Yes correct it controls the power to run a specific type and size lamp but even more importantly is the startup (pulse start)
New Grower
- Thread starter Frank White
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WeedMonkey
Well-Known Member
I grow with a T5 and general purpose CFLs in soil with plant food and Nutes. I'm working with building wiring from the 50s I grow 3 at a time with this combo. The stronger light you have the more you will get. This is fine for me as I use it medicinally. You can follow my journal here if you like what you see and what I've said.
Mother of Berries - M.O.B. - Maine Strain
Mother of Berries - M.O.B. - Maine Strain
Yes you could always use cfls and tube flourescants but they aren't the best choice but as you can see from the beautiful pic above you won't fail if you keep em close
Well, it depends on whether or not you're trying to compare apples to oranges. If a grower is choosing between a HPS that consumes 1,000 watts and an LED panel that consumes 1,000 watts, then they're going to cost the same to run - and produce the same amount of heat. What makes some people think that LEDs are cooler and cheaper to operate is because they (often) try comparing products of two different wattages. The (generic and blurple, mostly) LED sellers don't help this when they tend to list the theoretical maximum rating of the LEDs instead of the actual amount of power it uses. IOW, if one of those panels has 60 "five-watt class" LEDs, it is not uncommon to see it being sold as a "300w LED," even though it will almost certainly actually be drawing closer to 150 watts because those LEDs are never operated at their maximum theoretical rating. Once in a while I'll see a seller/manufacturer be more up front about the power of its products - where the number in the model name, be it "450" or whatever is the actual wattage that the panel consumes - but this is pretty rare. Usually, but not always, it is the higher-quality products that are (correctly :rolleyes3 ) named in this fashion.
Well... the amperage will be half (in relation to 120VAC) for a given device, because the voltage is doubled. It's a simple math formula. The actual amount of electricity consumed is nominally the same. But, as the amperage load is halved, the wiring (AWG) requirements are less, at least.
It has been, IDK, six or seven years since the last time I bought a basic(+/-) 400-watt HPS setup, so the prices have probably gone up a few percent. But I think I spent $119 for a 400-watt electronic (can be dimmed to drive 400-watt bulbs at 250 watts, can use 400-watt or 250-watt bulbs, and can use both HPS and MH (separately, of course
) bulbs. I bought a mid-priced 400-watt high pressure sodium bulb for $54 (and a cheap 250-watt metal halide for $19.50, but that isn't required). And I bought the cheapest open (not air-cooled) HID reflector that I could find that already had the ceramic mogul socket and HD cord set attached, which was $34. So that was $207 (US) several years ago, not counting the little MH bulb. I could have saved a fair amount going with the same setup in 250-watt size, but it would not have been worth it in terms of cost vs. value, compared to what I did buy. That's not counting the pH meter (the cheapest digital one that I'd trust is Milwaukee's pH600 at about $20), et cetera. I bought a 50-liter bag of expanded clay balls for my medium but a 10-liter bag would have lasted me a while (since I only used ~18 ounces per plant) and would have cost around $12, IIRC. Or maybe that's what I paid for the 50-liter bag, I don't remember; either way, it was cheap. I had plenty of those red 18-ounce plastic Solo cups, which I used for my containers after putting 1,000,000 (lol) ¼" holes in the lower portion of each. I think I had the 23-gallon totes already - I cut a hole in the lid that would hold the Solo cup. This became my nutrient reservoir. I had some old aquarium air pumps, so I bought some air stones and new tubing (cheap). That gave me aeration of the nutrient solution, but since having the proper amount of DO (dissolved O₂) in the solution is the number one requirement for healthy roots (and a healthy plant), I wanted AERATION, lol, and added a cheap ($21) aquarium power head to each tote. The usual fans to move the plants around and aid in transpiration, plus the fan/filter for ventilation and odor control. Open reflectors suck in this regard, BtW, but cheap is... cheap. Nutrients... not too much at all, really; I bought the small bottles, for a small grow. I could have saved money buying larger bottles, but I'd have spent more initially. Few other miscellaneous items, and mustn't forget some cannabis seeds . Did some things right, goofed (and goofed around) a bit on others, was kind of lazy, and picked a strain for reasons other than high production. Think I harvested just a hair over 10 ounces that time. Counting the electricity and water I used during that grow, I figure my total cost per ¼-ounce of very high-quality cannabis that had the effect profile that I was looking for (instead of whatever was going around at the time :rolleyes3 ) was......not enough to count, lol. In relative terms, I did not spend much at all. But I did spend something. I remember getting all ready to order things, taking a few minutes to go over my list again - and then saving up for another three weeks or so. Because I did, I ended up with a halfway decent grow instead of a half-@ssed one....
Yes I know how smart you are already. But how much of that do you think Frank White understood? I try not to overwhelm the newer growers by laying it out fairly simply. But thanks for the info .
Why Doe
New Member
Every time I see him post I don't read it because it's 2 pages of stuff I don't really understand lol. You do tend to overwhelm people, but the effort you put into helping others is really appreciated!
I have read a lot of good stuff he has written and I was just trying to help the fella out without getting into such detail that he would not understand what I was talking about. Apples to oranges is a more effective comparison when you have 250 to spend lol
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- #28
Frank White
New Member
I checked out Craigslist and there aren't any ballasts for sale but as for the cheapest, there's this one
Yep just match it up with the lamp wattage
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- #30
Frank White
New Member
So 400 watt?
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- #31
Frank White
New Member
Or should I get a 600 watt light? Because the ballast says 600watt
It's a dimmable ballast so u could use the 400w lamp with the ballast turned down.... or.... u can get a 600w lamp.
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- #33
Frank White
New Member
What would you reccomend? 400W or 600W? Would it really make a difference?
I can't make a real recommendation on what you should use I was just trying to make you aware of options you had because if you spend 250 on an hps setup you can get a decent 600w setup that will outperform the led options in the same price range. I paid 250 US for a 125 actual wattage led panel but I was able to yield 140g with it in an old armoire lol. But since you have more space why not go with more watts? You'll be able to yield more grams, potentially. You can turn your ballast down but you cannot turn your 400w lamp up lol
Lol. I assume everyone here at the forum can read. I suppose I could try typing slower .
When I was a kid, IDK... I guess I had to learn how to do all kinds of stuff that the average child (at least these days) generally doesn't, because his/her parents are more less functional. Pop wasn't an office worker, he worked outside; construction, mainly, and when the work was a couple hours (or more) away, his days were 12 hours minimum (counting travel time), so it was not at all uncommon for him to be gone before daylight and return late. Mom... Well, Mom had personal grief issues and so during a lot of my childhood... Well, if I wanted clean clothes, I learned to do laundry. If I wanted a cooked meal, I figured that out. If the mothers of the babies that she... tried to babysit needed cared for, I kind of got that job by default when Mom was sick in the body or the head. And all that way before I turned seven. And entertaining myself... We got the evening newspaper every day, so I read it. In fact, I read pretty much everything that had words on it :rolleyes3 (and still do). We received two television channels - a local network affiliate and PBS - so I watched The Electric Company and, sometimes, Sesame Street, along with our local and the national news. SO... Picture me as a little sh!t, when some adult entered my environment and proceeded to talk down to me. Somewhere along then, I decided that I wouldn't talk down to my audience, whether they were kids or adults. I figure that those who can understand it with no effort will appreciate it. Those who have to strain a little, well, what's life without a little challenge? And if I say or type something and it sails past, a virtual ten feet over someone's head, they can always ask for clarification.
I've had people ask me if I could "dumb it down a little." No problem. I've had people respond to one of my posts in such a way that I had to put some effort into understanding their knowledge/insights (which was good for ME). But I've only rarely had someone tell me that I was being too simplistic in my communications.
Well, overwhelming isn't what I'm aiming for. Feel free to ask me to explain something I post (if there is a need). But please understand that there is a chance that my explanation might be a little lengthier than the short posts I generally create here (what, lol? They're almost always under 50,000 characters ) .
Anyway, enough of my rambling! We now return you to your regularly-scheduled cannabis thread....
.When I was a kid, IDK... I guess I had to learn how to do all kinds of stuff that the average child (at least these days) generally doesn't, because his/her parents are more less functional. Pop wasn't an office worker, he worked outside; construction, mainly, and when the work was a couple hours (or more) away, his days were 12 hours minimum (counting travel time), so it was not at all uncommon for him to be gone before daylight and return late. Mom... Well, Mom had personal grief issues and so during a lot of my childhood... Well, if I wanted clean clothes, I learned to do laundry. If I wanted a cooked meal, I figured that out. If the mothers of the babies that she... tried to babysit needed cared for, I kind of got that job by default when Mom was sick in the body or the head. And all that way before I turned seven. And entertaining myself... We got the evening newspaper every day, so I read it. In fact, I read pretty much everything that had words on it :rolleyes3 (and still do). We received two television channels - a local network affiliate and PBS - so I watched The Electric Company and, sometimes, Sesame Street, along with our local and the national news. SO... Picture me as a little sh!t, when some adult entered my environment and proceeded to talk down to me. Somewhere along then, I decided that I wouldn't talk down to my audience, whether they were kids or adults. I figure that those who can understand it with no effort will appreciate it. Those who have to strain a little, well, what's life without a little challenge? And if I say or type something and it sails past, a virtual ten feet over someone's head, they can always ask for clarification.
I've had people ask me if I could "dumb it down a little." No problem. I've had people respond to one of my posts in such a way that I had to put some effort into understanding their knowledge/insights (which was good for ME). But I've only rarely had someone tell me that I was being too simplistic in my communications.
Well, overwhelming isn't what I'm aiming for. Feel free to ask me to explain something I post (if there is a need). But please understand that there is a chance that my explanation might be a little lengthier than the short posts I generally create here (what, lol? They're almost always under 50,000 characters
) .Anyway, enough of my rambling! We now return you to your regularly-scheduled cannabis thread....
- Thread starter
- #36
Frank White
New Member
Too true, I guess I'll just go for the bigger the better then. Thank you and everyone else who replied for your help, it's greatly appreciated. I'll definitely make a grow journal once I get all the equipment.
Good luck frank white, I'm glad that my "dumbed down" advice was helpful to you rolls eyes winks and such...
I understand that you are brand new at all of this so I did my best to give you some options that will help you along the way.
TS idk what part of the title of this regularly-scheduled cannabis thread you didn't understand lol
I understand that you are brand new at all of this so I did my best to give you some options that will help you along the way.
TS idk what part of the title of this regularly-scheduled cannabis thread you didn't understand lol
growsomebud
Active Member
A 240 volt circuit does NOT use less power; they are equal. A 200 watt load is the same on a 120v circuit as it is on a 240v circuit. Watts = current(I) x voltage(V). A 200 watt load on a 240v circuit will simply draw half the current as a 200 watt load on a 120v circuit. What is different, is that you can wire a circuit from breaker panel to an outlet w/ a smaller gauge wire.
A light that can be used on both 120 and 240 will use less amperage on 240
growsomebud
Active Member
It doesn't use less power. It uses the same. What's happening is the voltage doubles and the current draw halves. Watts = I x V. I hold a master's degree in electrical engineering. I'm happy are you? lol
