Ballast concerns

[missywelden]

recently I purchased a 1000 watt Apollo adjustable dimmable ballast. I am currently using a1000 watt high pressure sodium hood and bal.if I decide to run it at 250 watts or 400 watts instead of a 1000 do I need to change the bulb or can I still keep the watt bulb in the hood? also I am only using one hood and 1000 watt bulb is that enough light for 10 plants in a one room?the hood is about 3 feet wide and 3 feet long

 

[JJ Bones]

1000w dimmable ballast + 1000w bulb to dim it down.

How big is your grow space?

 

[missywelden]

12x10. so is i wanted to run the ballast at 400 watts. would i have to change out the bulb to 400 watt bulb to match the wattage?

 

[JJ Bones]

Well the 12x10 is maybe the entire room but not your growing space. If you run a 1000w bulb+ballast then dim it down to 400w you will still use a 1000w bulb

 

[missywelden]

thanks for the info. so do you think one hood is sufficient enough for growing 10 plants. the strains are gdp and blue dream im not sure if that maqkes any difference. this is my first indoor grow and dont know alot about it.we planted 3 of them in 3 gal geo bags and and the other 7 are only in one gallon bags

 

[JJ Bones]

First determine the growing space available, then determine which light covers said space, then see how many plants can fit in the space.

Most people do it backwards and focus on how many plants instead of how much space along with how much space does the light cover.

One gallon bags will be too small.

 

[s1ingblade]

12x10. so is i wanted to run the ballast at 400 watts. would i have to change out the bulb to 400 watt bulb to match the wattage?

Just to chime in and give ya my 2cents my 9.5' by 19 is running 4000 watts via four 1000 watt hps in the big xxxl magnum hoods. I think if u run one 1000 watt lamp in that space run it at maximum 100% I'd also make sure to get a digital bulb thats made for the dimmables. A reg bulb isn't suposed to last long if its used in a digital and when I ran an old school bulb in my dimmable it looked super funky down at 50% or 500 watts.
The newer really cool sounding ballasts have a 400 watt 600 & 1K is tha what you got? Would be interesting to know if their making special bulbs for that range. Would be super sweet to be able to run those wattages all from one ballast IF it doesn't fry your bulbs life and performance.
Nice to meet ya

 

[KingJohnC]

a 1000 watt High Intensity Discharge light will cover a 5'x5' area. A 1000 watt light bulb must be matched to a 1000 watt ballast but can be dimmed.

here are some charts that have lumens versus distance, they do not take heat into account