HPS/MH in a E26/7 socket

Discussion in 'Lighting' started by gofer12, Jun 26, 2010.

  1. Hello,

    My first time growing and I'm researching lights. I've done a lot of reading but I haven't heard much said about lights like these:

    https://1000bulbs.com/category/100-watt-high-pressure-sodium-lamps/

    Essentially 2100k 100 watt HPS bulbs that work in a normal socket. I was thinking about getting 4 of these for my small and legal medicinal grow of 3 plants. I mainly need flowering lamps, would these be appropriate?

    Also, is 2100k sufficient for flowering?

    Thanks a lot for all of the good info so far that I absorbed while lurking you guys are a wealth of knowledge!
     
  2. Those bulbs will not work in an edison socket... they are S54 socket bulbs which is a specialty socket...

    You would do well to just fork out a couple hundred bucks for an appropriate grow light system... I saw a 150w sun system HPS ballast & reflector for around $80 which would support 1-2 plants and I found a 400w mh/hps switchable ballast with bulbs and a bat-wing reflector for $176.99 with shipping on amazon.com sold by LEDWholesalers that i'm going to buy...

    Hope that helps...
    :wave:
     
  3. #3 gofer12, Jun 26, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2010
    Thank you so much!

    I found that 80 dollar system on amazon too after you mentioned it, looks great thank you!

    Another question would be in regards to the Mogul connections, I've noticed that there are cheap normal size to mogul size adapters, could I simply purchase these and then use mogul size lamps within the stated wattage limits of all the components? As long as they have ballasts?

    Which would you recommend, a 360 watt cfl setup, or a 150 HPS with 60 CFL for flowering, I've found they're about the same price.

    Once again thank you!

    Edit

    Priced it out and I can make a 504 watt system with 12 42 watt 2700k CFLS for around 105 dollars total, or I can get a 150 watt HPS and have enough left over for 4x42 watt cfls to supplement it. Which would you advise?

    And once again thank you for pointing out the ANSI S54 thing, saved my butt!
     
  4. the 150w Hps lighting is enough to veg and flower 1-2 plants without supplemental lighting... the additional lighting during veg and flower would be better but if you are going to add more lighting mixing cfl's with hid lights is like pissing into a waterfall... you would do better to go the extra distance and spend your money on a higher wattage hid light system or some High Output T5 flouros... I've found 2ft T5 lights for $24 online and that's just the fixture and a standard cool white bulb.. a 2ft hortilux t5 bulb is like $12 a bulb and the lumens produced is better than a cfl...

    I don't think I understand the cord that you are describing but I'l try to help you out...

    The three main componants of a HID light are as follows:

    1. The ballast: Think of it as functioning the way the power supply on your computer works by converting the 120v AC current that runs out of the plug in the wall and turning it into a stream of DC current that is able to ignite and power the specialized HID bulbs...

    2.The Socket: This is what holds the bulb and attaches to the reflector, It's specifically designed the way that it is to allow only specialty bulbs to fit because a normal bulb would malfunction under the voltage requirements of HID lights and HID lights would malfunction under the voltage that a normal edison socket bulb operates at.

    3.The Reflector: This is where the socket attaches. It reflects the light that the bulb would normally cast away from the plants back towards the plants to be used in Photosynthesis. These can be as simple as your bat-wing no-frills reflector, your middle of the road air cooled reflectors with glass panels, or your more high-end liquid cooled tube reflectors.

    Some manufacturers like sun systems make ballast, socket, reflector combo units and others make the ballast socket and reflector seperate units that can be purchased individually to allow the end-user the option of customizing his/her lighting by allowing any number of reflector / ballast combinations in either MH or HPS as well as the switchable MH/HPS combo ballasts that have igniters for both bulb types... :smoking:

    You should consider a higher wattage hps light system if you plan on growing more than 1 plant at a time... and believe me when I tell you that once you've been bitten by the grow bug you will want to grow more than 1 plant at a time... The most affordable systems that I have seen are the 400w systems simply because the bulbs are easily picked up at a big box home improvement store like the home depot for about $20 a bulb in hps and mh.. the next step up at 600w the prices triple for the bulbs (the most necessary part of the setup!) and the cost of the ballast isn't easily immediately justified in a situation where a new grower is having to fight the learning curve on their way to their 1st harvests... once you get the feel of having a few plants going and you've learned how to successfully tend to their needs until harvest time, a higher watt system might be justifiable if you wanted to expand your setup to a larger area..

    A 150w hps/mh system's working area is about 1'x1' square.. 400w 3'x3'.. 600w 4'x4'

    The single most important investment in your grow room is your lighting and IMO the best starter system is the 400w... It'll give off enough lumens to adequately grow enough plants at a time to where you can experiment on your plants with nutes and feeding schedules and make your mistakes but still have a few healthy plants if you accidently burn a few with nutes... the 150w and 250w are much less forgiving because they can only support a very limited number of plants to maturity.. After you have a few grows under your belt, if you decide to scale back instead of up and you know you can comfortably keep 1-2 plants alive and you're not really trying to get a 2lb harvest then you could sell that 400w on craigslist and get the 150w or 250w...

    sorry for the hard sell and rambling rant, hope that gives you some ideas and check out some of the threads in the [grow room design / setup]-[lighting] section to get a better feel for what will work best for you and your setup..

    all of what I've shared with you is based on my personal (and therefore biased) opinion so do yourself a favor and research your lighting before you invest in a setup that might be underpowered and disappointing or expensive and overpowering for your skill level

    Hope that helps, and feel free to bounce any questions off me, I'll try to help the best I can! :D:wave:
     
  5. #5 gofer12, Jun 27, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2010
    I really can't thank you enough for taking the time to help me, I appreciate it! I'll upload some pictures when I can.

    I actually went and tried out a 400 watt HPS in my space today, and the temperature quickly raised to 95 degrees in not only the grow room (closet) but in my small studio apt! Even with the AC cranked to max, so thats not really an option. I have to be able to close the door to the closet as it is next to my bed and can be too bright to sleep if left open. So I returned the HPS 400 to my friend, which I must say was a very impressive light and I really wish I could use it.

    While I could probably use a lower wattage of HPS it still could be iffy and wouldn't give me the coverage I needed for 3 plants. I needed a system for about 120 dollars that would cover 3 plants through flowering, a tough ask I know.

    I investigated LED lights, including the glow panels but decided they just weren't the sure bet I wanted. I ended up going with this system:

    Amazon.com: Photo Basics 413 4-Socket Adapter: Camera & Photo
    Quad socket normal lightbulb adapter x 3

    https://1000bulbs.com/category/42-watt-cfl-compact-fluorescents/
    12 42 watt 2700k CFl's. (I have 6 55 watt CFL's at ~6000 for veging that I'll replace so its 50/50 2700k and 6000k during veging and 10 42 watt cfls 2700k with two 6000k for flowering).

    This should provide me with about 502 watts, and I've got two oscillating fans an outtake fan with vent.

    I'm pretty confident that the HPS 400 would have been far more effective and even more efficient, but I just couldn't pull the heat, while with a fan running in the room the cfl's are manageable.

    I'm planning on scrogging with a net to allow for even penetration, as I know thats where CFL's really suffer.

    From what I've read using CFL's will result in less yield and fluffier buds, but my expectations are reasonable I think, I'm hoping for p .1 grams per watt. I've got her in MG organic soil mixed with perlite etc, while I know this isn't ideal the plants look very very healthy sitting at about 14 inches with dense nodes and healthy leaves .

    Do you think these lights will be another epic fail, like my original idea of HPS in a edison (thanks again) or will it provide decent results?

    Also I really like the idea of a t5 flouros, I even looked at those, but I noticed the low wattage of the bulbs, I can get a lot more watts of CFL's for the same cost using the above system. Do CFL watts not work this way?

    Thanks!!
     
  6. #6 Kinetic420, Jun 27, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 27, 2010
    I have seen grow journals that have been successful with less cfl wattage than you are suggesting... it's a shame that you couldn't vent that heat.. That's one issue that can't be ignored for sure... had you considered a can-fan to vent the heat into the attic? or are you in a position to do that? I saw a good 4" can-fan / carbon filter combo deal on amazon for like $150 that has a 190cfm fan... perfect size for a closet... I don't know what your budget is like but I would invest in that setup anyways... mj stinks and that stink is very unique...

    I like the 4 way setup but I couldn't tell how it got it's power.. I've seen people go to home depot and buy a long like.. office power strip.. put some plug-in-to-bulb-sockets in then use y adapters in them with some of these:http://www.amazon.com/Feliz-Watt-Gr...1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1277622221&sr=1-1 and these:http://www.amazon.com/Feliz-Watt-Gr...2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1277622221&sr=1-2

    Hmm... $120 and good thru flowering... you might want to check out some linkable 2ft T5 High Output flourescents... I know that this: Amazon.com: SunBlaze T5 Strip Light - 2', 1 Bulb: Kitchen & Dining is a good light because I bought 4 of them to get started and decided I wanted HPS after I had already set them up... Now I'm using them on my tomatoes and they seem to like them... Give it a look and tell me what you would think about trying the HO flourescents... It's not really as much about watts as it is about useable spectrum and available lumens... HO flourescents are cool like cfl's and emit more useable lumens.. allowing you to put them very close to the plants while they are emitting their higher lumens...

    EDIT: another fixture I considered: http://www.amazon.com/Output-Fluore...2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1277621618&sr=1-2

    seems like it would do well in a small closet grow and you could mix the spectrum with some 2700k bulbs and 6500k bulbs at the same time in the fixture
     
  7. Sorry for the delay in response, my computer keyboard kinda broke so I was stuck on the iphone.

    Thanks for the advice and the T5 fixture is what I think I'm going to go with after many hours of research and some false starts with CFL's. I'm looking at getting a VHO t5 2ft 4 bulb and than supplement with some high wattage CFL's, have you had any experience with the VHO fixtures? Do they run as cool as comparable wattage CFL's?

    Right now I'm running the 16 bulbs and those quad bulb fixtures, I mounted in a homemade reflector which does a so so job. My three ladies are loving the 672 watts, which makes me think I got decent value for the money spent, but it runs pretty warmly hovering at about 81 average, which makes me think maybe a equivelent watt VHO might run cooler as well as providing better results.

    Thanks!
     

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