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70w hps club

grouchy

Active member
Nsaneone - I am looking forward to seeing your grow. Keep us updated on that one.

Medicinal420 - I remote mounted my ballast in a separate area from the grow. I am using an NGB style box and the ballast was mounted in the utility room. You mentioned you had a pc fan in your area. What are you using the fans for? Moving air around, exhaust or intake? I bet we could help you get it figured out with a little more info.

OMJebus - As long as you have airflow going over them they stay pretty cool. I am using a cool tube powered by a pc fan and my plants touch the tube just fine.
 
I've been using a 70w HPS for a couple of grows now, and recently expanded my box a bit and added a couple of 40w CFL's. I am trying to get a perpetual SOG going, right now I have the CFL's on one side of the box and HPS on the other. I start the flowering plants in under the CFL side, and move them to the HPS side as they grow. My question, is this the best way to do it, or would CFL's on each side work better?

I'm about to move my lighting into a new and larger box, and want to plan accordingly. My current box was originally a scaled-down version of the NGB cab, but the mom/veg side was too small to work with so I removed the separating wall and put two 40w warm CFL's in the two sockets I had there. I built another separate mom/veg cab. I'll have plenty of room in my new cab, and I'm thinking to add more CFL's and I'll have the HPS either in the middle or at one side.
 

grouchy

Active member
It depends on how you are growing the plants. Some people like to focus on larger plants and use a large light overhead with cfls to light up the sides. Others prefer to keep a flat canopy and have even light spread over the top. I guess it depends on your growing style. I liked your idea of starting them under the cfls and moving them over to the hps when they got bigger.
 
M

mrred

another way is to put the plants around the bulb, but i'd but the cfls around tthe hps
 

Panconqueso

Active member
Veteran
i've seen some micro grows with day light cfls and hps working together. It seems to be more efficient than the warm light from the hps alone.

Now, some new pic from my 70w scrog





Cheers Mates
 

Mk3Jetta

Member
Question for you 70w'ers. how hot does the 70w BULB get?


In case you dont have a fan dedicated to cooling the LAMP(its what a 'bulb' is called in HID) it can get very fucking hot and burn you if you touch it.

At least mine does. I had it on for 12 hours and tested it and it would have burnt me if I grabbed it and held onto it.
 

OMJebus

Member
OMJebus - As long as you have airflow going over them they stay pretty cool. I am using a cool tube powered by a pc fan and my plants touch the tube just fine.

In case you dont have a fan dedicated to cooling the LAMP(its what a 'bulb' is called in HID) it can get very fucking hot and burn you if you touch it.

At least mine does. I had it on for 12 hours and tested it and it would have burnt me if I grabbed it and held onto it.

Thanks good to know!
 

Mk3Jetta

Member
:wave: hi club! passed to show my two little widows :) (yeah, i know that sedlings are so booring...)

picture.php


picture.php


Hey its a start to something beautiful tho!!!!!

Nice lookin seedlings man. What kind of soil do you use for starting? Is it the same you use for flowering and vegging?
 

Mk3Jetta

Member
update: I just picked up some Fox Farm ocean forest and black gold seed starting soil. Also am about 15 minutes away from having my box finally finished with lighting, fans, and the temps are hanging in there!!!!!! wooot woooooot I'm sooo fucking EXCITED!

My final lighting has a 70wHPS with two 26w 6500k CFLs on either side of the HPS.

Fans: One 40cfm blowing from behind the HPS and a 115cfm pc fan pulling through a custom carbon filter.

If I want to go fully stealth I need to completely light proof it and figure out some noise reduction for the exhaust.


im happy.
 

OMJebus

Member
Was wondering if anyone could measure the length of the HPS bulb in the socket. from tip of bulb to bottem of socket! Thanks guys... trying to see if i can work it into my cab.
 

smokeymacpot

Active member
Veteran
hey grouchy...thx for the input. Hadn't thought about the pressure issue with the intake, all i thought about was getting cooler air in the box than a passive intake would. In this cabinet I removed the fan I had that was designated to just move air around, I think I'll add that back in. I did have a carbon filter but removed it when I saw my temps soar to 100F at the top of the box, not too much of a smell right now plus I have odor neutralisers all over the place. I seriously think my single 80mm fan is just not capable of exchanging the air as much as it needs to be.

So I saw at home depot two 70w HPS exterior lights in their own fixtures. one was $45 and the other was $70. I like the $70 cuz it's got its own reflective hood and glass shield which I could reuse. Either one will require me to disassemble and rewire, so remotely doing the ballast is not a problem. Is the ballast loud at all? Does it make noise? I could put that in the attic and snake all the wiring down the wall.

but bottom line (and I'm prolly gonna get flamed for this, being this is an HPS thread): is the 70W HPS a better solution overall for me (again, given my existing heat issues) than four-five 26W CFLs....ugh, now that I wrote that I think I know the answers I'm gonna get. :abduct:

from my exp,70w hps is hotter than 5..6...7.. cfls. if you cant keep a cfl cab cool, i dont think you would be able to keep it cooler with a hps.
about a 30cfm exhaust is needed with no carbon filter, to keep temps around 25-30c. with a carbon filter, your going to need a more powerful exhaust, or consider 2 exhausts.
 

smokeymacpot

Active member
Veteran
i am attracted to HPS due to the deeper penetration and hopefully thicker buds and better trych development I'd get from it, unless you experienced lo-wattage HPS guys think there is not much dif between low-wattage HPS and CFLs in that department. I dont want to hyjack the thread (too late!!) but thanks for all the feedback.


its penetration isnt amazing better, but it is better. the biggest difference is in the buds at the top of the canopy, they are larger and fatter than you could ever get with cfls.
 

grouchy

Active member
from my exp,70w hps is hotter than 5..6...7.. cfls. if you cant keep a cfl cab cool, i dont think you would be able to keep it cooler with a hps.
about a 30cfm exhaust is needed with no carbon filter, to keep temps around 25-30c. with a carbon filter, your going to need a more powerful exhaust, or consider 2 exhausts.

Was your 70w a remote ballast setup or was the ballast in the growing area?
 

Mk3Jetta

Member
Was wondering if anyone could measure the length of the HPS bulb in the socket. from tip of bulb to bottem of socket! Thanks guys... trying to see if i can work it into my cab.

I use the reflector that came inside my security light and its 6 7/8" from a little bit behind the socked to about 1/8" past the lamp.

So the socket and lamp together on my application is 6 3/4" long.

If anyone elses is a different size you should also chime in. Just to see if there are variances.
 

OMJebus

Member
I use the reflector that came inside my security light and its 6 7/8" from a little bit behind the socked to about 1/8" past the lamp.

So the socket and lamp together on my application is 6 3/4" long.

If anyone elses is a different size you should also chime in. Just to see if there are variances.

Aight thanks, seems like it will be a tight fit.. but should work......

Thanks again!
 

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