Is it worth it?

[Draston]

Is it worth it to pay 70 bucks more for a digital ballast that can take both HPS and MH so you can do MH during veggie and HPS during flower or just save the 70 bucks and just get an HPS only one.

 

[the_riz]

Personally? im gonna bring the argument that HPS is fine for veg and flower. And thats on a purely "we've done it and we do it" front. Sure if you have the money then go for it, it never hurts to do things by the book, and someone might crop up with some good points that show the major advantages of hallide but as far as HPS goes i think youll find most of us use them for veg and flower and most of us are growing some damn nice plants thanks to this forum

 

[Draston]

See, thats my biggiest problem. Everyone says to use MH for veggie but MH bulbs are a lot less lumens per bulb. The digital balast for the HTGsupply 250 watt setup is only 33,000 lumens compared to the HPS bulb it comes with that is 55,000 lumens. Yeah, cool blue is better for veggie but is it still good when to do MH for veggie you take a 22,000 lumen reduction in light? I think that will actually make a difference in the end. Yeah MH is better for veggie but you need the same amount of lumens as hps to make it better for veggie. I might just get the normal HPS balast and save the extra money because thats a 101 dollar savings I could use towards something better like some new soil or using that 100 bucks to pay the extra money it will raise my electric bill while using it...

 

[Mutt]

250-watt HPS lamp=28000 lumens $6.75
250-watt MH lamp = 19100 lumens $11.10
http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HR4M25QZ

22,000 lumen loss????
I'm going by econolight (the kind I use)

Also:
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1974

Invest in a MH Light for vegetative growth. Dump the HPS bulb for flowering later. I have noticed that HPS lighting during vegetative growth simply sends those males to female ratios all over the place. With MH lamps the females are everywhere. Invest in some MH HID lights. It makes all the difference in getting those females to show more often. This is worth repeating! MH Bulbs produce more females under optimal conditions especially if they are present during the 3rd and 4th week of vegetative growth. Surprising enough you can start seedlings under HPS and it will not have an effect on those female ratios. Again the 3rd to 4th week of vegetative growth is what is important here.

But HPS will and can be used for full growth. I will not aurgue that. Just didn't understand why the 22K lumen loss. It should be less than 10K.
Which during Veg. the lumens are not as critical as they are in flower stage.

 

[Draston]

250-watt HPS lamp=28000 lumens $6.75
250-watt MH lamp = 19100 lumens $11.10
http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HR4M25QZ

22,000 lumen loss????
I'm going by econolight (the kind I use)

Also:
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1974


But HPS will and can be used for full growth. I will not aurgue that. Just didn't understand why the 22K lumen loss. It should be less than 10K.
Which during Veg. the lumens are not as critical as they are in flower stage.

the mh bulb for the light I was going to buy that it comes with is is 20,500 lumens. So if i'm buying 2 250watt lights thats 41,000 lumens. The hps bulb it comes with is 33,000 lumens, so two would be 66,000 lumens.

if I got the conversion digital balast I would have 66,000 lumens for hps and 41,000 if I used MH. 66,000 - 41,000 = 25,000 lumens... my bad I was off a bit earlier. So If I used the MH bulbs during veggie instead of the HPS bulbs I'd be loosing 25,000 lumens I could have gained with the hps bulbs.

 

[Mutt]

I am not aurguing, I understand now the 20K drop. but lumens is not the only factor when growing. I am posting what "maximizes" the potential of your grow. The spectrum plays a large role as well.
I am not trying to say using an HPS is wrong, I am just giving you info so you can determine if it is worth it to your or not.

While the lumens measurement is based on the sensitivity of the human eye to light, PAR Watts objectively measure the total watts of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) emitted by the lamp. It accounts for the nutritional value and is a direct measure of light energy available for all-important plant photosynthesis.

Plant growth is heavily influenced by the amount and colour of the available light. Blue light at about 450nm favours root growth and intense photosynthesis. Red colours at 600 to 700nm stimulate rapid stem growth, intense flowering and chlorophyll production. An interesting note about PAR watts and lumens for MH and HPS lamps is that the correlation between the two is over 97%. Meaning that for HPS and MH lights (remember the very restricted sample used here) on average there is less than 3% variance when estimating PAR watts from lumens.

Basically what is being said is that PAR watts is as just as important as lumens depending on what stage of growth. Less lumens but more of the correct spectrum will have about the outcome. but using this along with the other document on boosting female ratios seems to me to be very beneficial. Unless your doing all clone grow where you are positive that your running 100% females.
So I guess what I am saying is that for 70 bucks more...you will have more females and more vegetative growth rate using an MH. Then switching to an HPS bulb for flower.

I am not saying that HPS will not work...it will work just fine. Just discussing the differences between the stage of growth and the HID bulb being used.

Also here are two chart in this section that show lumen output and closeness of both HPS and MH.
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1971

I am just relaying info to help you make your own decision "Is it worth it". IMHO for 70 bucks yep it sure is.

 

[Draston]

hmmm, so you say it is worth buying the digital balasts?


soooo do you all think I should spring for the two 250watt htgsupply digital balasts or buy 1 MH balast and 1 HPS balast and run them?

 

[Grownincali420]

some setups you can buy bulb ready...i have a 600w hps that uses hps bulbs and mh conversion bulbs and its not digital...

 

[Mutt]

I have heard people swear by the digital. I have only run the "hot" box kind.
I would look at the overall cost and make the decision. I do know the digital ballast do not generate the high heat the regular ballasts do, so it's a matter of what your grow area temps are like and how much you want to invest.
on another note. having two digitals means that if one breaks you got the other to fall back on.
You can get an MH conversion bulb but not vice-versa. So I would also look at versatility.
My next purchase is going to be a switchable digital ballast.

But again....it's what is it worth to you. You can grow just fine with 2 HPS bulbs through your whole grow.