mini hid lighting

iv seen these mini hid lights lately for smaller stealth grows. theyre 14"x11"x5" they run 150w and they have tha ballast and everything built right into the hood. i wan2 get a few for my grow cab. i was just wondering if anyone has seen, used, or has any experience with these?? i want a new hid light but the average hoods wont fit comfortably into my cabnet.

Welcome to the "LED and Other Lighting" part of the forum.

Since this is about HID, you will receive more info elsewhere.

However, I've looked into these for myself, and have read reviews of plenty of people that use them. They work, but like many things, you get what you pay for.
They create a lot of heat, and it's not easily removed from the growroom. Since it's a self-contained unit, they're heavy. They almost always use a magnetic ballast(old tech). They're not very efficient at producing light (lumens per watt), despite advertising that they do.

You want something new and relatively inexpensive, get a Ceramic Metal Halide. You can run them in the open air, with a remote ballast, and they run cooler than an HPS or traditional MH. They run off cheap magnetic ballasts, so your investment is pretty small.

If you want to get into LED's instead, stick around and read up.

yeah i do bc they grow well and they dont produce mutch heat at all. but theyre so damn expensive i dont know how well they would pay for themselves. atm im using a cfl grow box that i made but my problem is its micro so i have bushy healthy plants but they havent produced very dense buds (bc theyre cfl) and they get root bound in my small pots. so this is where my idea if the mini lights came from bc in my new cab they are perfect hight as where the larger hoods will fit width and length wise but there too tall, my plants would touch them.

You don't want your plants to touch HID's, that's bad news bears no matter who you ask.

Some people running T5/T8's will let the plants touch, but that's LOW temps.

LED's will let you run closer than HID, but they're usually less intense of light. Hence the challenge of LED growing.

If I compared my 155W LED to a traditional 250W HPS, there's a 61% increase in power usage. My electric bill start to finish is $40 if you're not including standard house climate control. That 60% increase in would pay for the investment, add the bulb life, and you have yourself a deal. Can you really compare a 155w LED to a 250W HPS?? sorta.. but most of the time <250w on a HID is not a whole lot to go with. I'd rather spread out the light source more (actual light sources, not a different hood) than have higher wattage from one source.

in theory, by the bill and bulb replacement factors, it pays for itself in 3-5 years. I'm happy because I won't burn myself in the box, I can't fry a bulb with my finger print, I can operate without a grow store within a short drive, I don't need direct cooling, and I'm supporting the nerds of the industry rather than the old guys.

I had a 150w hid in my small tent but it was getting hot switched to t5 they work great.

i was saying that if i were to use a traditional hid hood with the so high hood and hangers the plants will only have so far to grow till they were burned, with those mini lights i would have a little over 1.5 ft of verticle space to the light. this way i could maximize my yeild. another light option i thought of was to use 6 55w cfl that produce 3800 lumens a piece that would be cooler than one 100-200 hid im sure. have u used led often? bc i bought some but they dont seem to be producing very high lumens.

cap master said:

i was saying that if i were to use a traditional hid hood with the so high hood and hangers the plants will only have so far to grow till they were burned, with those mini lights i would have a little over 1.5 ft of verticle space to the light. this way i could maximize my yeild. another light option i thought of was to use 6 55w cfl that produce 3800 lumens a piece that would be cooler than one 100-200 hid im sure. have u used led often? bc i bought some but they dont seem to be producing very high lumens.

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I'm in a helping mood today........if you want the "best IMO" small wattage HID system buy this http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTGSupply-250-watt-Metal-Halide-Grow-Light.asp it's remote ballasted, very important as it removes a large amount of heat from the grow room, get the free MH bulb with it. Then go and buy this bulb http://www.lightingsupply.com/cdm205-u-o-4k.aspx 205watts is not allot to cool, can find it cheaper locally at a electrical supply house. Run this CMH bulb straight through, if you want a larger yield put in the HPS bulb (must upgrade^^my ballast recom for a switchable(hps-mh), more $$$) for the last three weeks of the grow. If you want better quality/strength run the CMH all the way.....good luck

I have a 150w mini HID...from cap. The thing runs hotter than a bare 600hps. CFL's or t5's will get better results with 90% less heat.

PSUAGRO. said:

I'm in a helping mood today........if you want the "best IMO" small wattage HID system buy this http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTGSupply-250-watt-Metal-Halide-Grow-Light.asp it's remote ballasted, very important as it removes a large amount of heat from the grow room, get the free MH bulb with it. Then go and buy this bulb http://www.lightingsupply.com/cdm205-u-o-4k.aspx 205watts is not allot to cool, can find it cheaper locally at a electrical supply house. Run this CMH bulb straight through, if you want a larger yield put in the HPS bulb (must upgrade^^my ballast recom for a switchable(hps-mh), more $$$) for the last three weeks of the grow. If you want better quality/strength run the CMH all the way.....good luck

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thanks for the info. with your setup how have u ducted the heat out? what size are your plants? and what are your average temps? i currently have a tripple cfl grow with 2x 4" 12v fans that actually push 10v. my temps stay between 70-82f but i know these fans wont be enough for a mini hid even

cap master said:

thanks for the info. with your setup how have u ducted the heat out? what size are your plants? and what are your average temps? i currently have a tripple cfl grow with 2x 4" 12v fans that actually push 10v. my temps stay between 70-82f but i know these fans wont be enough for a mini hid even

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what's your total wattage with the cfl s? With my suggestion you only need to deal with 205 total Watts from the bulb itself as the ballast is removed.its depending on many factors, but still should not need much exhaust......what's your room dimension s?

Remember a watt is a watt doesn't matter the lighting tech.....if your cfl are more wattage than 205, then you don't need to adjust much.....maybe a couple tweaks.

Yes CMH bulbs are awesome, its the poor mans led