CMH Q's (RiddleMe?)

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TheLastWood

Well-Known Member
Been researching the cmh's. Decided to go with the phillips cmd 400 watt hps retro white. Have a few questions, anyone can answer but I know riddleme has been using these for a while and is well suited to answer.

1) phillips says there retro white is the only cmh safe open use, also says only to be used with the ge ballast. Is this just a disclaimer or is it usable on my hps ballast from sunlight supply and xtrasun (one of each)

2) read everywhere on the advanced lighting site, they mention nothing about uv (I want the uv). I know they have coated bulbs with uv filters, am I to assume its unfiltered?

3) is 800 watts (2x400) too much uv to be safely exposed too?

4) I know you say you can use in place of mh and hps, I can only find a graph comparing it to a hps wand it blows the hps away. Is it much better than a mh hortilux blue or am I better off only replacing my hps with one?

5) they claim a 17% loss in foot candles but claim it makes up for it with "brighter light" kinda doesn't make sense. Is it a total light vs. Usable light thing?

I have searched on here nothing came up really, and read everything on advanced lightings page. Any help will be appreciated.
 
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TheLastWood

Well-Known Member
I appreciate it. I'm just waiting on some answers then I'm gonna order one or two, if they are the appropriate ones.
 
Timmahh

Timmahh

Well-Known Member
TheLastWood said:
Been researching the cmh's. Decided to go with the phillips cmd 400 watt hps retro white. Have a few questions, anyone can answer but I know riddleme has been using these for a while and is well suited to answer.

1) phillips says there retro white is the only cmh safe open use, also says only to be used with the ge ballast. Is this just a disclaimer or is it usable on my hps ballast from sunlight supply and xtrasun (one of each)
THE Philips CMH Bulb needs an HPS Ballast. the reason you read the GE ballast part, is GE Is designing an Electronic Ballast Specifialy for the CMH Bulb Line. I run my CMH on a Sunlight Supply Harvest Pro Elite 400w HPS ballast. works perfect. The HPS ballast MUST BE a Magnetic style. The electronic/Digital Ballast operate at too high of a HZ frequency, and can will screw the bulb. Again, why the GE ballast was mentioned as its specifially for the CMH Bulb. Ive looked but not found the GE eBallast available anywhere yet.

2) read everywhere on the advanced lighting site, they mention nothing about uv (I want the uv). I know they have coated bulbs with uv filters, am I to assume its unfiltered? the CMH bulbs are UNFILTERED! they offer a GREAT UVB, just dont sun bathe under the light. lol you ll get a burn!

3) is 800 watts (2x400) too much uv to be safely exposed too?
the sun puts out way more. but you dont want to spend hours and hours under it. do what you have to do in the room and leave.

4) I know you say you can use in place of mh and hps, I can only find a graph comparing it to a hps wand it blows the hps away. Is it much better than a mh hortilux blue or am I better off only replacing my hps with one? this is the point i am at also. need to get a veg light. looking at a 8 bult T5, a MH with ehanced blue, or a 2nd 400w CMH setup. im just starting to look into it, but so far, it seems the MH enhaned MAY offer a bit more Blue Spectrum, but not as many Lumens doing it. SO with that said, take a look at the MH Bulb Blue spectrum, and compare it with the CMH Blue spectrum. I ll be doing this later today.
but the math can help. HPS Magnetic Ballast, 130.00ish. Philips Bulb 55.00ish. so 185.00 ish.
MH E Ballast, 100.00 and up. enhanced Blue MH bulb, around 90.00ish. so about 190.00Ish total. reflector of choice.
so overall, they cost initally is about the same, but when it comes time to replace bulbs the CMH setup wins hands down financially. 55.00 for a bulb that will last typically 2 yrs. compared to a bulb that should be good for just over 1 yr at a cost of about 90.00.


5) they claim a 17% loss in foot candles but claim it makes up for it with "brighter light" kinda doesn't make sense. Is it a total light vs. Usable light thing?
not sure at all in this one.
I have searched on here nothing came up really, and read everything on advanced lightings page. Any help will be appreciated.
Click to expand...
So i would say im leaning toward a 2nd CMH setup for my veg area.
 
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frmrboi

Well-Known Member
TheLastWood said:
I appreciate it. I'm just waiting on some answers then I'm gonna order one or two, if they are the appropriate ones.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't buy even one.
Those things have been out for over 3 years yet few people are using them nor do online grow supply stores stock them.
Veg with a 6500 K MH flower with the CMH if you must.

 
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Wetdog

Well-Known Member
Thanks Timmahh + rep for you!

I was just on the site about the GE ballast thing and knew it had to be something else since the CMH was developed for re-lamping older HPS setups and all those ballasts couldn't be all GE. The digital thing makes perfect sense.

I have both a 400w HPS and 400w MH in my tent and was going to use the MH enclosure for a HPS rebuild kit and run 2 of the CMH.

Now, I see they recently came out with a CMH bulb that will run off a MH ballast, so I may just go that route for the moment. Both of my ballasts are magnetic of course.

Wet
 
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TheLastWood

Well-Known Member
Well all I need is the bulbs I'm already running 2 400 watters, core n coil hps and mh. Both with a hortilux. I'm just thinking about switching out my bulbs, already have everything running.

I have 3 400 watt ballasts (currently only using 2) and 2 are switchable mh hps one is just hps, so I think I will go ahead and run cmh for my veg and flower. If any one else has any other info to add id greatly appreciate it.
 
mrorganics

mrorganics

Active Member
R u running the cmh?? What are your results and how experienced are you, I'm stillon the curve so if I said it was so amazing I got 3 more oz it prob just be juz I'm watering better and feeding earlier, so I'm no guinea pig, not for a few yrs at least haha.
 
Serious Weeds

Serious Weeds

Well-Known Member
I have two 400 watt GE ceramic metal halide bulbs and I had one grow started using just one of them (I was going to move just wanted to test it) and it seemed to do great on veg. will know more about them soon enough though am building a 4ft by 8ft grow box as we speak twice the size of my last grow only this time I will be using two mother plants AK-48 from nirvana and northern lights from them as well should be here any day. I will do another grow journal and you all will be able to see what they can or can't do. But I have heard of them producing plants with more resin.
 
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