HPS can't be used with electronic ballasts??

ok here it is. i have a lumatek 600W electronic ballast and currently i am running a sun pulse 6.4k MH bulb. come flowering time i want to use a HPS so im starting to look into them. on sunpulse's site they claim that HPS really arent the shit and that they CANNOT be run on an electronic ballast

in their FAQ the question, do you make HPS bulbs is answered as follows:

A: Sun Pulse makes an HPS lamp, but it can never be used in high frequency electronic ballasts. Millions of dollars were spent by Sun Pulse Labs, and research clearly proves the HPS lamp cannot be used for electronic HID ballasts, ever. Like the typewriter, HPS lamps are a thing of the past. In addition, an HPS lamp is approx. 2.2K,( or 22% of the Sun) and has a narrow band of light. Red light also has the least amount of energy of all the colors of the spectrum; you couldn't light a solar panel with HPS light. Why pay money to make light that has the least amount of energy?


so now im confused and need someone to show me the light :badumpish:

from what sunpulse is telling me, i should go with their MH 3k for flowering.

My lights would disagree. 600W HPS w/ lumatek digital ballast. Perhaps their bulbs can't be used, but one can definitely use HPS w/ digi ballasts

I've never heard that anywhere before. If they have a MH that is in the 3000K range then it should work for flowering. But I know you can run HPS with electronic ballasts, doesn't your ballast have a switch for HPS? here is a 600w lumatek that is good for MH or HPS http://www.hydroasis.com/hy/productdetail.aspx?id=1501

I'm using HPS bulbs with Lumatek digitals also. No special brand HPS bulbs either, one is a generic that had no brand name on the package and the other is Growbright or something. They're just whatever came with the package I ordered and they both work just fine so far...

my lumatek can run hps yes. what sunpulse is saying is that electronic/digital ballasts produce such higher frequencies that an hps bulb would not have a decent life span. sunpulses biggest thing is that their bulbs are designed to withstand the higher frequencies of digital/electronic ballasts. theyre also saying that an hps really doesnt put out that much "technical term for lighting". they claim there bulbs replicate the sun more closely than a standard hps or mh. i dont know if its all abunch of hoopla or if its legit claims.

im very satisfied with my sunpulse bulb and would deff buy another one. so now im considering the 3k spectrum mh. it seems to be the best of both worlds as it provides the red light as well as blue and etc etc. anyone have good results witha 3k spectrum bulb for flowering?

sorry for not being good withall the lingo

I just looked at my hps boxes, hortilux eye and growbright, and neither one list an k- kelvin range. Only the mh bulbs list by k range, and if that is what you're running ( a mh and not a hps) then the 3k range is best for flower.


cof

im currently running a sunpulse mh 6.4k but im planning on using a mh 3k for flowering. thanks yall

I run Hortilux 400w blue mH's for veg and Hortilux 400w Super HPS for Flower. All run off Lumatek digital ballasts. No problems, great lights.

ya they just want you to buy their brand of stuff.

im torn between the 3k mh and the hortilux super hps

Hortilux all the way man.....you'll shit when you see that Super HPS fire up!!!!

i've actually decided on the sunpulse. ill show you my results in three months

first all , ballast are electronic . second digital ballast cannot run ceramic metal hallides , as far as I know a swichable digital ballast with mh/hps is the way to go . a lot of commercial growers and old schoolers use magnetic ballast for cmh .

wally nutter said:

i've actually decided on the sunpulse. ill show you my results in three months

Click to expand...

I was going to suggest you do what you decided to do. Never seen the 3K MH bulbs but have to imagine they'd work very well since they're pretty much the ideal color temp. It'd be intersting to see an unbiased spectrum test to see if it actually puts out the color spectrum they claim.

MH typically put out less lumens per watt than HPS but if that bulb does what they claim, it should be more efficient so less lumens wouldn't really matter.

Def post the results for the rest of the class here.

Dezracer said:

I was going to suggest you do what you decided to do. Never seen the 3K MH bulbs but have to imagine they'd work very well since they're pretty much the ideal color temp. It'd be intersting to see an unbiased spectrum test to see if it actually puts out the color spectrum they claim.

MH typically put out less lumens per watt than HPS but if that bulb does what they claim, it should be more efficient so less lumens wouldn't really matter.

Def post the results for the rest of the class here.

Click to expand...

exactly my man. i googled it and found similar threads on other forums. from what i gather hps are basically oldschool now. they were saying hps were first brought into growing when people grabbed street lights. that created the market for them. hps were never designed for horticulture.

sunpulse is all into the techy weckyness of plant biology. they seem to be a very legit company. and best of all, they plant a tree for every bulb sold. how can you beat that?!

additionally, greners where i order from sells the sunpulse for cheaper than the hortilux. go figure

Post a grow journal man. Now you got me interested. I'm looking into the SunPulse 10k UVA/Blue lamps for the final 2 weeks of flowering to increase THC production. I just emailed their tech support asking a bunch of questions about that lamp and what all technical data he could send me or tell me...we'll see what they say! I'd definitely love to try it or see someone else's results

Post your journal when you do it!

X

check my sig brotha

What you want to look out for is the arching of the tube. High frequencies make some bulbs arc. There are a lot of bulbs out there designed for the electronic ballast many HPS.

The problem is that when a manufacturer is talking about the arch, they are targeting the commercial warehouse lighting application where lumens are essential. Since plants use photons, not lumens, you want a bulb designed to put out the highest umols.