Most people only read the top post. So I'm editing. How good a deal is this? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003IMDEJG/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A2GUMCXR7HBXM2 Only 3 left thinking of buying. Downsides/upsides/things to consider? Good deal? Good price? Definately switching over to HPS eventually So, right now I'm running CFL (3 100wers (400w equivs) and multiple 100w equivs), have 2 passive intakes, and a 4" 109CFM fan (Amazon.com: 4" TD Series Inline Fan, 109 CFM: Kitchen & Dining) and have 2 fans in the room for circulation. I live in the desert and high 80's have been the norm. Now, I've thought about buying an evaporation cooler for the next summer, that should decrease my temps by about 5-10 degrees. With winter coming, I've been thinking about maybe about switching over to an HPS, and trying to use it next summer. About how many degrees would a 400 w HPS likely raise temps in my room during lights on? I"m running hydro, so during the summer i've been having to add ice bottles and h202 due to high temps of the reservoir too (Pushing 80-81 on some days) *edit* room is a typical closet about 4X4X10 thanks
Thinking of purchasing this Amazon.com: New 400 Watt HPS Digital Grow Light System 400W Sun Lamp Plant Growing Light: BestChoiceproducts It says air cooled reflective hood, does that mean the cooling is built in?
it shouldnt run it anymore than what you have now, i know CFL's get pretty hot, plus if you're only gonna use the HPS for flowering, it'll only be on 12 hours so it shouldnt cause to much of a prolonged Heat signature if the decide to scan by your house, or with planes.
I meant more of the room temperatures rising. With 3 100w cfl's (actuall 100w, 400w equivs) my room temperatures get really close to 90. I've heard great things about hps, but am worried it'll raise my temps into the 90's
I wouldn't put more then 1 x 600w / 20 sq ft or 1 x 1000w / 25 sq ft of flowering space! Meaning you need some extra room around your lights!
Ok, gonna mAke the switch soon. Growing an 80% saliva and worried about light penetration on it. Any thoughts on the hood/ballast/bulb combo I linked? Price seems great! Would spend more on something else if it's better. I also like how it'll accept a 600w bulb
One last question. Air cooled reflector, so that means its set up to be air cooled. What do I need to cool it?
An air-cooled reflector has a piece of tempered glass across the bottom of it and a flange on either end for attaching venting. The idea is that the light is now in a closed-ventilation system, so if you have a fan pulling exhaust through the light it will pull all the heat away without most of it entering the grow space. Check with the seller directly, however -- those photos are not an air-cooled hood...
Well I have plenty of time to shop around. My current plant is almost to the ceiling, so can't swap out my CFL's for an HPS just yet. Going to the hydro store on friday, I'll look around at what they have and prices. I keep hearing about "cool tubes" and looked them up. Are they all they're made out to be?
A cool tube basically is just another form of air-cooled hood. The difference is that with an air-cooled hood there is a specific "bottom", meaning the side that has the glass that is supposed to face down on the top of the plants, while the other sides are reflective material to direct the light going off in different directions back down towards the plants. A cool tube, by contrast, is a round cylinder of glass that potentially could allow the light to get out 360. When you buy a cool tube often it comes with reflective inserts and batwings to let it be mounted horizontally above the plants and reflect light down, but a cool tube also can be mounted vertically, with no reflective material, so that light is getting out the full 360 and plants are placed all around it in a circle. The very first cool tubes were rigged from pyrex tubes designed for baking bread, so how 'bout that.
my 600w pushes temps in my box up ~15degrees F the air-cooled reflector needs air to cool it, meaning you need some sort of fan. if a material existed that could just suck all the heat from the bulb and teleport it to space, things would be alot cheaper and easier, unfortunately the heat needs to go somewhere... think about it, your bulb is also inside a glass casing (a "tube") yet it doesn't cool unless you activately cool it.