Dimmed 1000w De?

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mackdx

Member

• Feb 28, 2018

• #1

I'm going to be gifted a few Phantom 1000W DE ballasts. With only 8ft ceilings to work with, I suspect running them at 1000w would be far too much.

Conventional wisdom says that dimming SE HPS bulbs negatively impacts spectrum.

Would I encounter similar issues with dimming a 1000w DE bulb to 750w?

 

RedReign

Active member

• Mar 8, 2018

• #2

I'm curious as well. I have access to Gavita 1k's dirt cheap, but I have 8' ceilings and would need to dim them down to 750 watts.

 

different

Member

• Mar 9, 2018

• #3

Dimming them does have a negative effect, but they will still work very well.

 

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mackdx

Member

• Mar 13, 2018

• #4

Would if be fair to assume a 1000w DE dimmed to 750w would still be preferable to a 1000w SE bulb.?

 

different

Member

• Mar 13, 2018

• #5

mackdx said:

Would if be fair to assume a 1000w DE dimmed to 750w would still be preferable to a 1000w SE bulb.?

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Depends on what you mean by preferable.
A DE running at 750 will put out less light than a 1000w SE, which may or may not be preferable.

 

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FrozenFire

Member

• Mar 13, 2018

• #6

I ran a 1k DE dimmed to 750 in a 2x4 tent with a 7 foot ceiling. My plants didn't seem to mind the spectrum from the dimmed light at all. Last run with that bulb and ballast was just over 17 oz with a single plant scrog.

 

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Chemdawggy Dawg

Active member

• Mar 13, 2018

• #7

You can run the gavita 6/750 flex bulb at 825 on a 1000 DE ballast and they are bright as hell with the full spectrum in tact.

 

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mackdx

Member

• Mar 13, 2018

• #8

different said:

Depends on what you mean by preferable.
A DE running at 750 will put out less light than a 1000w SE, which may or may not be preferable.

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I get that a 750 will put out less light than a 1000, but my hope is the more efficient spectrum will counterbalance

 

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mackdx

Member

• Mar 13, 2018

• #9

Chemdawggy Dawg said:

You can run the gavita 6/750 flex bulb at 825 on a 1000 DE ballast and they are bright as hell with the full spectrum in tact.

Click to expand...

That sounds like the ticket

 

different

Member

• Mar 14, 2018

• #10

On their web site, Gavita says that running the flex bulb at a higher wattage affects spectrum, but again pretty minimal, just like dimming.

 

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.

Veteran

• May 19, 2018

• #11

I talked with an engineer at Nanolux about this, he said that dimming a DE bulb makes a barely-measurable change in color temperature, raising it slightly (slightly more blue.)

He said there are no issues running them dimmed for years, but they do need to have the bulb broken in for 100 hours at full strength before you dim them.