str8_pimpin
Well-Known Member
Is it possible to use a 250w MH/HPS conversion bulb on my regular 250w HPS setup??
Can i use a 250w MH/HPS Conversion Bulb on my 250w HPS System?
- Thread starter str8_pimpin
- Start date
Shanti4life
Well-Known Member
I was wondering the same thing a while back. My research led me to believe that it was only possible with digital ballasts, but I'm not 100% sure...just my 0.02
str8_pimpin
Well-Known Member
thanks...i also thought you needed a digital ballast, but hey some 1 out there knows for sure 100%
thelastpirate
Well-Known Member
I wonder why they say it won't work? I am burning MH bulbs with my HPS ballast, with no apparent problems. In fact, when I got my lights (Salvaged commercial high bay lights) I got some MH ballasts, but the ones that were clearly marked as HPS had MH bulbs in them, so the factory was obviously burning MH bulbs in an HPS fixture/ballast.
In every myth/urban legend, there is a grain of truth, a causative reason for the belief. How and why did this one get spread around?
Any electricians/electrical engineers out there? Will doing so shorten the ballast life? Or shorten bulb life? Will it create a "worm hole" that will suck my grow room into another dimension? (I can't have THAT!!)
Just something to chew on.
TLP
chknhwk
Well-Known Member
i know the hps balast will burn a mh but will a mh balast burn a hps i have heard the it had something to do with ignition of the bulb to get it started is the key well apparently they sell conversion bulbs for both
Buy Eye Ultra Ace 400 Watt HPS Conversion Bulbs Here! i though that they only made the one but i am still pretty sure that if its not a conversion bulb only a mh in a hps balast will wrk
thelastpirate
Well-Known Member
ChknHwk, I don't know about that. After I harvest this one in a week or two, I'll try it. I do know that HPS will burn MH bulbs with no apparent probs. I tried one of those conversion bulbs. I ordered either a Phillips (I forget what they call thiers), Or a GE Chroma-fit. Those are not supposed to have light loss. What I ended up with was an Ushio version. It worked OK, but had about 15,000 fewer lumens than a straight up HPS or MH. Thats alot of light to sacrifice for a little convenience.
I have some MH fixtures, but only 2 HPS bulbs. I aint gonna run right out and get another bulb to test it in a MH fixture, but I am gearing up for another grow. I'll be getting new lamps/bulbs for this grow, and I'll try a used one in a MH fixture.
I just wonder when, why and how this came about that it couldn't be done? I have called both GE and Hubbell lighting technicians about it and get the same pat answer. No they are not interchangable.
I have some MH fixtures, but only 2 HPS bulbs. I aint gonna run right out and get another bulb to test it in a MH fixture, but I am gearing up for another grow. I'll be getting new lamps/bulbs for this grow, and I'll try a used one in a MH fixture.
I just wonder when, why and how this came about that it couldn't be done? I have called both GE and Hubbell lighting technicians about it and get the same pat answer. No they are not interchangable.
chknhwk
Well-Known Member
don't know man that is a good question keep me posted on what you find out or if anyone else out there wants to give it a try and lest us know so pirate as i said i have the conversion bulb are you saying if icant afford to have both balasts would it just be better just to run my hps for the whole life cycle then to switch them up cause i don't know if it was the switching to 12/12 or putting the hps back in after i used my mh for a month or so but my plants shot straight up
Stoney McFried
Well-Known Member
What about a 150 watt hps?This could save me some money.I can get mh and hps at a local hardware store.
Stoney McFried
Well-Known Member
I already have the 150 watter...I just wanted to know if I could use metal halide in it as previously suggested, or if there is some cutoff on wattage for these kind of bulbs.
ElBarto
Well-Known Member
yes. that is why it is called a "conversion" bulb.
no. you need a 150W ballast to run a 150W bulb.
Stoney McFried
Well-Known Member
I have a 150 watt ballast.I guess I should have been clearer.I just meant...does it have to be a conversion bulb?Because the wording in a previous post suggested not.
thelastpirate
Well-Known Member
Do not take this as gospel, but on all the sites I've been on, one of the common schools of thought is that you can use either an HPS or a MH for both vegging and flowering. The spectrum of an HPS is more suited for flowering, the MH for vegging. From what I can gather, an HPS would be preferred over a MH, but an MH will work fine, and ideally one would use both throughout. I cannot state for certain, but this seems to be a common school of thought.
Supposedly, using an HPS for vegging results in slightly stretched out plants, and using an MH bulb for flowering reults in looser, less dense buds.
Personally, I used MH for vegging, and HPS for flower. I added an MH to the mix for the last few weeks of flower. My plany has 2 400w HPS and a 400w MH on it now, 12/12.
I thought about how convenient only one ballast would be for both types of light. (Even tho I have 4 of each) I can now just unplug the bulb/reflector from the ballast and switch out the ballast and bulb, leaving the cords and reflectors where they are. I'm still working on my system, trying to improve it.
usuf
Well-Known Member
FreeCableGuy
Member
Ok, lots of questions, here are the answers.
1) Yes, of course you can use a conversion lamp, thats what they are designed for.
2) The confusion comes in when you try to use a "standard" (not a conversion) MH lamp with an HPS ballast. The only time this will work well is with a 1000 watt system. This is because the LAMP OPERATING VOLTAGE is nearly the same for a 1000w HPS lamp and a 1000w MH lamp. Now, don't confuse lamp operating voltage with the voltage of the power in your house or the voltage of your ballast. Lamp operating voltage is the voltage supplied FROM your ballast to the lamp. There are some great sites that you can learn all about how an HID lamp (High Intensity Discharge) like a HPS or MH works.
3) The basic difference between the lamps is that an HPS lamp requires an "ignitor" in the ballast to start the lamp, while and MH lamp does not. This is one of the main reasons you should not use a "standard" MH lamp with your HPS ballast, as the ignitor sends a 4000 volt pulse into the lamp to start it (or "ignite" it) Your standard MH lamp is not built to withstand this ignitor pulse for long, but for 1000w units, if you are running 24 hour cycles with your veg anyway, it only gets this ignitor pulse the first time it is turned on. So you should be ok for the life of the lamp.
With any MH lamp, you will want to change it out after 6 months of "use" because the "lumen depriciation" starts to fall off pretty quickly after that. Lumen depreciation is the amount of light that is "lost" after a lamp is used for a certain amount of hours. For example, most 400w MH lamps have an "initial" lumen rating of 36,000 lumens, that means, the first week you are using it, it will be cranking out 36,000 wonderful lumens, but if you look at the charts available from the manufacturers like GE and Philips and others, you will see that most MH lamps will "lose" about 35%-45% of the lumens with time. So that means, the 400 watt lamp, that is still sucking down 400 plus watts, is now cranking out only 25,000 lumens.
1) Yes, of course you can use a conversion lamp, thats what they are designed for.
2) The confusion comes in when you try to use a "standard" (not a conversion) MH lamp with an HPS ballast. The only time this will work well is with a 1000 watt system. This is because the LAMP OPERATING VOLTAGE is nearly the same for a 1000w HPS lamp and a 1000w MH lamp. Now, don't confuse lamp operating voltage with the voltage of the power in your house or the voltage of your ballast. Lamp operating voltage is the voltage supplied FROM your ballast to the lamp. There are some great sites that you can learn all about how an HID lamp (High Intensity Discharge) like a HPS or MH works.
3) The basic difference between the lamps is that an HPS lamp requires an "ignitor" in the ballast to start the lamp, while and MH lamp does not. This is one of the main reasons you should not use a "standard" MH lamp with your HPS ballast, as the ignitor sends a 4000 volt pulse into the lamp to start it (or "ignite" it) Your standard MH lamp is not built to withstand this ignitor pulse for long, but for 1000w units, if you are running 24 hour cycles with your veg anyway, it only gets this ignitor pulse the first time it is turned on. So you should be ok for the life of the lamp.
With any MH lamp, you will want to change it out after 6 months of "use" because the "lumen depriciation" starts to fall off pretty quickly after that. Lumen depreciation is the amount of light that is "lost" after a lamp is used for a certain amount of hours. For example, most 400w MH lamps have an "initial" lumen rating of 36,000 lumens, that means, the first week you are using it, it will be cranking out 36,000 wonderful lumens, but if you look at the charts available from the manufacturers like GE and Philips and others, you will see that most MH lamps will "lose" about 35%-45% of the lumens with time. So that means, the 400 watt lamp, that is still sucking down 400 plus watts, is now cranking out only 25,000 lumens.
FreeCableGuy
Member
i dont think they make a 150 mh conversion lamp