Turning off fan to ventilated reflector hood?

I have a Hydrofarm reflector with the glass and 8" exhaust holes that go through an 8" fan. Inside is a 1000 watt MH bulb dimmed down to 600 watts with the dimmable Lumatek ballast.

Can I turn off the exhaust fan with this, or will it get so hot inside that it's bad news/damage, etc? Do I need to remove the glass if I turn off the fan?

It's been hot here, so I've been running it 24/7. Now that it's cooling off, I'm thinking about running the fan less. This is the first time I've had this type of reflector.

The fan must be on when the light is on.

And color me stupid but I dont think it is meant to run a 1000watt bulb at 600watt. Its designed to be switched to 600watts and then put a 600watt bulb in it.

So high is right. u need a 600w bulb in there and ur fan needs to be on when lite is on.

You can run air-cooled hoods without the fan no problem. -_-

hammer6913 said:

So high is right. u need a 600w bulb in there and ur fan needs to be on when lite is on.

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um am i missing something here?? If you run a 1000w dimmable ballast then you use a 1000watt light bulb aswell , You do not take the bulb out and put a 600w in lol...... all my ballast are 1000w digi's and i run them all at 400w 600w or 1000w and this is all while using my 1000w bulb.....It is designed to dim the bulb down so you dont need to change it.... So in closing if you run a 1000w dimmable then you use a 1000w bulb if you run a 600w dimmable then you run a 600w and i dont think they make a 400w dimmable or atleast ive never seen one in person........ but you are doing it right by leaving in the 1000w and dimming it down to 600w that is perfectly fine and that is what we tell customers at the store aswell...

You can run 1000w in a aircooled hood without the fan BUT i would STRONGLY advise agaisnt it.....I know you can do it because they do it at my work with like 5 1k lights and i try to tell them to hook up the ducting to the fan but they are so stubern they dont listen and nothing has cought on fire ....so far anyways lol...... But really you should be air cooling them or switch to a batwing or somthing if you dont wanna cool them.....

Yeah the advice about putting a 600w in a 1000w, wtf? I've never heard of that. Some users on here claim its bad for the bulb to dim it, I havent had first hand experience doing it for a month on my seedlings when I didnt have fluoros, but it sounds plausible. Taking a bulb thats designed to run on this many watts and cutting it down doesn't sound right.

But unless you're having too cold of temps like under 70 then you should keep the fan going. I have mine shut off during the winter, but thats cause its 20-30F here and the room only goes up to about high 60's max with the fan running.

Dimming a 1000w down can harm the bulb depending on manufacturer,but it is mainly not recommended because
1. There will be a difference in the spectral output of the lamp
2. It is more efficient to run a 600w lamp at 600

LUMATEK themselves recommend matching the bulb to the dimming amount.

I use a 400w MH in my 600w dimmable lumatek dimmed to 400w.

However on some MH lamps it says " do not dim more than 50% " my FUTURE TECH 400 has this written on the box.


Its a very difficult thing to get a definitive answer too.


I would recommend checking whether your lamp can be dimmed with the manufacturer.




J

jondamon said:

Dimming a 1000w down can harm the bulb depending on manufacturer,but it is mainly not recommended because
1. There will be a difference in the spectral output of the lamp
2. It is more efficient to run a 600w lamp at 600

LUMATEK themselves recommend matching the bulb to the dimming amount.

I use a 400w MH in my 600w dimmable lumatek dimmed to 400w.

However on some MH lamps it says " do not dim more than 50% " my FUTURE TECH 400 has this written on the box.


Its a very difficult thing to get a definitive answer too.


I would recommend checking whether your lamp can be dimmed with the manufacturer.




J

Click to expand...

you could be right ive never used a lumetek before i use all quantum digi's and i called the manufacture and was told to run the 1000w bulb in the 1k digi ballast..... We sale lumeteks at the store and we tell people the same thing......but maybe we shouldnt be telling them if what your saying is correct.....I need to call the lumetek manufacture and see what they say.......