Any experience with ac/de lights?

D

df65

New Member
At this time i'm running 3 air cooled 1k hps lamps. I'm wanting to upgrade these. Gavita would be my first choice, but there is no way I could handle the heat. Second choice would be sun systems ac/de fixture, with the Phillips double ended bulb, and the galaxy grow amp ballast. From the research i've done the heat should be manageable. The party readings appear to be similar.

Has anyone tried these fixtures? If so, with what kind of results?
 
Tell me about your air cooled hoods. I am thinking about getting some 1000w ac de lamps. I am worried about the height of my room. It is 8’ on the edges and I can go 9’ where the roof line goes up in the middle of the room. Some are saying they run them 18-28” and I some say 4’ above canopy. Can u shine some light on this? Thanks
 
Just a word of caution. I highly recommend watching the video in my signature on HID lighting. Watch all the way through. There is a lot more to know than people appreciate.

The main thing I want to share with you guys is air cooling a HID light is going against the point. It is very wastefully power utilization.

You want to cool the room not the bulb. The way the bulb works is by getting hot. Not the other way around. The hotter the bulb the better it works. With the same wattage. Cooling it is using energy from a fan to make the bulb less efficient wasting energy and slowing and reducing your grow.

The right way to operate a HID, esspecially a DE ...is to vent the room.

Also...vented hoods have a glass surface between the bulb and plants which does matter and no one maintains properly to prevent loss there.

Small tight focused open air DE provides higher par per watt. But yes...you need a decent fan to exhaust the room.
 
I actually was joking with a guy at the hydro store about those reflectors 2 weeks back.

I was like why you got this big ol thing up front...no one wants that? He laughed...said they haven't sold one in forever.
 
I got one of them monsters heavy as hell to so that could be why my little 315 CMH gets over half the yield that my 1000 hps does gee thanks I was gonna do nothing but sit on my ass this weekend now I'm gonna get rid of that glass and re route my ducts and filter and give it a shot maybe I can shut my heater off
 
VilliageIdiot said:
Just a word of caution. I highly recommend watching the video in my signature on HID lighting. Watch all the way through. There is a lot more to know than people appreciate.

The main thing I want to share with you guys is air cooling a HID light is going against the point. It is very wastefully power utilization.

You want to cool the room not the bulb. The way the bulb works is by getting hot. Not the other way around. The hotter the bulb the better it works. With the same wattage. Cooling it is using energy from a fan to make the bulb less efficient wasting energy and slowing and reducing your grow.

The right way to operate a HID, esspecially a DE ...is to vent the room.

Also...vented hoods have a glass surface between the bulb and plants which does matter and no one maintains properly to prevent loss there.

Small tight focused open air DE provides higher par per watt. But yes...you need a decent fan to exhaust the room.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. I am setting up a 23 foot x 31 foot flower room. The roof line is 8 foot around the perimeter and goes to a 11 foot peak in the center. I would like to have 18 1000 watts lights in the room to cover my 4x8 tables. Just trying to find the best, coolest light to flower the room. I don’t think I have enough height room to use a 1000 w de. So I was looking at the air cooled de in 1000w. I am open to other options.
Currently, I have a 3 ton Hvac in the room and we will be using co2 in the gas form. I have the option to add 3 ton mini split and will probably have to do this.
Any suggestions on this drain to waste set up
 
I don't do DTW. I used to do the opposite...no drain pot growing. I will say this guy on here I trust about DTW is Fareastbuds. He isn't as big as you are talking but he has near no waste. Perfect feed in pure perlite. Solid frosty nugs. Good grower chat him up. I am sure there a hundreds more but this guy and I talk about it.

For the lights there is lots to chat about ...I will fail to keep it short.

You sound like you are doing a proper pro grow spending money... it sounds like. So to you I say...Don't fuck around. A decent setup pays for itself in one run. Do you know what you are doing and if so...if you have grown...just do it.

The key to top shelf hard buds is good ventilation and temps late in flower. Fluffy buds low in resin come from heat issues. This is where you want to spend your money. The nutes or medium is totally irrelevant. Pick any nute / medium program and we can find an excellent example.

What you really want is to have the best lights you can afford and enough ventilation for that.

Now this is all still talking HID...I will mention LED in a moment.

So still on HID there comes a point of overpowering. I run a 1kW in a 5x5 tent that is like 8' with a 450cfm 6" fan no problems. But I have a larger room I am evacuating into and moderating the temps in.

The better option may be to scale back to 600W or get dimable ones and run 750. Mine goes 650 750 1000 1150. All auto sensing...I can put in and type of HID bulb in any hood. So I can quick change.

I actually have a 400W HPS from over 20 years ago I still use so I have HID from 400-1150 to choose from on 2 ballasts. I do change my lights during the grow to save money.

Now LEDs are all over the map and a lot of misinformation out there. I have both some reasonably good Mars Hydro and some super cheap one that I may end up liking a lot. The issue with the LEDs is penetration. You can't make big monsters really without the 10W LEDs which are rather spendy I believe. I don't know like I said I went out and bought one of these new fangled ones that go for under $100 and claim to be 2kW equivalent...LOL we shall see. The funny thing is the footprint is rather small IMO and it draws about 400W. It really seems very much equivalent to my 400W HPS. So one of these times I will try side by side. Good ol magnetic ballast 400W against the 400W true LED to see watt for watt what they do. LEDs for me are for veg really as the footprint and penetration is so bad. You can really get a scrog good with one since you spread it out. If you are growing vertical trees you gotta do HID IMO.

There are many great new LEDs and panels out there new ones daily. Many work. HID is adjustable and penetrates.


I would size right for you ventilation capabilities. Be prepared to be way wrong and want to make some changes.

Go big bro.

oh yeah...and for CO2 to work right you gotta be up in the 80 degrees or even more. look it up...CO2 is actually a bit complicated to run right but doing it right is worth it. You are at the scale it is worth it. Do it right!
 
Also...again...lighting pays for itself right away done right. You have the space for top of the line lights and you can upgrade as you go. I would say it is better to buy the best you can and if that means you are short 4 lights on your first run so be it. Then on your next run add some bomb ass LED panels and interleave them and have a light show.
 

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