wasting bulbs?

[resinator]

how do i know if HPS bulb is wasting?or going? is there a visual sign or noise from the bulb, i noticed in my mates room he has a 600HPS that keeps his room at a RH of 40% where as mine which has a 400HPS and 2 200w cfl's and my room is at 60-70%, so i'm thinking my bulb may have outlived itself but i'm not sure, would a new bulb help me?? any ideas very welcome

 

[TorturedSoul]

You'll lose a lot of output before you ever see visible dimming. Try replacing bulbs at about half their rated hours and more often if they are subjected to hot restarts.

I don't know what you meant when you reported your humidity. What significance are you placing on that?

 

[Hightide805]

yeah the humidity has nothing to do with your bulb, they have light meters you can buy to get the lumens output, they are really cheep.
but you should get that humidity down just for bud mold sake.

 

[resinator]

guys it is that i noticed my mate's grow room with a much lower RH with his setup and we are in the same estate same type room so i figured that it was something to do with HPS which has lowered RH in his room and maybe my bulb had used up its goodness?.as he has no humidity issues he seems to think along the same lines too, maybe i'll just get a bulb and see anyway its not as if it'll go to waste. am i wrong in thinking HPS can lower RH to any degree or is there method to my madness

confused

resinator

 

[Smokeyjoe]

If the rh number has anything to do with the light it is just that he has 600 you have 400 his light will produce more heat than yours which could slightly move hum numbers around.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Well, since you mentioned relative humidity...

Possibly with identical setups, an older bulb might be producing less light - which would seem to mean more heat since the same amount of electricity is still going somewhere.

If two boxes both have the same moisture content at 70F, they will still have the same amount if one is heated to 140F, but the heated box will have a lower relative humidity (as the warmer air would be capable of holding more moisture).

So I guess it might be theoretically possible for bulb life to be a factor in RH.

But I don't expect it to be any kind of factor that could be measured without really accurate instruments lol.

So... coincidence.

 

[resinator]

If the rh number has anything to do with the light it is just that he has 600 you have 400 his light will produce more heat than yours which could slightly move hum numbers around.

thats what i'm thinking kind of
he has only the 600 i have the 400 and 2 200w par max cfl's so we should be closer in humidity so i must have a weak bulb dont you think?

 

[resinator]

Well, since you mentioned relative humidity...

Possibly with identical setups, an older bulb might be producing less light - which would seem to mean more heat since the same amount of electricity is still going somewhere.

If two boxes both have the same moisture content at 70F, they will still have the same amount if one is heated to 140F, but the heated box will have a lower relative humidity (as the warmer air would be capable of holding more moisture).

So I guess it might be theoretically possible for bulb life to be a factor in RH.

But I don't expect it to be any kind of factor that could be measured without really accurate instruments lol.

So... coincidence.

TorturedSoul its what makes sense to me tnx for somewhat confirming what i was thinking is possible, so its a change of bulb tomorrow and we'll know then tnx for the input