Possibly the stupidest(maybe brilliant) question i will have... about CMH bulbs

karr

karr

Well-Known Member
OK most of us know that the CMH technology looks promising. Slight loss in lumens for an upgraded par. One of the major downfalls is the lack of CMH bulbs above 400w. The other downfall is the fact that digital ballasts do not work with these bulbs(with a few exceptions for low freq. units).

I will cut to the chase. Would it be possible/safe to take a 600w magnetic (cmh comparable) ballast. and simply wire in two sockets? In each socket would be a 400w CMH bulb ran at 300 watts. This could also be possible with the CMH compatable dimmable ballasts in situations like 750/2 =375 w each.

So the reasons this may not work(in my head).

It just wont, someone may know the electrical reason why.(though i see a specific output of 600w weather its split or not)

If one bulb fires before the other then the first bulb may get the full 600w and blow. Again i see both sparking near the same time and watts split evenly.

One realistic drawback; if one bulb were to fail(burn out) then all the power is sent to the one live bulb. Im not sure if that bulb would then burn out or if it would blow up. but either way its a consideration.

I imagine some form of wiring could be done to limit the max watts to each socket, im not sure about this.


In basic theory, could this work? It may be nice for one who has a nice 600w ballast and wants to experiment with some CMH bulbs.

Last question, if the above is possible would you run 1 cmh 1 hps or 2 cmh.


Thanks for stopping in. Rep for serious answers :)
 
fabfun

fabfun

New Member
dude i dont know u got me stumped
i would be afraid to try it equipment is expensive to risk on experiment
but maybe some has tried this before
 
mistaphuck

mistaphuck

Well-Known Member
ok I had to look this up I have never heard of CMH before, but what I want to know is what exactly is promising about it? ceramic metal halide? how would ceramic help?
 
mistaphuck

mistaphuck

Well-Known Member
and I would not try splitting your ballast cable and running it to two lights without the proper wattage even getting to them both, just seems like a bad idea.
 
karr

karr

Well-Known Member
mistaphuck said:
ok I had to look this up I have never heard of CMH before, but what I want to know is what exactly is promising about it? ceramic metal halide? how would ceramic help?
Click to expand...
The Ceramic Metal Halide bulb has a much fuller spectrum than that of standard HPS or MH. They generally put out less lumens but have a higher PAR. Buds grown under these seem to be more potent, i cant comment on any yield differences. This bulb can be used through all stages.



Spanishfly said:
So what do you do to a 400 W bulb to make it run at 300 W ???? What magic is this??
Click to expand...
Well i assume this is already possible with many bulbs out there as dimmable ballasts can run 1000w bulbs at down to 660w and 600 watt dimmable ballasts can run down to the 300 range.

Just sayin
 
fabfun

fabfun

New Member
well if u run to lights off same source u cant control how much thet get this is a bad ideal u will have blown bulb
im not stumped anymore i was just to high last night to see what a bad ideal this was
be safe dont try it
 
karr

karr

Well-Known Member
Yeah i was just throwing an idea out there.

The other reason i found is that the capacitor inside the ballast most likely wouldnt s[ark two bulbs at the same time
 
Danielsgb

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
I think that would be a bad idea to even try. I know a guy who uses his 600W ballast for his 400W CMH.
 
Danielsgb

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
karr said:
wow 400 in a 600 ballast? is the ballast dimmable?
Click to expand...
I don't think so. You can vary ballast and bulb to some extent. More so on MH or HPS. I think these CMH are more picky, hence no digi's. I'll ask on a grow journal I share with two others on an f1 cross Purple Rain from a breeder here. I'm pretty sure it was one of the two that runs it. If a 600W Ballast could run two 400W's I think we would have seen a grow room set-up like that by someone broke but a serious electrician.
Daniels
 
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