CMH or LED

MY budget on the light or lights is 300$. I was wondering what the consensus is on LED or CMH.
I am leaning more towards CMH.

I would say CMH for the budget.

Grab one of these:
http://growershouse.com/prism-lighting-science-315w-cmh-ballast-philips-bulb-combo-120-240v

And one of these:
http://growershouse.com/phantom-315w-ceramic-metal-halide-cmh-reflector

Thanks Evil for the links. I was looking at this one, what is your opinion on it? http://www.htgsupply.com/products/htg-supply-400w-ceramic-metal-halide-grow-light

Wasted Seed said:

Thanks Evil for the links. I was looking at this one, what is your opinion on it? http://www.htgsupply.com/products/htg-supply-400w-ceramic-metal-halide-grow-light

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All I can say is the stuff I linked is the cheapest way IMO to get into Phillips bulbs with a kick ass reflector and a decent ballast. There are cheaper reflectors but this one has the added benefit where you can buy an inexpensive A/C kit and run your 315 A/C like the bigger lights if you need or want to. The prism ballast also has a 5 year warranty which is two more than the phillips ballast. I have never had an issue with growers house and shop there often. This prism kit is basically their in house brand so I wouldn't worry about CS if needed for some reason.

From HTG supply I have bought tents and T5 bulbs but do not have any knowledge or exp with that kit. Without knowing the details on the ballast and bulb I really can't say much there.

Appreciate it, I will give it a week for my mind to settle on one this is a new idea and I don't want to just pick one now then be pissed later because i didn't look hard enough.

Wasted Seed said:

Appreciate it, I will give it a week for my mind to settle on one this is a new idea and I don't want to just pick one now then be pissed later because i didn't look hard enough.

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Not a problem bro, but I assure you I already put all the hours in lol. I use to own a Sunsytem 315 LEC and that's the only other thing I would consider at the moment, but it will cost you more and not be able to A/C, and not have the ballast remotely mounted which means more heat in the grow area. The only difference will be a Phillips ballast with two years warranty less than the Prism kit":
http://growershouse.com/sun-system-lec-315w-cmh-ceramic-mh-light-fixture-120v-3100k

Growers house now carries the Galaxy LEC ballast (dimmable) and a new sunlight supply remote reflector.

They had a 15% off sale over last weekend and I got the ballast reflector and Phillips bulb and a hurricane 6" clip fan for about $360 delivered.

Wasted Seed said:

Thanks Evil for the links. I was looking at this one, what is your opinion on it? http://www.htgsupply.com/products/htg-supply-400w-ceramic-metal-halide-grow-light

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thats a 240 volt unit. and i don't think real cmh,' come in 400 watts, only 315's and a 630

ThaiBaby1 said:

thats a 240 volt unit. and i don't think real cmh,' come in 400 watts, only 315's and a 630

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There is a mogul base 400 watt cmh available at HTG. But it is meant for enclosed fixtures only and they will sell it with an open reflector.

The new bulbs have better specs.

I have been looking at LEDs since some of the well respected members on this site told me they went from CMH to LED, but with that being said COB is they to go and I have not found a decent fixture or DIY kit for much less then $1000. So I think with your budget you would be better off with a LEC 315. I am still torn on my next upgrade, I didn't like the $275 power bill last month at all.

Do you gather?

Thanks for the comment, I am thinking on building this. Comes in around 420 and It would be worth it to me so I don't have to mess with bulbs every so often.

Power Supply 30 Volts 20 Amps 600 Watts
Chanzon SMD High Power Led Chip 100W 4x3000k 3x6000k
heatsink 3.94" x 45"
fan power supply
5 80mm fans

What is your next upgrade and what are you running?

I am running two 1000 watt HPS in the flower room with some old 300 watt (150 true watt) panels as side lighting. A few days ago I pulled my reflectors off and switched everything to vertical. I am still researching my next upgrade, I was dead set on CMH until I talked to some other growers about COB and so I am leaning towards CO. I also run a far red light for a few minutes a day

Some members you may want to read their posts are growmau5
Ttystikk there are a lot more but these two are who I have been learning from growmau5 also has his own youtube channel and he sells a awsome looking kit.

That is some super crystaly bud you got there and a nice looking dog wait on some smoke I bet. I want to keep prices down. I am sure the kits he sells is good but it would cost me a good bit more to get the same wattage out of his kit instead of sourcing my own. Thanks for the help and some bud porn.

I just swapped my entire veg and flower rooms to ALL cmh set up. Veg was 3x600mh, now 3x315 cmh 942 philips cdm elite bulbs. Flower was 3x600hps, now to 4x315cmh 930 philips agro bulbs.

DemonTrich said:

I just swapped my entire veg and flower rooms to ALL cmh set up. Veg was 3x600mh, now 3x315 cmh 942 philips cdm elite bulbs. Flower was 3x600hps, now to 4x315cmh 930 philips agro bulbs. View attachment 3845474 View attachment 3845475

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How did you like this setup? It looks really nice.

I am currently running 2 fusion bright de630's in an 8x8 tent. I am considering getting light movers in the future. One thing I am not sure if I understand, what distance should I have these fixtures from the plants? I have 12 trees taking up about a 6x6 area in the tent with the lights in the middle. I can walk around 3 sides of the area, none of the plants are touching the tent or each other. My lights are as high as they can be and the tallest plant is over 5' tall (16" tall pot) from the floor in second week of flower, shortest is just under 4'.

I'm still rocking the cmh. Doing better than ever expected. The 20k bulb life is a farce. They "may" run 20k hrs, but in our world, they won't. I swapped out my veg bulbs already.

I've also tested the Philip's 942 bulbs vs the philip's 930 bulbs in flower. Only real difference I noticed was a bit of heat saving with the 942. Now I'll run 942 in spring/summer, and run the 930 in fall/winter.

Just a 1/4 of my room.

DemonTrich said:

I'm still rocking the cmh. Doing better than ever expected. The 20k bulb life is a farce. They "may" run 20k hrs, but in our world, they won't. I swapped out my veg bulbs already.

I've also tested the Philip's 942 bulbs vs the philip's 930 bulbs in flower. Only real difference I noticed was a bit of heat saving with the 942. Now I'll run 942 in spring/summer, and run the 930 in fall/winter.

Just a 1/4 of my room.

View attachment 4175065

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So what distance from the canopy do you recommend?

Everyone's environment is different. I use different hoods than everyone else does. I use huge hoods, thus I can keep canopy distance much closer than others.

Mine finish up.about 18" by chop

And dont buy the riu bullshit about air cooling cmh is bad. Thats utter horse shit! They make a t9 and a t12 bulb for a reason. I consistently bang out killer runs per 68 day flower run for the past few years