so i went to my local store, and they sell bulbs, but i cant figure out how to make a socket in my space. it would be too weird to call an electrician because its in a very discreet spot in my house. how do i go about putting a socket in my grow space?
Best advice i can give to you is get some extensions cords, other wise your not going to be able to put in a socket with out some electrical knowledge. Or you can buy a book at Lowe's that tell you how to install shit like that but it takes alot more to then just "putting a socket" in a select spot.
You need both a ballast and a lamp for HPS, with the lamp consisting of a socket and a reflector at a minimum. There are threads on this forum how to wire up something yourself, but it sounds like you are like me and don't know enough about electricity to build a set-up. So why not just buy a whole light kit that includes everything? You can get security lights at Home Depot, set-ups for growing at local hydro shops, and anythying imaginable online.
I believe he's talking about the eletrical outlet in the wall, he doesn't have an eletrical outlet that is close and he is talking about putting one of those in, not about the actual wiring of the light. I would use an extension cord myself, if you do have to call an electriction, I would just put something else in the area for now that it looks like you would hook up, like a de-humidifer, tiny refrigerator, or something to that effect that would not look suspicious. Personally, i think most eletricions wouldnt care either way, they are making money off you, and being blue collar workers probably smoke a little weed time to time themselves
thanks for your input but maybe i should explain a little bit more... i already have an extension cord hidden-wired all the way up there. i just need to put a hps socket up in the ceiling tiles. there is about 2 feet of height up in the ceiling tiles and i have 1 electrical outlet up there, but no socket, and about buying a hydro thingy online, those cost too much money, i checked online and they start at or around 250$. much too expensive for me
so you have all the other goodies--transformer core,cooling capacitor,and ballast,and your local co doesn't carry the socket/module, then try www.sumaster-growlamps.com,or www.Mcmaster.com
Hmm...$120 is a lot of money but it sounds like HPS lights are an absolute necessity if you want a decent yield from your plants. How big is the difference between plants growing under a 400w HPS and 400w of well-situated CFLs?
You're probably thinking of "equivalent" or "replacement" watts for cfl's. You can't compare the replacement watts of cfl's to actual watts of HIDs -- both types put out more lumens per watt than household incandescent bulbs, which is the basis of comparison used by cfl's. Bottom line is look at lumens rather than watts as the truer apples-to-apples comparison of light output.