Affordable Lighting?

I am going to go for 150W MH and HPS for my upcoming grow cab. I stumbled across some very affordable lighting but am not sure it will be worth the savings:

• MH
• HPS
• Ballast

In particular I would like to know if it the ballast is going to be good enough and if these lights are up to scratch specs-wise?


If you are interested in how cheap this is, divide by 8.7 to get $.

EM ballasts are workhorses. I use them. Never had a digital. You'll be good for a long time with that one.

That's pretty high dollar, mate! EM are the absolute cheapest. Go for 600 watts and compare prices. Look on eBay too for cheap EM rigs.

discount hydroponics has awesome combo deals on ballasts, bulbs and reflectors! i think the last COMPLETE light i got was under $250, and it was the new and improved luminaire design. at many places, reflectors or ballasts alone are almost $200. i love my digital lumatek 400w ballasts. they're totally quiet, more efficient, and put more lumens out, but magnetic ballasts are the most reliable, but they hum.

hotrodharley said:

EM ballasts are workhorses. I use them. Never had a digital. You'll be good for a long time with that one.

That's pretty high dollar, mate! EM are the absolute cheapest. Go for 600 watts and compare prices. Look on eBay too for cheap EM rigs.

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For both bulbs and the ballast it converts to just over $65, you think that's high dollar? Definitely the cheapest I've seen in this country but I'll surf ebay as I'm in no rush. It has to be 150W or less though, I have very limited space: 40x24x22"

hazey grapes said:

discount hydroponics has awesome combo deals on ballasts, bulbs and reflectors! i think the last COMPLETE light i got was under $250, and it was the new and improved luminaire design. at many places, reflectors or ballasts alone are almost $200. i love my digital lumatek 400w ballasts. they're totally quiet, more efficient, and put more lumens out, but magnetic ballasts are the most reliable, but they hum.

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I checked them out, they seem to have 400W and up. Also if I'm going to go affordable I think I should stick with an EM ballast.

Is 100 Lumen per Watt normal? This ballast looks dodgy to me, not sure why...