I read somewhere years ago about someone breaking the glass shield on a MH bulb to let more of the UV light through. I can't imagine the bulb would last very long that way but it would definitely make is thinner. From what I've read the shield blocks about 40% of the UV B spectrum. If the bulb would actually last like a normal bulb... is there any advantage in going with this instead of say UV A/B lights? I ask because I really don't know a freakin thing about this particular subject I'm looking to (SAFELY) supplement the UV A/B absorption of Sativas during indoor growing.
My uneducated guess would be other problems would arise since the inside temps are very high and with no envelope i cant see it lasting very long if at all.You can get a $20 1K MH bulb (not the best for growing but as a test)and post your results,lower watt bulbs are proly even cheaper too.
Bad idea friend....dont bother. You would be better off simply using a better bulb, adding another bulb or shit just adding in additional CFL lighting than trying to cut the freak'n glass shielding off a light bulb to enhance it's light intensity... Man... bud makes us dangerously creative...
pretty sure theres gas which keeps the filiment from overheating insisde the case, break it, burn yourhouse down, pretty simple.
Im not sure if it would burn out due to overheat, but it could be more sensitive to temperature change and shattering, also, ive heard that mh lights with the outside shield broken will emit lots of potentially dangerous ozone... Look it up. Peace
Thanks for the input everyone As it turns out, Mercury Vapor lamps designed for UV output are much better than a MH without the borosilicate glass outer lamp. They put of a significant amount of UVB and are perfect for upping the potency of your harvest. As for the MH... it would actually work with a few issues... Yes, it would produce ozone that isn't wanted so bleah... No.. it wouldn't burn the house down unless you didn't support the quartz element (The glass shield is used for that so you'd have to do something else once it was removed). Other than that it would act just like a standard light. The borosilicate outer glass bulb is solely there to support the inner element physically (hold it in place) and to block around 40% of the UVA and UVB radiation. So........ if you have a switchable ballast I would recommend swapping bulbs when appropriate and also adding a MV UVB lamp. (Interesting story about MJ and UVB... The U.S. once tried to move hemp production overseas. The settled upon a piece of land in a country that is nearly on the equator. They found out that the seeds they had grew fairly acceptable hemp but that the plants were producing more resin than when they were grown in the states. When the seeds from these plants were planted the resulting hemp was even more resinous than the year previously and so on and so forth. Eventually the U.S. set up extensive seed breeding programs in the U.S. and started shipping seed over to the project. This worked to sort of keep the resin production low but ultimately they gave up as it was too expensive. Research into the cause for this has led to information on how MJ produces THC when subjected to UVB radiation. The plant actually produces it to protect itself from UVB damage.) So everyone that has a garden with an air-cooled light has less potent MJ than they would if they removed that glass or ADDED AN ADDITIONAL UVB source! Everyone that has a glass or plastic shield between their light and their plants (split garden design that was pretty popular a few years ago) is growing less potent MJ unless they supplement the UVB. Everyone that goes with HPS lighting only... will have less potent MJ. The thread may not have had a lot of traffic but I certainly ended up with the information I needed. Thanks All!