GroErr
Well-Known Member
Yes and no, it's a little confusing with these. The 315w Elite Agro CMH bulb is unique. Philips makes some others in a series called All-Start which come in 330w, they also make an 860w. Both of those (330/860) will run on pretty well any HPS/MH ballast. The 315w/3100k (they also have a 4200k) Elite Agro is supported only by a Philips ballast and Ceramatek now supports a 315w ballast with these bulbs @120v, they also have a 375w ballast but it's only supported at 220/240v. Haven't looked at the model inside these Sun Systems but pretty sure they're Philips ballasts. There are probably more options but I haven't looked into them as I've been buying the kits with reflectors, they include a 120v step-down converter in the box. I think you'd have more options running them @220/240v. A couple of guys following my grow have talked to and bought ballasts/bulbs/adaptors from advancedtechlighting.com, apparently the guy knows these well and very helpful, this link takes you to the 315w/CMH information page which has some more details on ballast support.
The efficiency and intensity of these bulbs are supposed to match coverage/output of a 600w hps, I think they're close. But they only pull 315w + overhead of about 25-30w @220/240v and 60-70W @120v. imo two of these could keep up with 1000w hps. My son is is an hps die-hard for flowering, after seeing this CMH in action, he's going to be replacing 2x 1000w hps with 6x of the 315w CMH, we expect he'll get 1.5x + yields from that setup and pay back the investment in the first crop. Told him he has to let me get a pic of that setup running... and a cut of his first crop for turning him onto it Besides the efficiency gains and budding capabilities, they knocked almost a week (6 days) off my last cycle compared to a previous LED run with JTR.
The efficiency and intensity of these bulbs are supposed to match coverage/output of a 600w hps, I think they're close. But they only pull 315w + overhead of about 25-30w @220/240v and 60-70W @120v. imo two of these could keep up with 1000w hps. My son is is an hps die-hard for flowering, after seeing this CMH in action, he's going to be replacing 2x 1000w hps with 6x of the 315w CMH, we expect he'll get 1.5x + yields from that setup and pay back the investment in the first crop. Told him he has to let me get a pic of that setup running... and a cut of his first crop for turning him onto it Besides the efficiency gains and budding capabilities, they knocked almost a week (6 days) off my last cycle compared to a previous LED run with JTR.