I have a 17' by 17' glass greenhouse and my plants are still not getting enough light. A friend has given me a number of light fixtures that came form a closed down sawmill. They are made by Cooper lighting and the catalog number is FM 408. They can be found on the internet. The T Type is CWA which I have been able to determine means Constant Wattage Autotransformer. They have 400 watt bulbs in them but they are just for lighting, not growing. I also have some HORTLUX metal Halide Conversion Grow lamps and they call for a S51 ballast. My question is: Is a CWA ballast the same as a S51 ballast (so I can use the Grow bulbs in these fixtures? Thanks for your help, twogone
Mittin
Well-Known Member
Not sure about the ballasts, but your Cooper lights would work great for growing. I assume they are MH bulbs which are perfect for the Veg stage. You would just need to get 400w HPS bulbs for the Flower stage.
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Many thanks for the response. Yes, you are correct the MH bulbs that came with the fixtures will work. The fixtures were covered in a thick coat of sawmill dust and I was cleaning one up yesterdayand uncovered a second label on the ballast. It reads "HPS, MH, HG'' which I assume means High Pressure Sodium, Metal Halide and Mercury vapor. What luck, if would appear these Cooper lamps will run almost any kind of bulb. I may try a combination and switch them independently. Thanks again for your advice, Cheers & Happy Easter; Twogone
Mittin
Well-Known Member
Yup, those lamps are excellent for growing. For optimal growing you will want the MH bulbs for Vegetation stage and the HPS bulbs for the Flowering stage.
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OK!!!!!!!!!! I'm excited. As you say, they are perfect and they didn't cost me a cent. Looking forward to some super plants.
Thanks once more for your help and advice.
Cheers; Twogone
Thanks once more for your help and advice.
Cheers; Twogone
gbauto
Well-Known Member
Yep, they should work just fine. Make sure that you can get rid of the heat.
