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I want to vertically hang a MH/HPS bulb in my tent in the middle of my plants at plant base height

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rtaym2224

New member
I am running an overhead LED setup that is good...... but for more lighting and to increase temps which will help me a lot I want to use a 250-600w MH HPS bulb and ballast. I dont want a reflector, I just want a digital mh hps ballast with a cord that leads to a connection that takes a mh/hps bulb. I just want the bulb dangling from the top of my grow tent in between the center of all my plants at plant base level. I want 360 degrees of light from this.

I cant seem to find anything like this online. can someone point me in the right direction? Also the less wattage the better with this light.

thank you sorry for my naivety
 
Three Berries

Three Berries

Active member
Make sure your bulb is designed for that as it greatly increases the temp of the socket. Many are rated Universal or Vertical. Sounds like a good idea but that's a big bulb close to the plants. Don't know your spacing.
 
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delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
howdy, if you do drop a bulb into the center of your grow will it hit all plants equally?

typically, the correct position of a drop-down hid bulb is placing the arc tube slightly higher than the center of plant mass.

you might tell us the size of the room and how many plants, existing led light power, etc.

editing to complement three berries on his speedy reply!
 
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Rider420

Well-known member
Any leaves and buds that are directly above the light will die from the heat. HID lights produce almost all thier heat in the bulb. You will need a fan blowing hard on the light when on or a cool tube with ducting and a blower to disperse the heat. Don't allow the light to move around as it will shorten its lifespan.
 
Ca++

Ca++

Well-known member
Less wattage the better? HIDs typically start at 35w. Little eggs are 70w. The Son-T generally 100w 150w 250w but a 70w isn't hard to find.

Have you thought about standing it on the floor, not dangling it. A 70 egg is generally an E27 so we are talking desk lamps

Edit: 70w son-e (e=elliptical)
A 150w son-t (tubular) used as a vert can illuminate up to about 250mm away at decent levels.
 
goingrey

goingrey

Well-known member
Ca++ said:
Less wattage the better? HIDs typically start at 35w. Little eggs are 70w. The Son-T generally 100w 150w 250w but a 70w isn't hard to find.

Have you thought about standing it on the floor, not dangling it. A 70 egg is generally an E27 so we are talking desk lamps

Edit: 70w son-e (e=elliptical)
A 150w son-t (tubular) used as a vert can illuminate up to about 250mm away at decent levels.
Click to expand...
You still need the ballast though. I mean sure you could wire the ballast to a desk lamp but still... And not sure if this has changed since I was using HPS but back then anything below 250W had kinda crappy efficacy, with 600W having the best. Less was not more, just less.
 
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rtaym2224

New member
I have a 760 true watt 3200 samsung diode full spectrum 8 bar overhead dimmable LED light and a master controller to go in a 48x48x72 tent. I have not run this light long enough to see how hot it gets, but my guess is this LED at full power puts out a bit of heat. I will have it auto dim at extremely high temps. Im thinking 4-6 plants per grow.

I will only be growing during winter and colder months PNW and it will be in my garage which is not well insulated. I figured i could throw in a cmh/mh/hps bulb and create heat that way for the right temps but maybe i should skip this idea and just use a space heater??? I believe my current overhead lighting is more than sufficient for a 48x48 room
 
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Ca++

Ca++

Well-known member
Yeah a 150w son is about 15,000 lumen, or 100 lumen per watt. While the 600 is a different beast to the lamps below it, and can make 150 lumens per watt. The 400w son does about 50,000 or 125 per watt.


While a little off topic, that 15000 lumens for a 150w son, could be made with 10 domestic lamps of the 1500 lumen variety. This might use 100w. The beam angle on these might better suit some floor mounted baton lamp holders. That would spread the heat better, and you can find these 1500 lumen lamps that need 16w if you really wanted the heat not the light.

Anything bigger than a 150 on the floor will be a nightmare with the heat. It would have to have a clear path up through the canopy, or it would make one. Even the 1500 lumen lamps will remove leaves close to them.
 
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delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
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rtaym2224

New member
goingrey said:
Were you using a heater during lights off in the past, or flip-flopping two tents?
Click to expand...
Those grows were in a tent in my house, not in the garage as im planning for my next grows. So I had perfect control of temps with my home hvac and inline fans.

my only concern with a space heater is they use like 1200 watts its a lot of power. I may instead of a space heater consider a 12,000btu dual hose portable ac/heater/dehumidifier, so I have several functions with one unit. I will probably also buy a humidifier just in case i need to use it. ill have everything running on controllers and automate temp/humidity
 
goingrey

goingrey

Well-known member
rtaym2224 said:
Those grows were in a tent in my house, not in the garage as im planning for my next grows. So I had perfect control of temps with my home hvac and inline fans.

my only concern with a space heater is they use like 1200 watts its a lot of power. I may instead of a space heater consider a 12,000btu dual hose portable ac/heater/dehumidifier, so I have several functions with one unit. I will probably also buy a humidifier just in case i need to use it. ill have everything running on controllers and automate temp/humidity
Click to expand...
Yea I have my leccy bill being automatically paid up to a certain amount. Last winter when I had a heater for the grow I got an SMS from the company about being late on my payments because it went over that amount for the first time ever and wasn't automatically paid... Did make me think why am I not just flip-flopping two HPS grows. But yeah don't even have the equipment anymore.
 
goingrey

goingrey

Well-known member
Then again, if you flip-flop to high power LED grows you'll get even more than with those HPS tents, if you have the space for it...
 
Three Berries

Three Berries

Active member
Most ballast can be remotely mounted up to 50 ft away FWIW. The only difference between the regular lamp wiring and the HID is the voltage is a little higher coming into the socket. Maybe up to 300v on a 120v circuit, bigger is higher.

I wonder how a light tunnel would work, say some reflective film in a 3-4 ft circle and the light shining straight down from on top? Leave the bottom open for natural ventilation.....
 
Brother Nature

Brother Nature

Well-known member
Theres a grower on here, Marlo, he's got a few threads about vertical lighting setups, all very informative. The W.O.W thread (wall of weed). I used to run my 1.2m tent this way, before I moved to LED's. When you get everything right with the setup, it's by far the most efficient way to grow with HPS.
 
Brother Nature

Brother Nature

Well-known member
Here's a couple links to his grows;

THE WoW THREAD.

..'bout time I started one of these things. Wsup IC. This is my Diary. Every superhero deserves a theme song. Here's mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ennMD1fPtXA Y'all go ahead and soak all that in. Breakfast music. I'm gonna grab a swisher, and some Sour.... be right back. Get...
www.icmag.com

STEP IN THE ARENA

Aight yall. New thread. 12 plant multi strain Vertical Scrog 2.8" x 6" room 2 x 400w HPS Vortex 6" fan Can 33 Filter 3 gallon pots Blumat Drippers Sunleaves Coco GH Flora Nutes - following "The REZipe" Hygrozyme Drip Clean Shout to the Home De Pot on this one. Couldn't have done it without...
www.icmag.com
 
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rtaym2224

New member
Brother Nature said:
Here's a couple links to his grows;

THE WoW THREAD.

..'bout time I started one of these things. Wsup IC. This is my Diary. Every superhero deserves a theme song. Here's mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ennMD1fPtXA Y'all go ahead and soak all that in. Breakfast music. I'm gonna grab a swisher, and some Sour.... be right back. Get...
www.icmag.com

STEP IN THE ARENA

Aight yall. New thread. 12 plant multi strain Vertical Scrog 2.8" x 6" room 2 x 400w HPS Vortex 6" fan Can 33 Filter 3 gallon pots Blumat Drippers Sunleaves Coco GH Flora Nutes - following "The REZipe" Hygrozyme Drip Clean Shout to the Home De Pot on this one. Couldn't have done it without...
www.icmag.com
Click to expand...
that first one is kind of what i was thinking of doing
 
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rtaym2224

New member
thanks bro for those links.

If I am only running an overhead 760w LED bar strip setup where do i want my inline fan to suck and exhaust air from inside the tent? Right above the light? hopefully wont have to worry too much about high temps only cold

If I need to add portable AC inside the tent do I still want an 8" exhaust fan sucking air out of the tent?
 
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