Need advice, I want to start growing indoors

Owly

Owly

Member
MH is metal halide which is a blue white light, (and just in case HPS is high pressure sodium which is the classic yellow street light, HID means high intensity discharge which is the class of lights these are (along with mercury vapour which a useless to us, and CMH ceramic metal halide which are great but more experience and a little less flexible)

The bluer light of the MH are generally used for veg and the redder HPS for flowering. They can both be used for both, but that's what people have found to be best.

Some ballets (the box that drives the bulb) can run both types of bulbs, some can't.
A ballast has to be matched to the bulb, wattage and type. Some ballasts can switch between a few modes so you can chose some different bulb wattage. Many have a dimming knob that, in my opinion, is worse than useless. Under driving bulbs is dumb.

As for power usage, the big ones use a lot, but so do the big LED's. I very good (super expensive) LED will save you as much as 25% on power for the same space, a cheap one might be a little worse than HID lighting.

All in, for the first run, you're going to spend a lot more with LED's. If you use the light for 10 years, LED's will be way cheaper. I'm a fan of cheap start up then upgrade.
 
Electrum

Electrum

Member
Owly said:
MH is metal halide which is a blue white light, (and just in case HPS is high pressure sodium which is the classic yellow street light, HID means high intensity discharge which is the class of lights these are (along with mercury vapour which a useless to us, and CMH ceramic metal halide which are great but more experience and a little less flexible)

The bluer light of the MH are generally used for veg and the redder HPS for flowering. They can both be used for both, but that's what people have found to be best.

Some ballets (the box that drives the bulb) can run both types of bulbs, some can't.
A ballast has to be matched to the bulb, wattage and type. Some ballasts can switch between a few modes so you can chose some different bulb wattage. Many have a dimming knob that, in my opinion, is worse than useless. Under driving bulbs is dumb.

As for power usage, the big ones use a lot, but so do the big LED's. I very good (super expensive) LED will save you as much as 25% on power for the same space, a cheap one might be a little worse than HID lighting.

All in, for the first run, you're going to spend a lot more with LED's. If you use the light for 10 years, LED's will be way cheaper. I'm a fan of cheap start up then upgrade.
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Okay awesome dude ! I'll definitely be trying a HPS/MH for my next grow after the LED and will find which one I like better! Appreciate the detailed reply alot
 
motoracer110

motoracer110

Well-Known Member
Good description by owly. You will pay more with electricity maybe like $25 a month over led, but will pay off with better yields and denser buds. Start with led then go with the light I recommend and you won't look back. I'm currently using 1000watt lights in my grows and the results are amazing. Every commercial grow in my area wont even touch led for a reason. The big craze These days is double ended bulb systems........about $500 per system, but nothing even comes close to the light output.
 
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