[gladysvjubb]

Originally Posted by Azeotrope

Has anyone flowered? Let's see here.......

Sold! Picking one up this week. My HPS will be retired with about 5000 hours on it.

[ixnay007]

What about Sulfur plasma lights???

I've been reading a bit, they do pure white light, and very little heat (which is quite nice from a 1000+ watt light).. this study says that 1 1000 watt beat 6 400 watt metal halides...

https://www.sulfur-plasma.com/uses/im...0cucumbers.pdf

They say very little IR an UV light, and it has more usable light in the visible spectrum..

https://www.sulfur-plasma.com/mechanical/

any ideas?

Should I start a new thread?

gladysvjubb -

Good call you will not be disapointed. I was laughing at myself yesterday while reviewing my gallery I noticed a large hortilux bow that has a 360w hortilux halide to hps conversion bulb in it. That was the second hps bulb I ever bought years ago as I started with a 4oow halide. Thinking back I ran that bulb and a 430w SonAgro together in 7sq feet and wondered "WTF happened to these clones?" I was working a local Seattle lemon something strain that was way to strong for most folks. I mean like heroin in a joint! That is under the Halide it was, but under the Hortilux bulbs it was just strong and leggy. That bulb has now traveled with me for years from place to place just collecting dust. Don't want to toss it as they had a lot more Ag in them back them and I am unabashedly a Tree hugger.

Peace

[simba]

mpl u on the money..if u get a pl u can DIY a hood for it..
if ur moving a bit of air.. no u dont need aircooled hood.. but it would make the ambient temp DROP if u go Air cooling hood..


ixnay007 sulfur not hear yet..
trust me.. We the first ones waiting for them..
few things on them.. wait for a thread till it comes..
i really need Sulfur to lower the ouput from 500-600nm before we recomened it..and that says we are telling the truth (rather wait and sell good.. vs selling Wasted energy
it worked out of sheer brute force IMPHO.. as it does waste some energy but that is being corrected to Customizable SPD
it does beat 6 400 MH bulbs because the brute force but if u ran 6 400 cmh they would WOMP THE CRAP outa current SULFUR or past Sulfur.. Inv sqr law of light comes into play on that one and the fact cmh has sim spd output but doesnt waste most its energy in 500-600 like sulfur.. (ya cmh does dump in that range but its not the majority of the total energy like sulfur)

also we want UV
canna needs UV to fill the sacks..FACT
ir is debatable if plant wants/needs..depending who u talk to..

[MPL]

Cool then on my next check I'm going to get a 400w ballast and order a CMH bulb and see how it goes. I'll stick it in a deep PL hood, and if I absolutely need to aircool it I'll DIY a hood for it and stick some supplemental UV lighting in the box.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

[ixnay007]

Originally Posted by simba

ixnay007 sulfur not hear yet..
trust me.. We the first ones waiting for them..
few things on them.. wait for a thread till it comes..
i really need Sulfur to lower the ouput from 500-600nm before we recomened it..and that says we are telling the truth (rather wait and sell good.. vs selling Wasted energy
it worked out of sheer brute force IMPHO.. as it does waste some energy but that is being corrected to Customizable SPD
it does beat 6 400 MH bulbs because the brute force but if u ran 6 400 cmh they would WOMP THE CRAP outa current SULFUR or past Sulfur.. Inv sqr law of light comes into play on that one and the fact cmh has sim spd output but doesnt waste most its energy in 500-600 like sulfur.. (ya cmh does dump in that range but its not the majority of the total energy like sulfur)

also we want UV
canna needs UV to fill the sacks..FACT
ir is debatable if plant wants/needs..depending who u talk to..

These guys are stating european availability of January 2008:
https://www.nlites.co.uk/sulphur-plasma.htm

I see it has a fair amount of energy in the 500-600 range, but I also saw that they were able to adjust the output color using different gases in the tube..

Originally Posted by sulfurplasma.com

The addition of other chemicals in the bulb might improve color rendition. sulphur lamp bulbs with calcium bromide (CaBr2) added produce a similar spectrum with the addition of a spike in red wavelengths at 625nm. Other additives such as lithium iodide (LiI) and sodium iodide (NaI) can be used to modify the output spectra.

https://www.sulfur-plasma.com/technical/

They say less UV (about 1%), not none, SP just tends to put out mostly visible spectrums (73% of the total light it says). A UV emitting T5 would possibly be a good adjunct, if it's something necessary.

Yeah, 6 cmh lights would whomp it, but that's to be expected, cmh does white in a pretty similar manner.

There's a bunch of info here:

https://www.sulphurplasma.com/specification700.htm

[chimei]

So can someone explain why the CMH bulbs cannot be used in a digital balast?

I was looking at the 400W Lumatek Digital Ballast

Text on it says:

New and Improved for 2007!

Now works with all lamps

Lumatek™ Features:

More lumens - up to a 20% increase
Dedicated Voltage - dual voltage ballasts sacrifice performance
Enhanced Bulb Compatibility - works with all major brands of lamps
Silent - the days of humming and buzzing are long gone
Internal RF Shielding - best on the market
Ultra Light Weight - only 8 pounds
Soft Start - increases lamp life and lumen depreciation
External Fuse System - protects against power surges

If you do some searching on this site you will find the answer in several threads.

However, in a nut shell - The arc tube and gas charge of the CMH has a limit to the frequency that it can tolerate. The core and coil classics run at around 60hz. This is good for the CMH's arc tube. There are specially tuned e-ballasts that run at about 200-400hz and have a very specific square wave output. (wave form). If you run outside of these parameters like the 80khz - 200khz non-square wave form output that the lumatek and others use, the arc tube may rupture, color shift will be present and in some cases the arc tube will develop a resonance that can be heard and cause emi/rf interfearance with electronic devices in your home and the neighboors.

Not to mention the bulb manufacturers say NO NO NO NO!!!

What would the advantage of the e-ballast be? This is a full cycle bulb so no need to change for different cycles.

[MPL]

eBallast advantages are: significantly reduced power consumption, no humming/noise in general, brighter and more consistent light output.

It's too bad the CMH bulbs won't work with them. :(

[simba]

someone here used a 400 CMH on a Lumetek, and the bulb is still good..
Apparently it atemted to fire it up but couldn't reach 50% power and Faild in few minutes

ya reduced power consumption. BUT.
1. NO UL WTF NO WAY WOULD I EVER RECOMMEND NON UL products in USA
(ballasts are High Voltage and are dangerous if issues arize UL IS A MUST)
2.if u divide the Eballasts power savings by its MFR warranty u end up spending more than a Magnetic Ballast and Power difference.
very few of the eballasts out there make it past warranty..

as far as humming thats just the CASing or a coil that has gotten to warm..
and to fix ballast heat.. i thermally bond CPU heat sinks to the Coil.. and then no hotter than Eballast...Ya!!!

read what lumatek says about if there ballast starts leaking resin.relocate it to cooler spot. WTF.. Call Fire brigade at that point..

there are 2 ballasts that run CMH GE and advance (not advanced) but both avail from advanced LOL.. but they wont sell them YET>> *(testing IE putting Threw typical home Brown-outs and spikes (as thats the biggest killer of Eballasts..as when they fall out of regulation its HARD on them.. Like having you breath threw a Coffe stirring straw Under 10 feet of water )

you can pick up a Mag ballast that will last you 10 years for 60 bucks whats a eballast and current HORTI eballast wont last 10 years..

also only buy Ballasts with ANSI RATING>> as if you use a eballast even on Philips Son-t your bulb warranty is void.. as its not an ansi rated ballast