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600 watt ballasts - why only HPS?
- Thread starter Sativan
- Start date
Mh bulbs draw more current.
All 600 mh are conversion bulbs. Meant to run on 600 hps. There are no mh ballsts in 600w.
There are some finicky compatibility issues with ballasts, reflectors and lamps. For one, hortilux blue mh only works with magnetic, hortilux, or galaxy ballasts. Reports of failing using other ballasts.
Very important and hard to find information.
There are some finicky compatibility issues with ballasts, reflectors and lamps. For one, hortilux blue mh only works with magnetic, hortilux, or galaxy ballasts. Reports of failing using other ballasts.
Very important and hard to find information.
I have been running CMH pretty much exclusively as my discharge light choice for some years now. However, I introduced a plant that needed much more blue spectrum than marijuana and so purchased a 600 watt MH system so I could put in a high color temperature bulb. CMH is somewhat limited in this respect.
I finally settled on a 10,000 K bulb with a low iron outer shell. Hoping for UVB I was.
At 12" the PAR count is 1,200 umol and the UVB intensity is 9 microwatts. Kind of a failure at putting UVB on the plants but very good regular violet.
About as far from a conversion bulb as is possible to get.
PS: The referenced unit is Solis Tek, but other brands function just as well.
I finally settled on a 10,000 K bulb with a low iron outer shell. Hoping for UVB I was.
At 12" the PAR count is 1,200 umol and the UVB intensity is 9 microwatts. Kind of a failure at putting UVB on the plants but very good regular violet.
About as far from a conversion bulb as is possible to get.
PS: The referenced unit is Solis Tek, but other brands function just as well.
Amps my dude...same volts on hps or mh, volts are in the wall sockets, the amps are the little things that make the light go bright. Thats why the wall sockets have little covers for the holes now to stop the amps spilling on the floor, amps are bad for the environment.
Correct. 600w HPS never was an industrial lighting standard. It was developed for growing. Any 600w HID lamp should be compatible with any 600w magnetic ballast because there's only one standard at that wattage.
At 1000w, the voltages & capacitor values for HPS & MH are so close that turning off the ignitor makes a HPS mag ballast fully compatible with a probe start MH lamp.
It's more complicated at 400w where the capacitor values are much different for MH & HPS but switchable mag ballasts exist at that wattage, too.
A person needs to study the whole thing rather carefully before switching lamp types other than at 600w where it's pretty much dummy proof.
Electronic ballast compatibility can be an issue as well.
Gry
Well-known member
troutman
Seed Whore
I use an ACE Dimmable Digital HID Ballast 600 Watt ballast that can run either MH or HPS bulb.
It also has a dial so I can set it on 50%, 75% and 100% power.
I've got switchable ballasts that will run any 400w or a 600 HPS. Never seen a 600w MH.
You get CMH & MH depending on the bulb. The Ceramic allows the arc to get above temperatures that would shatter a Metal Halide, increasing colour rendering properties and luminous efficacy.
The starting pulse of the igniter in an HPS can damage the internal components of MH bulbs.
It was locally about a mile away this technology was invented in my home town
You get CMH & MH depending on the bulb. The Ceramic allows the arc to get above temperatures that would shatter a Metal Halide, increasing colour rendering properties and luminous efficacy.
The starting pulse of the igniter in an HPS can damage the internal components of MH bulbs.
It was locally about a mile away this technology was invented in my home town
CMH lamps are not intended for use with high frequency electronic ballasts. It's also important to note that most MH lamps are not open fixture rated. Some are only intended for specific mounting orientation. The realm of MH is trickier than it first appears.
you're right that the starting pulse will ultimately damage probe start MH lamps. Most modern MH industrial lighting uses pulse start lamps that won't fire w/o an ignitor.
http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightinganswers/mwmhl/differenceprobepulse.asp
Philips all start CMH lamps will start either way w/o issue & are designed as power saving replacements for MH lamps on conventional mag ballasts.
troutman
Seed Whore
I do too. If you have a gardening business & your growing food in the US then by law you need to show best operating practice which include risk reduction. That involves having cases on open reflectors. We all know that you wouldn't pick the glass out of a salad crop you'd bin it but the regulators like you to have prevention of this in the US. In the UK & holland I don't think it matters..
We received free desserts at a dinner theatre because I found glass in my salad. They didn't believe us so the went back and checked the salads. Here they found a few more salads with glass. Some dick broke a glass plate and let it go. Probably saved them from a serious injury lawsuit. Those dinner theatres are cool, but this one closed.
Off topic but it was a good time.
Off topic but it was a good time.
Digilux MH 600 and Monster Garden MH 600 are by far the best MH 600 bulbs I've ever used. I prefer the Monster garden bulb more with it producing more blues.
