Lumatek HPS Bulb Specs (Other Bulb Specs Accepted)

[TorturedSoul]

I noticed that Lumatek lists PAR for their bulbs. I'm interested in seeing specs for other brands too. Feel free to add them to this thread.

1000W:
Initial Luminous Flux (lm): 145,000
Luminous Efficiency (lm/W): 150
Color Temperature (K): 2,100
PAR (umol/s): 1798
Photo Flux (phyto-lm):290,000

600W:
Initial Luminous Flux (lm): 92,000
Luminous Efficiency (lm/W): 150
Color Temperature (K): 2,050
PAR (umol/s): 1030
Photo Flux (phyto-lm):185,000

400W:
Initial Luminous Flux (lm): 60,000
Luminous Efficiency (lm/W): 136
Color Temperature (K): 2,050
PAR (umol/s): 713
Photo Flux (phyto-lm):128,000

All Lumatek bulbs carry a one-year warranty.

 

[Bassman59]

I take it you copy pasted from a website.

As I understand it, divide lumens by watts and you get the lumens efficiency.

92k/600w =153.3 lumen per watt
145k/1000w = 145 lumen per watt
60k/4004 = 150 lumen per watt

1. clearly an error in your post (not saying your fault).
2. I've read 600w bulbs are generally the most lumen per watt

**I understand your question is around par (which I havent gotten a grasp of yet), but I just wanted to clarify the lumen per watt info as I understand it or be corrected if I'm wrong.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I take it you copy pasted from a website.

As I understand it, divide lumens by watts and you get the lumens efficiency.

92k/600w =153.3 lumen per watt
145k/1000w = 145 lumen per watt
60k/4004 = 150 lumen per watt

1. clearly an error in your post (not saying your fault).
2. I've read 600w bulbs are generally the most lumen per watt

No, it's not exactly an error. It IS, however a "minor" misrepresentation, lol. They are making the assumption that the bulb is being driven by a Lumatek ballast - on the 400SL setting. That's why the LE works out to be ~136 - 440 watts (AfaIK), lol. Would have been fine had they noted that little bit of information (also if I had thought to note it myself). But it kind of gives a perception that the bulb produces more illumination at 400 watts than it actually does.

The LE is actually slightly higher at 400 watts, but the gross output is, of course, lower. And I cannot remember offhand the exact numbers.

Thank you for pointing that out.

And you are correct that a 600-watt HPS is more efficient (in L/W) than either a 400- or 1000-watt one (not sure about the efficiencies of 750- or 1500-watt and above ones). That's in terms of output - depending on the reflector and the garden's setup, a 1kW might have the nod when it comes to production per watt if a deeper penetration is required. But I'm not sure that's relevant, since one would be assumed to be able to tailor the grow to the lighting.

**I understand your question is around par (which I havent gotten a grasp of yet), but I just wanted to clarify the lumen per watt info as I understand it or be corrected if I'm wrong.

Still trying to find and digest information on that subject myself. Which is why I had hoped to see specs for different bulbs. This is the first "high-PAR" bulb that I've owned (or at least the first bulb to be marketed as such). I'm especially curious as to how my old 430-watt Planta-T (I might be mistaken about the brand, it's been a number of years) driven by 430-watt C&C ballasts would compare; those bulbs fired up with almost a pure "blue" color temperature jolt before the ballast was able to ramp up the entire output. I miss that setup - but I don't miss the extra heat and NOISE from the ballast, lol.

I'm also curious about how one of those enhanced 430-watt bulbs would perform when driven by the Lumatek on its 400SL output setting. Maybe I'll order one next spring to try; they seemed to work fairly well all the way through.

 

[paw-paw]

TS, you must use a lumatec bulb w/lumatec ballasts. please be careful! i've had 1st hand experience w/this.

 

[TorturedSoul]

TS, you must use a lumatec bulb w/lumatec ballasts. please be careful! i've had 1st hand experience w/this.

I've only had it a few weeks <KNOCKS ON WOOD>, but so far my Lumatek ballast does fine with:

• New 400-watt Lumatek HPS - in 400SL, 400w, 250SL, and 250w mode
• OLD 400-watt general purpose MH (either Phillips or GE, can't remember) - with too many hours on it - in 400w, 250SL, and 250w mode
• New "generic" HTGSupply 250-watt HPS - in 250SL and 250w mode
• Six-week old "generic" department store (he thinks it's a Sylvania from Lowes) 250-watt MH - in 250w mode

The last two were ones that my buddy brought by so that I could make sure the ballast would fire them ok. The first two are mine; the HPS was tested for an hour, 12 hours, and 20 hours and the MH has been in use for a couple weeks at 18 hours/day.

So (at this point) I'm loving my Lumatek ballast and it appears to be working 100% with a new good bulb, a new cheap bulb, a used cheap bulb, and really old cheap bulb at various ballast output settings.

Or did I misunderstand you? Were you instead stating that I should not run a Lumatek bulb in non-Lumatek ballasts?

 

[paw-paw]

no, u got it right...some of those bulbs will fire, just fine. the prob i had was the lum. ballast started leaking oil & caught fire. luckily my sprinkler system put out the fire, but the ballast was ruined. when i called lumatec, they said there was a "warning" about "always use lumatec bulbs". i took it as an advert. & they wouldn't make it good. i'm sure these newer one's are "improved", but just be careful.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Ouch. I did notice a note in the paperwork that mentioned something like if the ballast was in a hot area with inadequate air movement and it got hot enough that it started to leak, to move it to a cooler area. Mine hasn't gotten hot (gets what I'd consider warm, no problem laying my inside forearm on top of it) but I'll think about relocating the grow in the future where I can more easily check it and if the ambient temperature of the room where the ballast is located hits 100°F or higher I'll definitely aim a small fan at it. I think so far it has been a few degrees less at worst (thankfully).

Odd them mentioning a warning about only using Lumatek bulbs since I didn't see that on their site or in my paperwork (I might have missed it, though) and since with the exception of their 750-watt ballast they're designed to drive both HPS and MH bulbs - and Lumatek (or Gavita or whoever actually manufactures their bulbs if Lumatek doesn't?) only makes HPS ones.

 

[paw-paw]

it was a chicken/egg thing. couldn't determine if the oil leak caused the fire or the fire caused the leak. i have my suspicions but couldn't prove anything. just be careful....maybe they've since fixed the problem of not firing certain bulbs. i can't remember what bulb i was using. the cord between the ballast & lamp was burned (crispy) inside when i split it open to check it. i know it's none of my business, but i take it personally when family & friends get hurt.