With Mogul Base Porcelain Socket. Needless to say its pretty dark here, does anyone know any tricks or why its not starting? I just got the socket today and the bulb 2 days ago, here is what the socket looks like... 15ft Lamp Cord With Mogul Base Porcelain Socket | eBay Thank you very much!
You're going to need to spend a lot more money than that. You need a ballast and socket assembly made for an HPS bulb. What you have looks like it is for a cfl bulb.
Nope, you need the whole setup to run HID lights. The only thing you could do with that socket you bought on ebay is stick a large cfl in there.
the ballast is kind of a starter so to speak and you will notice that where most bulbs light right up a flourescent or mh or hps will start dim and then come up to full spec. well, there you have it, a bulb that wont start w/o a ballast. and the ballast to lamp cord will have a special configurative plug end at the ballast. you can go cheap and get a vanity fixture from a bathroom and twist in a series of cfls for a 600w equivalant. 2-55s 2-42s and 2-26s the 55s rep 200w ea the 42s rep150 ea and the 26s rep 100. now dont get freaky about this cause it is the f-n bomb. check and add the lumin values from each then determine which bulbs you want for either a veg room or a flower room. for clones and early veg you can get aqua bulbs (flourescent) under 6 bucks ea and put them on a similar vanity strip. these light fixtures are often free or dirt cheap at a g-sale or salvage store like goodwills. usually under 5 bucks. take back the 600w and spend the mon on cfls and you get less heat to manage also. within inches of the plant they will produce over a hundred grams per three plants every 5-6 weeks, keeping 3-4 in clones or early veg and 3-4 in veg and 3-4 in flower. my homie is out growing me with my 600hps. he keeps 3-4 plants at each stage and has a 100g harvest every 5th week. he does like to push his to the nearest full moon or often hit it with uv for greater resin production at finish. much luck to ya man! for more on the cfls hit me with a personal and i can walk you through the 40 dollar a month power grow. thats 60 bucks of power for 100gs of premium stank. it is happening everywhere i know. prices have dumped to a bill and a half for a good zip cause we got our own (personal) dispensaries. -D-
So what would be the cheapest way to run this light :/ bc i dont really have $200 bucks to drop right now GE LUCALOX 600W HPS LIGHT BULB EXTRA OUTPUT 92,000 LUM | eBay - is what i have exactly
Until you can save up some more money for the whole HPS setup, you'll have to run cfls. You're looking for something like this: http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Digital-Greenhouse-600-watt-HPS-Grow-Light.asp You may be able to find something cheaper on ebay or Amazon. There's really no other options since you must have the right ballast and everything to run the HPS bulb you bought. You might want to return the bulb if you can't buy the rest of it and make sure you do your research before making another purchase.