1000w Lamp: Magnetic vs Digital

[Tact]

Quick question:

I am considering a 1000 HPS/MH Magnum XXXL Supreme System, there is several customizable options. One of which is the ballast, you have the options (+$195.00) of upgrading to a Lumatek Digital Ballast 120v. Since the other options do not say magnetic, I am assuming they are magnetic ballasts.

So, what is the pro/con of getting a 1000w with a digital ballast as opposed to the magnetic. MY main concerns are fire safety, minimized sound is a plus but not a deal-maker, savign money on electricity is always good.

Thoughts?

Thanks guys :ccc:

 

[gaSm]

Pros: Less electricity, Less heat, Longer life, Brighter bulb

Cons: its a 1000w, costs more.

Your main concern should be fire safety, especially if you rent. Look into a 600w digi. Lumatek is a good brand, but I think they're made in China? Im not sure but look into it.
600w has less heat, you cant put it closer, less electricity, and is in my own personal experiance is a better option. Look into the 600w Hortilux bulb it cost me about $139 but I paid retail, not internet.

 

[Locked]

If I had the money I wld always choose a digi over a standard ballast...I hve a 600w digi and a 400w standard...the digi stays totally cool the magnetic gets hot as hell...not to mention it weighs a ton...if money is a serious issue then maybe go 600w digi over a 1000w standard...

 

[Tact]

So given fire safety you think a well ventilated 1000w digital would not be as good a choice as a 600w digital? The grow area is roughly (4.5'-5')x6'.

I plan on ventilating with a 6"-8" Vortex/Can blower etc.

 

[Locked]

So given fire safety you think a well ventilated 1000w digital would not be as good a choice as a 600w digital? The grow area is roughly (4.5'-5')x6'.

I plan on ventilating with a 6"-8" Vortex/Can blower etc.

I hve never used a 1000w digi but judging by how well my 600w digi stays cool you shld be fine with a 1000w digi...Mine literally does not even feel warm...

 

[gaSm]

A 1000 will always do better, WITH good ventilation. Man there wont be any heat if you're just setting up that can for your light. A 600w is "classically" better because you could put them closer because of the heat issue from the BULB not the balast. But if you had a 8" can on the end of a hood there would be noooo heat. FASTEN TO CELING/WALL SECURELY. If you rent think about it, how much is spackel and paint matching at a box store? Alot less than 1000 grams(in theory) goes for in the street.

 

[Kupunakane]

Yo Ho Ho N,

My first thought on this is digital always. As for the idea of a 600W in that given area, it's perfect. That is the exact size that you want to go with, because there does come a point where too much is just being wasteful.
Always remember that we strive to cut down, or back on the footprint. Save your money and get the 600 is my $0.02


smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

i am only using a 180 cfm blower to cool a 1000w light....works just fine...you will prolly be wasting money on a 6-8" fan for a 600w light. as for digi vs. mag...mags have a flicker that is not noticable by the human eye but it does flicker a 60hz....60 times a second...digi ballast do not. mags use a helluva lot more current for ignition as where digi's are very stable... digi's efficient power allows your lamp to burn constantly and more correctly thus saving bulb life while producing more lumens.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

also, lumatek ballasts have a "dimmer" option whitch allows you to run a 1000w ballast at or around a 600w power consumption rate..if you can afford the $ for a lumatek 1000w, i'd do it .that way you'll always have enough light.

 

[Disco94]

I live in the SE and only blow an oscilating fan over my girls and a large house fan (not as big as a box though). My room stays 75ish constantly. I use a 1000w magnetic. I love it compared to my 600w I was using. A 1000w gets better penetration throughout the canopy. I grow in a 5.5'x6' attic and wouldn't go back to a 600w. I think you should go with a 1000 HPS for your space and your would be very pleased.

 

[leafminer]

:yeahthat:
I'm using about 10 sq ft on mixed spectrum, mainly HPS, 400W. That's about 1/3 of your 5.5 x 6 attic and if you scale up, comes to 1200W. So I think you should go with the 1000W and definitely digital. My lamps are only 150W units and even so, the magnetic ballasts are like ship's anchors to deal with. I had to reinforce the roof of the grow room. I can't imagine the weight of a 1000W mag ballast.

 

[trophy_1]

I just bought a 1000 watt magnetic a couple months ago. I'm using a 160 cfm on the hood and another 160 cfm to exhaust my room. It never goes over 80.

I was thinking of going with a 600 watt but found they cost almost as much as the 1000 watters in alot of cases. The bulbs also are similar in price to the 1000's.

I was thinking about digital vs magnetic also. Take a look at this article.
hxxp://www.texashydroponics.com/shop/files/ballastComparison.pdf

 

[bluealein56]

is that even a question????
go digi,
you get more light output for your power input.

600w would be perfect

 

[BBFan]

Wow Tact- You sure to get a lot of responses to your questions! Must leave you scratching your head with all the answers you get.

From reading your posts, you seem very concerned about fire safety as it is a recurring comment in most of your posts. Magnetic or digital, 600 watt or 1000 watt, all would be safe from a fire perspective with some basic common sense, and it's obvious you've got plenty of that.

Make sure the wiring in your home is sufficient for the load you plan to pull through it. Don't take any shortcuts. Consult a professional if necessary, particularly if your wiring is older.

Don't leave cumbustible materials on top of your hood (that will be the area where there will be the largest concentration of heat). Don't store flammable liquids in your grow area (not that you will generate the heat for spontaneous combustion- just be safe).



If you can stand it, here's one more opinion/perspective:

Determine what your goals are......

How much do you wish to produce? What do you need to yield every 4 to 6 months that will keep you and whoever else you may be growing for adequately supplied?

If you start with good genetics, you'll end up with good product. Will that suffice or are you compelled to produce the absolute best possible product you can (most people couldn't tell the difference just by smoking it) and the absolute most in grams per watt?

How much time and money are you prepared to invest in this endeavor?

Once you've determined where you want to go, it'll be a lot easier to figure out how to get there. Good luck to you and Happy Growing!

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I would also recommend the digital simply because they cost less to operate. A 1000W magnetic ballast actually uses 1100-1200 watts and a digital ballast uses 1000W to produce the same amount of light. So although a digi is more initial outlay, it will cost less to run every month.

The biggest fire hazard is not having your electrical up to par. But I have seen in another post that you are addressing this. Although the 1000W gets hot, the chances of a fire is really remote if you have adequate amperage and do not leave highly combustible materials in contact with the bulb.

 

[DonJones]

Tact,

I think we have discussed this before, but I'm not sure, so I'll visit it again briefly because this is an open forum and others may need the same information too.

By the way have you checked the LIGHTS sub-forum? There is a lot of very helpful information there.

Briefly, yes go the digital route and you are correct in going with the better brand ballast.

As to the question of a 1000 versus a 600, you can not compare the sufficiency and penetration of two different wattage lights simply on the numbers because you are probably NOT going to use a 600 versus a 1000. If a single 600 is sufficient for a given grow, then the 1000 is needless over kill. However, if a single 600 isn't enough, then you have to compare a 1000 to two 600s. Obviously the two 600s will be a greater initial investment but it will also give you more light, more even dispersal of the light over a larger area and gives you the option to run mixed spectrum of 1 HPS and 1 MH together. Also the lighting sufficiency in square feet assumes you are covering a square area not a long skinny on like I think you have. Even more importantly, using two 600s gives you a redundancy for safety, that is with a single of any size, if you loose a bulb or a ballast you are dead until you can replace it whereas with two if you loose one for whatever reason, you still have the other one while you are replacing the bad one. Also, I would always keep at least one spare bubl for the same reason. In short, even if you need 1000 watts of HPS, having one 600 running is way way better than having NOTHING because you put all of your lighting in one setup!

As to cooling the light, unless you are going to be daisy chaining several lights together 8" ducting and fan is way overkill. My son uses a single 6" in-line duct fan from Home Depot in the plumbing department for under $30 US, and already has the round rigid ducting in place to hook your flexible ducting to (they have at least 6" & 8" and I think 4" too), to ventilate his 2 rooms, not just the lights, running well over 3400 watts of mixed MH & HPS with the high heat magnetic ballasts in a basement type grow room and last summer the only time his rooms ever got over 85F was when we were having a heat wave with near 100F outside temps in the day.

When I start ventilating outside, please see my signature link to my grow room for details, I'm going to use those less expensive duct booster fans from HD because even though they don't flow quite as much air as the high dollar Vortex fans, they are a whole lot less expensive and easier to install. Also, in the interest of redundancy, I'll use two of the smaller ones in parallel rather than one bigger one.

Keep asking questions, it'll save you a lot of money in the long run and give you a much better operation, better results and a whole lot less headaches down the road.

Good growing and smoking to all of you.

 

[leafminer]

:yeahthat: :goodposting:

 

[GroHi]

To offer a contrasting view... the c&c's will operate all bulbs you throw at them & fire them efficiently. Just as with anything, you can get cheap c&c's or nice quality ones, which makes a big difference in how they run & for how long. If you go w a nice end unit, they will draw appx 100watts to the ballast & will run just as cool as a digi. They tend to fire bulbs in a more balanced spectrum (visible) though the PAR readings are essentially identical to the digi's. They are proven & usually w/o incident. The hum is easily drowned out by any fan you might be using and/or pumps.

The digi's use power at the ballast just as the c&c's... say 40-90 watts. I believe Lumatek lists 60-90 watts on their 1k's & my c&c's are at appx 100w. My Quantums list at 35w. So, I might be saving 65 watts per ballast per hour... not that much in the grand scheme of things (1035 vs 1100).

At the "hot spot" on the ballasts, both the digi's & c&c's have an IR reading of 140F w 80F ambient. In other words, they are warm to the touch & both produce a decent amount of heat.

PAR readings are really identical at 18" of appx 1310-1340 mMols. This essentially measures the effectiveness of the light produced by the bulb/ballast. Hortilux, which doesn't run well on the Quantum's (the bulb makes a humming noise all unto itself), had listed higher sodium loss as well (the report linked above). So, doubt the claims of increasing bulb life. Quantum flat out told me as much.

Running them both, so trying to be unbiased. Happy growing & greenest of vibes.

 

[se3dl3ss]

digi is the way to go if u haven't got ur yet check out hidhut.com very cheap and pretty good on hood cost but i will say u can save shipping cost if you buy from a hydro store.

 

[iamdansanger]

"also, lumatek ballasts have a "dimmer" option whitch allows you to run a 1000w ballast at or around a 600w power consumption rate..if you can afford the $ for a lumatek 1000w, i'd do it .that way you'll always have enough light."

The dimming option on the new electronic ballasts are also made for foliar spraying. With most sprays, they require that you spray your ladies before your lights turn off for the day. These dimmers are nice cause you can dim down to 50%, spray your foliar, let it dry, then pop the ballast up to 100 percent again.

no more waiting to fix your wilting/bug/anything problem.
also remember to use a penetrator like wet betty when using a foliar.