I think HPS are safer than CFLs

It seems like CFLs have all those electronics crammed up into that tiny space which make it really hot and to use it for growing, you need lots of CFLs which mean many tiny, crammed ballasts while with HPS, you have one dedicated ballast which is much bigger and separate from the bulb.

Only thing with HPS is that they got very hot to the touch, but you shouldn't be touching them anyways.

Yeah, so one of my CFLs got really hot and started smelling funny. A 42 watter. I'm done with CFLs.

crack on,,lol

I've had a few melted bases before, but imo the risk could still be around the same, yeah it is one ballast, but theres a lot more power there, and they still get quite hot.

Even with my HPS, I still like & use CFLs.
Using 4 23w in a 15 X 19 cab lets me germ, seed, beginning veg up to 9 at a time easily and for cheap. Could probably do more than nine, but that's my number expecting maybe 3 cast-off males before the closet (or not).

interesting topic, not a point of view i've seen before
one thing i know that HPS will do, that cfl's don't, is a burst bulb under load
i think this is more of an issue with the older style ballast, but a HPS bulb can burst and cause a fire
cfl's may smell funny as they fail, but that's how they are designed, but it's a fail safe design
i also have seen some fire reports from HPS ballasts, hot oil sprays out and ignites, that was for one specific ballast though

That's why I think all HPS bulbs should be inside of a hood with a glass cover. I don't even know why HTG sells them without it. It's irresponsible.

plsfoldthx said:

That's why I think all HPS bulbs should be inside of a hood with a glass cover. I don't even know why HTG sells them without it. It's irresponsible.

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i did discuss this with another grower here who seemed fairly experienced
we were talking about cool tubes, which i thought would give some fire protection
he claimed he knew of fires started with 1 kw HPS bulbs in cool tubes
not sure if this is true, it seemed to me that some barrier would help