?Advice on Light/Ballast Selection?

hey all. hoping some of you with more experience can help me out. i am currently vegging in a closet under a 8 lamp t5 fixture. I am looking for advice on the purchase of a "flowering" light. I plan to continue to flower in a closet (5' x 3' with 6 plants under a net). That being said I am planning to purchase a house in the next year and will have a larger space and would like to try to future proof myself a little. budget is not that big of a factor but i am looking for value. buy once cry once sort of thing.

the more i search the more i continue to flip flop my choices. i have been looking at 1000w gavitas that can dim or a hps digital ballast (1000w dimmable)/bulb (600w) combo under a large adjust a wing hood. I believe both these choices would allow me to operate around 600w currently and then switch over to 1000w when i get my larger space. So this is the first decision.

next if i forgo the gavitas what 1000w digital ballast should i opt for to pair with the adust a wing? I have read, quantum, phantom, etc. are great. It sounds like any of the "higher" end ballasts should do what i need but is that true or does one brand stand out among the rest currently?

i know it is a basic question but your input is appreciated guys. i am stuck in the dreaded paralysis by analysis that seems to happen so often with me but these plants are going to want to flower soon so I need to make a decision. thanks all.

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If you want to follow the crowd, do the Gavita double ended thing.

If you want an alternative that costs less and has intriguing advantages, consider these;

Philips 860W CDM allstart

They only run on a thousand watt magnetic ballast... but that's why they're a cheap option.

does anyone have experience with the change of room temp between a 1k gavita vs. a non air cooled hps bulb (like adjust a wings)? Does the gavita still run warmer or do people always mention the gavitas running "hot" because they are comparing them to an air cooled type of reflector?

All I can say is that a conventional single ended 1 kw hps lamp runs at about 350 F, a DE if I remember right runs at 700 F.
Have you considered LEC 315? the space you describe a couple o f those would go good in and be much easier to cool.

chris1016 said:

does anyone have experience with the change of room temp between a 1k gavita vs. a non air cooled hps bulb (like adjust a wings)? Does the gavita still run warmer or do people always mention the gavitas running "hot" because they are comparing them to an air cooled type of reflector reflector?

Click to expand...

or maybe you're not even talking DE since gavita does single ended fixtures too I take it.

dbkick said:

or maybe you're not even talking DE since gavita does single ended fixtures too I take it.

Click to expand...

nope, I was looking at the DE gavitas but have never had hands on experience with one. If they run twice as hot generally as a single ended (in a non air cooled reflector) hps then I will need to go with hps for now.

With DE you can't actually cool the lamp, The ac/de hood cools a chamber above the lamp.
Too cool the lamp you'd prematurely wear the lamp and it wouldn't run at it's potential.
Dimming will do the same thing, wear your lamp prematurely. Although I've read that dimmable ballast start up at full power for like the first 15 minutes in order for the lamp to reach operating temperature. after that I've also read dimming is ok. Who you gonna believe unless you do the research yourself.

chris1016 said:

nope, I was looking at the DE gavitas but have never had hands on experience with one. If they run twice as hot generally as a single ended (in a non air cooled reflector) hps then I will need to go with hps for now.

Click to expand...

Wait a minute. They're running the same watts with the same technology. If they run 'twice as hot', where's all that extra energy coming from?

The answer is that there isn't twice as much heat. The lamp runs warmer in a DE- but it is also smaller, so isn't losing as much heat as you might think.

The heat difference comes from two sources; it's running at 1150W which is fifteen percent more than single ended, and as already mentioned it runs in open fixtures that aren't actively sealed and cooled- at least most of them.

If you have heat limitations, you might look into 860W CDM lights, running on old school thousand watt magnetic ballast. They're cheap because of the bargain basement ballast they need to run, they're plenty powerful, they last much longer than HPS or MH and they emit a very natural, broad spectrum light the plants respond to vigorously!

Or better yet instead of dimming as most people know it now which is taking a higher wattage lamp and running it at a lower wattage than it's rated for.
Anymore dimming should be a thing of the past and "dial a watt" should have replaced it by now, having said that I totally recommend a ballast such as the solistek matrix.
Slap in any hps/mh at 400/600/1000 watts and the ballast detects and sets wattage appropriately .
That sounds more like the plan you want to look at. Future upgrades mean nothing more than buy a higher wattage lamp..
I've not tried these allstart 860 , for my ceramic mh needs I stick to the lec 315, square wave baby.

ttystikk said:

Wait a minute. They're running the same watts with the same technology. If they run 'twice as hot', where's all that extra energy coming from?

The answer is that there isn't twice as much heat. The lamp runs warmer in a DE- but it is also smaller, so isn't losing as much heat as you might think.

The heat difference comes from two sources; it's running at 1150W which is fifteen percent more than single ended, and as already mentioned it runs in open fixtures that aren't actively sealed and cooled- at least most of them.

If you have heat limitations, you might look into 860W CDM lights, running on old school thousand watt magnetic ballast. They're cheap because of the bargain basement ballast they need to run, they're plenty powerful, they last much longer than HPS or MH and they emit a very natural, broad spectrum light the plants respond to vigorously!

Click to expand...

all good points

dbkick said:

Or better yet instead of dimming as most people know it now which is taking a higher wattage lamp and running it at a lower wattage than it's rated for.
Anymore dimming should be a thing of the past and "dial a watt" should have replaced it by now, having said that I totally recommend a ballast such as the solistek matrix.
Slap in any hps/mh at 400/600/1000 watts and the ballast detects and sets wattage appropriately .
That sounds more like the plan you want to look at. Future upgrades mean nothing more than buy a higher wattage lamp..
I've not tried these allstart 860 , for my ceramic mh needs I stick to the lec 315, square wave baby.

Click to expand...

i was actually just on their site looking at those. that and the solismax66 hood have sparked my interest. and yes i would not "dim" a 1k hps bulb to 600 for my needs now. i would just buy the 600 bulb and dial the ballast in to 600. then when i get my larger space go to the 1k bulb and dial it up.