150w HPS Club and Resource Guide......

[buzzed day]

suga the pics were all i had left from og,and no they weren't scrog.selected pruning sounds good but will my weight stay about the same?been trying to figure out how to do the lights [10 mounths or so]!!they are still in the huge container they came in and i can't mount sideways to easily,they weigh a ton,so they point straight down. i was thinking about makeing a carbord/mirlar reflector that would be on a gentel downward slope to spread the light out better.if you have any sugestions or link to a better hood for it while hanging straight up and down please post or anyone else thanks and have a buzzed day

 

[sugabear_II]

yeah buzzed day

in my experience you get actually less yield of airy buds with more branches and more bud sites allowed to grow through the screen.

On the lights - yeah we can help for sure remoting those babies. if you left them in the original case you're also losing 10% of the lumens to the glass. Aluminum sheeting is generally the material of choice for home made reflectors as it can be cut with tin snips or heavy duty scissors and bent easily - just wear some gloves or be ready for some cuts. Then you can spray paint the thing with high temperature white paint and you'll be good to go. Lot's of people bend parabolic reflectors by cutting out wedge pieces from a square so it bends together to form a parabolic bowl. Another even easier option is to bend a batwing reflector.

Here's the wiring diagram you'll want to follow - just post any questions you may have.

-suga

 

[sugabear_II]

oh hey look what I found right here on icmag - the original OG do-it-yourself reflector

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=416894

 

[senseless]

fat puta, please give me more info on your strain.

I suggest you follow sugabear's link to the diy hood.

however, if you wish to make diy cooltubes for about the same price then i suppose i could make a 4" cooltube diy guide for you. its pretty easy to construct with your hands and tape. the harder part is remoting the ballast.

 

[buzzed day]

suga thanks but i'm not messing with the wirering,most people do i know but i will be trying to make some new reflectors for them and take off the glass bulb! i also learned that there is a hell of a difference between scrogging and pushing down your plant kinda like low stress training won't make that mistake again lolthanks again and have a buzzed day

 

[twilson]

Great to see this thread taking off.

But then it only makes sense.

To see the boundrys of yield and quality pushed the way they are makes for some of the best reading at this site.

 

[twilson]

>> i keep the lights about 6 inches off them

My air cooled hood (with untempered glass) allows me to get my plants about 1.5 inches away from the bulb. You want plants that close because the amount of light from a 150 falls off rapidly with distance. As a matter fact the charts say that anything below 13" from the bulb won't get enough.

I put a lot of work into my homemade pyramid shaped hood but not a lot of money. It paid off in spades.

 

[Guest]

if you left them in the original case you're also losing 10% of the lumens to the glass.

All my lights are behind glass!!! Would someone confirm this for me with a lux meter? If this is true I must remove all my glass at once. I guess I dont understand why some light is blocked... Can someone clear this up for me?

Heres a questions for everybody: Is the same light robbing effect happening to all you guys running cool tubes?

Is there some special glass that puts through more light than normal? I know that some glass is tempered, would this have anything to do with it?

I typed this post last night and my computer crashed when I went to upload the pics. Heres an update of my 150-sluts!

the cab: these are in their 3rd week


the C25:


Just to brag, a late night 4/20 bag yielded some seeds of which two have popped. I strongly believe that this bag was the AK or some hybrid thereof. These were the funkiest stinkiest bags I have ever held!

 

[Pipedream]

Yes, it's true, any and all glass will reduce the amount of light transmitted to your plants. There is no optically pure glass that allows 100% to pass through. However, the trade off of a small bit of light loss for the reduction in heat achieved usually pays off. The best way to minimize light loss when trying to keep things cool, is to be sure you are using glass that is designed specifically for light transmission. When making a cool-tube an ideal source is the "globe" from any "Coleman-type" camping lantern. They are designed to handle high-heat, let as much light thru as possible, and are very cheap. They can usually be had in almost any sporting goods store for less than 10 bucks. While many growers use Hurricane style chimneys available in lighting stores, they are really ment to be used with low-level incandescent light bulbs. As a result, they are made of inexpensive glass that does not handle high-heat all that well and their curves tend to refract some of the light.

 

[Fat Puta]

fat puta, please give me more info on your strain.

I suggest you follow sugabear's link to the diy hood.

however, if you wish to make diy cooltubes for about the same price then i suppose i could make a 4" cooltube diy guide for you. its pretty easy to construct with your hands and tape. the harder part is remoting the ballast.

Click on my IBL link

 

[Vern Equinox]

Does anyone know the capacitor necessary to power HPS lights, are they "start" or "run" capacitors? I think I can get some locally if I get this info. Thanks.

 

[green_grow]

i will be using a 150hps with a ghetto reflector made from a 4' flourescent housing. i think i would like to beef up the 150hps with a pair of cfl's. what type is it that best augments HPS ... the cool white or the warm white ?
by the way, my cabinet is 20" deep x 27" wide x 51" tall ( 3.75 sq' ft. of floor space). will be scrogging and growing in dirt.
also, will the fan from a kitchen range hood work well as an exhaust in this application ? i would be turning it down via a fan speed controller as these things are not very quiet.
talk to me, my gurus of ganja .

 

[twilson]

>> If you left them in the original case you're also losing 10% of the lumens to the glass.

For those with air cooled hoods (not sealed enclosures).

Remember the air cooling is gonna be dragging a lot of dust and dirt into your hood so the glass will have to be cleaned or the dirt will cause even more light loss.

I clean my glass every 3 weeks.

I also vacuum the inside of my cabinet often. Keep it clean and there's less dirt to be pulled into the hood.

I also vacuum my utility box (containing my air blower and remote ballast) about every 6 weeks to 2 months cause dust gets pulled into it. You need to make sure the intake of the blower does not get blocked .

 

[Pipedream]

.

Vern, "Start" & "Run" capacitors are the same animal. The name denotes what function they are performing in the circuit that they are part of. Capacitors are rated in two areas, the voltage they can handle, and the amount of capacitance they provide. A typical rating for a 150w HPS circuit would be 14mF (millifarads) at 300VAC. In this type circuit, you can always have you capacitor exceed your requirement rating, but never go the other way. One word of caution... if the rating on the cap is stated with a "u" instead of an "m" it is rated in "microfarads". This is not the same thing, m is 10 to the minus 3rd, where u is 10 to the minus 6th. Big Difference!!


green grow, I do the same thing from time-to-time. Since an HPS tends to lean to the red spectrum, you're better off using the bluer CFL. This will round out your lighting and help out during the veg period. Notice that I didn't refer to them as cooler or warmer. These names are a misnomer as lights that are often referred to as "warmer" because they give off a reddish tint are actually operating at a cooler temperature in the color spectrum. Conversely, the "cool" blue tint is actually operating at a higher range of degrees kelvin.

Click on the image below and take a look at the top of my box, you'll see the two 45w CFL's installed on either side of my 150. Each one produces 200 watts of light on the blue side of the spectrum.


.

 

[green_grow]

pipedream, thanks for the answer. i am going to be using the cfls as augmentation simply because the 150 hps is a little small for the square footage i have. by the way, it looks like you have mounted your hps running from front to back, rather than side to side (unless i am mistaken). whats the reason for doing this, since your cab (and mine) are wider than they are deep.
also, has anyone had any success with using a kitchen range fan for exhaust ?

 

[sugabear_II]

hey green grow and pipedream and all the other 150ers out there.

green grow - I would also look at tube floro's as an addition instead of CFLs. The t8 tubes actually produce more lumens per watt than the CFL's and since it is distributed across the whole tube the heat produced is lower. This is based on my limited experience in my cabinet

- I had a single 30 watt daylight (blue - 6500 Kelvin) CFL with 2000 lumens in the cab and it raised the temps around 7 degrees F from where they were normally.
- I took this out and added a 17 watt 24" t8 with 1300 lumens and a 15 watt 18" t8 lamp with 1000 lumens for a total of 32 watts (2300 lumens) and the temps went up only 3~4 degrees F.

The floro's I speak of were also very cheap at $6~$8 each at walmart sold as undercabinet lights.

I put one on the top on the side where the doors open. and the other is mounted to the back wall below the lamp. I'm thinking of adding another to the side wall. Basically I'm putting these around the outside of the grow space where the light will be less. I'm mounting them horizontal as I grow scrog and the part I want to light is horizontal as well - this gives me even coverage across the outside edges of the screen.

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow of how I wired these in there.

never used a kitchen fan. bathroom fans work well.

mount the hps side to side and the light will blast against the doors and back wall.

 

[Fat Puta]

i will be using a 150hps with a ghetto reflector made from a 4' flourescent housing. i think i would like to beef up the 150hps with a pair of cfl's. what type is it that best augments HPS ... the cool white or the warm white ?
by the way, my cabinet is 20" deep x 27" wide x 51" tall ( 3.75 sq' ft. of floor space). will be scrogging and growing in dirt.
also, will the fan from a kitchen range hood work well as an exhaust in this application ? i would be turning it down via a fan speed controller as these things are not very quiet.
talk to me, my gurus of ganja .

I use a 400w in the same dimensions but before that I had 2 150w HPS
As for CFLs I would tell u to go get DAYLIGHT CFLS from Home Depot Rona or Lowes
I find they give off the best spectrum out of all low cost lighting

BEFORE


AFTER

 

[green_grow]

sugarbear ...now that you mention it, it makes total sense to mount the hps front to back; dont know why i couldnt see that. good thing we have a forum !
i had a look at my undercupboard flourescent fixture, its the same as you are describing. i like this idea because a) they are ready to plug and play and b) they are inexpensive.

 

[bostrom155]

For those on a budget, and anyone who likes a good deal, here's a great 150w HPS for about $35 bucks US. This was a favorite of many growers on OG.

http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HC1H151Z

That's good, or you can get one for 10 bucks more with a capacitor and save alot of money on electric.
http://www.1000bulbs.com/products.php?cat=150-Watt-High-Pressure-Sodium

 

[Guest]

I pulled the glass off my 150s today and there is a big jump in the heat underneath that thing. i wonder if its worth it because i had to move the light up about 4 inches. i think it will be okay because now i get better coverage around the edges.