It’s old news to anyone who has grown with HID lights.
Yes, I know I need to upgrade. Saving my pennies for a $500-1000 LED.
The current system was a gift from my amazing girlfriend. $180, generator, etc. An older generation but didn’t matter much. It was an unexpected and well-intentioned gift. She had heard me said, “the more light the merrier.”
I don’t have the heart to complain too loudly. So I don’t.
For now, I use it: 1000 watts of MH in a 4x5 tent for veg, and HPS for flowering.
Hot as fuck. Without the cool tube, it raised my tent temp by 20 degrees. Even today, it adds about 10-15 degrees, at least.
Nothing but shadows. I’ve heard something about directionality. I haven’t looked into it because I don’t wanna freaking know. I hand-rotate the plants about 4 or 5 x a day.
Bulb shape (single-ended) sucks. It makes the grow space much more rectangular, which kinda works for me but. . .
That pattern changes the way you have to SOG or SCROG, the shape of the screen.
I can get the PPFD just right, keep the canopy heat down – and it’s still too intense for the flower.
It makes 60% RH go to 25% stupid fast. It’s impossible to keep anything up over 60 for long, so I don’t try.
It is frustrating as hell. But I also feel a little bad complaining at all because it is more than most have.
Imagine measure PPFD underneath it. DIRECTLY underneath it? 800. Perfect.
Three inches to the left. 500.
I’m using Photone app so it might be that, in part. The PPFD map is still whack though.
It doesn’t help that the 6 inch cool tube has a 6 inch reflector inside of it. I’m no scientist but I think that parabola shape is way too narrow, so I’m mounting a bigger reflector on the outside of the tube.
Really though.
This is sort of “death by overabundance” compounded by “novice grower.”
HID lighting still has it’s place and I don’t see them being phased out any time soon.
I switched out my usual 1000w MH a couple or so years ago, replacing it with an HLG 600Bspec. Right now my veg room is a 5x5 x 6 vivosun grow tent and I have to keep that LED light up as high as I can get it and still have a fan above it (110 cfm exhaust) and the light has to be turned down to 40% for the plants to be happy. Same in the 7.5 x 7.5 ft room, had to put that HLG light 6feet off the floor and turn it down to 50% to 60%. Powerful veg light and easily replaces the 1000w MH.
I’m still using HPS for flower indoors but my rooms run very cool to begin with due to where I live so the heat from the HPS is a welcome thing. Even then , this time of year with the light on and the door closed, it rarely gets over 26F. RH is set at 40% low /45%high and the controller and equipment keep things in that range. My lights on temps will slowly rise here though as we get into July but my room will be harvested in 4 weeks so they are done before the august heat gets here
My Current Led runs my tent in the 90s sometimes i wish they had a cooling jacket like the HIDs.Going to invest in an AC.What im worried about is phasing out the Florescent Bulbs.Those Seem to Veg and clone and keep mothers the best my plants love them and they ran so cool
This where I think some of the higher end LEDs are different as they run much cooler. My HLG 600 Bspec will not heat up the tent much even with the zipper shut. If I run it 100% it will throw some heat but it never gets turned up past 60% so it stays cool … well warm.
I have to add a thermostat controlled heater to my system during the winter months which I never had to do using HID. So there is a trade off in that the cooler the LED runs or the colder the ambient air… the cost savings gap between LED vs HID start to narrow and in the end the power bill over winter is pretty much the same regardless of which light used. *** for my area and climate anyways. I’m at 52N , 3000ft elevation and freezing temps from mid September to beginning of May
ya I used to do this too, mounting HID lights horizontally under a parabol refelctor.
I would run Hortilux NH940 Ultra Ace conversion bulbs which is an excellent spectrum “HPS” bulb that runs on a 1000w Metal Halide ballast. It is also a Universal so it can be hung horizontally whereas most MH bulbs are vertical only. The NH940 was an expensive bulb though… nearly cost as much as a complete halide kit just for the bulb. That said, it was one of my favorite lights to flower under and produced really nice flower.
Hey @navy66
Maybe a single point of intense light isnt the ideal method for your grow space or SOG. Spreading out the light more evenly (like an LED array) would be a good middle ground.
I have no affiliation with htg, but they have some cheeeaaaappp hardware that might interest you
Instead of cool tube, try one of their 6$ euroreflectors (sealed hood)
And with those you could run CMH at a lower power (which usially runs cooler than HPS watt per watt) 40$
A pair of hoods and dimmable 315w digi ballasts for under 100 bucks, free shipping over 75$
Thank you for the tips. Dumb question I can’t find an answer to: my regular ballast can handle 1000W, right? It toggles between MH and HPS on the ballast. There is no dimming. It’s not a digital ballast.
Could I just use 600 watt bulbs in it, if I wanted to?
I grew under MH and HPS for 15+ years. I’ve been slowly switching over to LED. Switched my flower room over to PhotonTek x600w pro’s maybe 3-4 years ago. They yield as well as my old air cooled 1000’s did with less electricity cost, so that’s nice.
But they have their own set of challenges and I honestly miss the HPS sometimes. I find that you really need to keep your environment dialed in at all times with powerful LED’s. Where as the HPS were more forgiving in that regard.
I also have low ceiling heights at my current spot (like 6.5 ft) and the intensity of the LED’s creates issues for me, especially in the summer. Much easier to light stress the plants, and Buds like to continue growing new white pistils late into flower. That was rarely an issue for me under HPS.
And I am still mixed on LED for veg. They definitely save energy but I have a harder time keeping my plants healthy as easily as I did under MH or t5 fluorescent (which is still my favorite type of veg light).
I feel like I am always battling deficiency or leaf curl unless I have the LED turned way down and even then as soon as they start getting a bit too close they’ll show light stress again.
As far as heat, the LED lights definitely add less heat but it’s maybe only a roughly 5°f difference for me vs. my old air cooled HID’s. My dehumidifier is still my biggest source of heat in my room.
I switched over to led recently myself. Haven’t tried flowering anything under it but as soon as I get my plants under my ACInfinity 150w iongrids they seem to hate it. I thought it was the last strain not liking being in small pots or my watering schedule was off but it’s happening with another strain now as well. I guess they need to be kept super dimmed?
Right now I have them at only 20% which is like 30 watts? Seems really low… haha but it’s still heating the tent up like 5-6 degrees just on 20%…
My vivosun vs1000’s have been very nice for vegging and keeping clones though. Lots of blue spectrum in those compared to the ACI’s
Yooo I’ll throw a shot in the ring, I have not ran them yet. But growers house is on a killer sale im getting ready to run 2 315 dimable cmh in a 4x4. I got both lamps with bulbs for 100 with free shipping.
I also started with MH for veg and hps with a cool tube
Hot very very hot no mater what you do it runs way too hot
Now all led and basically low wattage I’ve got
1 @ 100 watt
2 @ 150 watt
1@ 500 watt
And 2@ 75 watt lighting bars to hit some dark spots
Much cooler and cheaper to run and replace if a 150 watt goes it’s cheaper to by a new one
No you can’t use a 600w bulb in a 1000w analog ballast. I recommend finding a cheap $30 used digital 600w ballast off eBay. And maybe even a different reflector. Used older equipment is very cheap now
I wouldn’t complain lol. I run a mix of 600s and 1000. Tried lots of leds and have yet to find one that comes close to comparable. Cool tubes vented outside and AC. Keeps your temps in that sweet spot
