Some lighting questions

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Hello All

I have been given some advise on lights for my grow but I have a few lighting questions.

1. with HID must the bulb and the ballast wattage match or can one be higher then the other?

2. What is the difference between a "switchable wattage" ballast and a "dimmable" ballast? (And why have I been told to avoid the dimmable?)

3. I will be using MH and HPS so I would want a ballast thats switchable between them. Some ballasts are switchable with a switch and some auto detect is this correct? And they can be Magnetic or digital? And if magnetic can it use CMH?

4. Whats a conversion bulb, do I want to use one?

 

[Franknstrain]

Re: Some lighting questions.

Hello All

I have been given some advise on lights for my grow but I have a few lighting questions.

1. with HID must the bulb and the ballast wattage match or can one be higher then the other?

2. What is the difference between a "switchable wattage" ballast and a "dimmable" ballast? (And why have I been told to avoid the dimmable?)

3. I will be using MH and HPS so I would want a ballast thats switchable between them. Some ballasts are switchable with a switch and some auto detect is this correct? And they can be Magnetic or digital? And if magnetic can it use CMH?

4. Whats a conversion bulb, do I want to use one?

1.) NO!! match them. You risk the possibility of making your bulb explode and those suckers can cause serious damage to you and your plants.

2.) Switchable ballast allows you to to switch between MH and HPS bulbs with one ballast.
Dimable ballasts allow you to take say a 1000 watter and dim it down to say like 850 watts.

3.) IMHO I would go with the switchable.. Yes some do.. all mine run both with out having to switch. Yes they can either be digital or magnetic. and I cant answer the last question of number 3 sorry.

4.) simply a veg bulb/MH /alot of blues and greens in the color spectrum. and yes I would recommend using it. Its wise to switch between the 2 bulbs, blue/MH and reds/HPS. although not 100% necessary. plants respond alot better with the switch .