600-watt or 1000-watt MH/HPS

[Rarebreed47]

Hello everyone hopefully someone out there can help this newbie out. I purchased a Galaxy DE Gen2 1000-watt ballast. It's a select-your-watt ballast which is different from what I used in the past. This ballast has 5 different wattages to select from 600-watt- 750- watt-825- watt-1000 watt and 1150-watts. I wasn't thinking when I purchased this ballast. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on what is better and the more I watch the more confused I get. I have heard that 600-watt is better and you get more light per square foot over the 1000-watt and then others say no, stick with the 1000-watt ballast. I'm more concerned about fire more than anything for me it's safety before luxury lol. Now, I never had a selectable ballast so I know nothing about it at all. I was planning on buying a 600-watt bulb and setting my ballast at 600 watts however, I was told not to do it and was advised to just dim the 1000-watt bulb down to 600 watts. Further thinking makes no sense to do that if I want to run 600 watts since my ballast is going to draw 10.5 amps out of my wall anyway. My questions are could I run a 600-watt DE bulb as long as my ballast is set to 600 watts? or should I just use my 1000-watt DE bulb and run 1000 watts?

 

[Fangthane]

My only HID experience is with a 315watt CMH, so I'm far from an authority. My understanding is that bulbs are meant to be run at their designed wattage, and dimming them will alter spectrum, efficiency and lifespan. I never really see many experienced growers advocating for running HID bulbs below their intended specs.

 

[NewtoMJ]

Hello everyone hopefully someone out there can help this newbie out. I purchased a Galaxy DE Gen2 1000-watt ballast. It's a select-your-watt ballast which is different from what I used in the past. This ballast has 5 different wattages to select from 600-watt- 750- watt-825- watt-1000 watt and 1150-watts. I wasn't thinking when I purchased this ballast. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on what is better and the more I watch the more confused I get. I have heard that 600-watt is better and you get more light per square foot over the 1000-watt and then others say no, stick with the 1000-watt ballast. I'm more concerned about fire more than anything for me it's safety before luxury lol. Now, I never had a selectable ballast so I know nothing about it at all. I was planning on buying a 600-watt bulb and setting my ballast at 600 watts however, I was told not to do it and was advised to just dim the 1000-watt bulb down to 600 watts. Further thinking makes no sense to do that if I want to run 600 watts since my ballast is going to draw 10.5 amps out of my wall anyway. My questions are could I run a 600-watt DE bulb as long as my ballast is set to 600 watts? or should I just use my 1000-watt DE bulb and run 1000 watts?

In terms of efficiency, I believe the 600's are more efficient in terms of photons per watt. That's not to say that it's going to put out more photons than a 1000 but in terms of a 1000 would say release 1 photon per watt(not the real figure) where as a 600 does 1.145. running a 1000 watt bulb but dimmed down to 600 would decrease the efficiency of the set up in question. You don't want to dim the lamp down for the 1000 with a 600 bulb because the risk is overcharging the bulb of the dimmer fails (they do). This would cause a failure maybe even catastrophic like a fire. The 1000 dimmed will do the job, without a risk of failure but it definitely won't be as good as a flat 600 with a 600 bulb

 

[Rocket Soul]

Afaik: 1000 w bulb is usually a little more efficient than a 600w. But both suffer in efficiency if you run it at a lower wattage than spec, and this would also cause the spectrum to change somewhat.

 

[secretmicrogrow420]

when me and my brother used to grow with High intensity discharge lighting along time ago we were told never to use a 600watt bulb with a 1000watt ballast because a 1000 watt bulb uses different voltage than a 600watt or somecrap. it was along time ago but from what i remember just buy a 1000watt bulb pair it with a 1000 watt ballast and dim it. but if you are gonna dim it its more efficient to just buy a 600 watt ballast and pair it with a 600 watt bulb because dimming a 1000watt bulb with effect the spectrum or somecrap.

 

[conor c]

when me and my brother used to grow with High intensity discharge lighting along time ago we were told never to use a 600watt bulb with a 1000watt ballast because a 1000 watt bulb uses different voltage than a 600watt or somecrap. it was along time ago but from what i remember just buy a 1000watt bulb pair it with a 1000 watt ballast and dim it. but if you are gonna dim it its more efficient to just buy a 600 watt ballast and pair it with a 600 watt bulb because dimming a 1000watt bulb with effect the spectrum or somecrap.

I still use an adjustable 600 hps you just make sure you use the bulbs that are made to go with the adjustable ballast the digital ones are far better than the old metal red hot noisy ones back in the day those made me paranoid due to the heat they produce the digital ones aint as hot and op i wouldnt run any other bulb than one made for your system if its adjustable i wouldnt run a 600 in a 1000 id run the 1000 bulb and turn it down at the ballast to 600