howdy vertville,
I've started growing with ceramic metal halide bulbs made by philips; the 860w models can be powered by a 1000w magnetic ballast (altho there are companies selling ballasts tailored for these bulbs, i have the MH & switchables laying around so im using what I have).
These bulbs are designed to be hung vertically, so it's a great reason for me to return to bare bulb vertical growing.
the bulbs are double jacketed and have this crazy spiral of wire around the inner bulb:
the lite they put off is very "white" and kinda blue, but very nice for pictures;
I will be documenting my use of these bulbs in multiple locations, to see how they perform in different circumstances and environments, above is shown a room with ONLY a 860w CMH in it, hanging vertically; here is a new room I've just set up with MOSTLY 1kw HPS lighting it, but in the back corner is an 860w Ceramic Metal Halide hung vertically raw bulb style...
in the vented hood with vents closed off is a 315w Philips Agro Ceramic Metal Halide, the "next-gen" CMH technology, needs a different fixutre and it's own ballast.
If you are at all interested in this Ceramic Metal Halide technology I urge you to tune into the sticky in the lighting section (it's huge, but the last 40 or so pages contain TONS of relevant info and discussion concerning the CMH tech and products available):
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=72215
I've started growing with ceramic metal halide bulbs made by philips; the 860w models can be powered by a 1000w magnetic ballast (altho there are companies selling ballasts tailored for these bulbs, i have the MH & switchables laying around so im using what I have).
These bulbs are designed to be hung vertically, so it's a great reason for me to return to bare bulb vertical growing.
the bulbs are double jacketed and have this crazy spiral of wire around the inner bulb:
the lite they put off is very "white" and kinda blue, but very nice for pictures;
I will be documenting my use of these bulbs in multiple locations, to see how they perform in different circumstances and environments, above is shown a room with ONLY a 860w CMH in it, hanging vertically; here is a new room I've just set up with MOSTLY 1kw HPS lighting it, but in the back corner is an 860w Ceramic Metal Halide hung vertically raw bulb style...
in the vented hood with vents closed off is a 315w Philips Agro Ceramic Metal Halide, the "next-gen" CMH technology, needs a different fixutre and it's own ballast.
If you are at all interested in this Ceramic Metal Halide technology I urge you to tune into the sticky in the lighting section (it's huge, but the last 40 or so pages contain TONS of relevant info and discussion concerning the CMH tech and products available):
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=72215
. I LOVE my 400w CMH's, but Philips quit making them 
. Very interested to see how these newer bulbs preform as I'm debating weather I should move to the 315w or the 860w CMH.
