so i heard that MH are good so i saw this MH at lowes its.. Maximum Bulb Wattage (Watts)\t100.0 Bulb Application\tHID Number of Bulbs\t1.0 Voltage (Volts)\t120.0 Life Hours (Hours)\t15000.0 good? yeah?
Thats most likely just the bulb as someone else said. I looked at Lowes and Home depot as cheaper options, and both of them when I checked were about $80 and up for a 100w mh lamp and bulb sold as a "street light". For $67 plus shipping you can get a 150w hps off the web or you can spend about $120 and order a 250w or 400w hps that will blow those away. With the hps setups, they are said to be better for all together vegging and flowering, plus you have the ability to order a mh conversion bulb and having both using the one lamp. Check out www.htgsupply.com if you want a relatively inexpensive hps/mh setup. They are very budget friendly. I cant swear by the quality yet as I have only had my setup two weeks, but I picked up one of their 400w hps lamps with the hps and mh conversion bulb from a local pawn shop for $100 for everything. As I said it has only been running close to two weeks, but so far so good and the plants seem to love the mh conversion bulb.
It depends on what your local utility company charges per kilowatt hour, and what your light cycle is. Based on .1099 per kilowatt hour for example, A 400w light if ran for 31 days ran 24 hours a day will raise your power bill by about $33. If you are running a 18 hour cycle for 31 days, you would be looking at about $25 per month. Electrical Energy Cost Calculator
wow. time for me to ask some more questions. does the wattage matter? if so, and I'm assuming yes, then what does it do for the plants? I saw a 1000w HPS, after reading through about 20 200w's - 400w's. that just seems beefy, the 1000w. but beefy is always better, yea? and wil changing the type of lighting stress a plant out?
You would need a ballast, mogus socket, reflector/hood, etc. Check out HTGSupply-dot-com, they have complete kits starting around $120. Many on here use them.
Yes, wattage matters. Higher wattage lighting will penetrate deeper into your canopy than lower wattage lighting, and have a larger coverage area. Beefier isnt always better, as higher wattage lighting also means more heat issues to deal with. It is more about picking the right light for your grow area, and how many plants you want to grow. In my case, I have a small area and am trying six plants from veg, hoping to flower at least 2 to 4. I have had problems keeping the area cool with a 400w, but those are getting resolved. Any abrupt changes can stress a plant, and even cause it to go male or hermaphrodite. The bad thing is, there is no set stress level that will cause these, you just dont know when too much is too much until it is too late. From what I have read and changes are better made early in the veg cycle, because later changes closer to flowering is more likely to cause the above issues. Now all that being said, I recommend asking others, and reading as much as possible. I am a newb as well, but have done a lot, and I mean a lot of reading. Any thing I say is based on what I have read, and what I have seen from personal experience so far, but it isnt meant to be the be all end all of grow advice. These guys here are great, and have a wealth of information if you take the time to search it out. Plainly put, some of these guys grow freaking monsters lol.
Actually a lot of it will be environmental. I know people who pull more using MH then they do with HPS due to certain environmental factors. Shity HPS bulbs have no heat, they will barely keep a grow space warm in some cases forcing a heater.. dangerous IMO. SO when you get an HPS.. it better not be a shit one, even shit 1krs exist and they suck. Plan your space. BTW you need a Ballast + the Bulb. And honestly buying a 100 watt mh bulb and ballast is pointless, can get a 1000 watt bulb and ballast for under $300 easy. However, man you really should not be growing. First you going through giving people advice when you cant even grow yourself. Your other thread points to just how oblivious you are to what growing takes. Its not a cheap easy over night adventure. Its a long drawn out process with hills and hurdles, it has the ability to financially and mentally drain you faster then you would imagine. Growing GOOD weed is easy but ONLY if you do it right. You need to read a LOT more.
dude stfu i read 500 forums . HPS is for flowering its in the red range in the light spectrum YOU need to learn alot more. I know I have alot to learn but i dont need you negative post on my thread I find it offensive. Take your none sense els where.
nah dood I totally agree. the people on here really know what they're talking about. that's why I post on this forum! although most responses are from people around my skill level as well; just beginners. and I've been reading a lot as well. to be honest you sound more informative than I do. where do you go to research things? I find myself reading TOO much and getting myself confused. so lights. I'm not an indoor grower. I'm trying to grow outside. I had my babies vegging under a t5, moved them outside, and to have them not go into flower, I bring them in at night under the t5 for a few hours. now, I'm contemplating how long I should veg them for... do you think I should keep doing what I'm doing, and let them flower naturally? or keep em veggin, and flower them when I want them the size I want them at? because right now they're a ways away from mature :|
also! if I were to flower them in a grow tent, how hot would it get? is it fairly easy to lower the temps in a tent?