Hortilux vs standard bulb

Good question,'cause I wanted to know that, myself. Has anybody done any comparisons? And 'no', I'm not searching for it, because it's after 9:00 in the morning, and I've been awake all freaking night. I'm tired. Nah, seriously, are they worth the extra money? I can buy bulbs from HTG supply for $30 each, with the 'extra blue' added, and the Hortilux bulbs are almost 3X more expensive. Is there a noticeable difference in yield/growth?

*is off to bed* LOL

This is only theoretical because I haven't done a side by side but, having the extra blue in your spectrum should improve the quality of the bud. LED light designers use a ratio of 9 red, 2 white and 1 blue. They have done extensive side by sides. Plain HPS does have some blue in it's spectrum, but it is certainly not at that ratio.

Speaking of LED, you could probably get away with a Hydro Grow 126 watter ($425) in that size grow space. From what I understand, 30 watts per square foot is where you want to be with a properly designed LED, although that does depend on how hard they are being run and what bin they are, so judging LED coverage by wattage can be tricky.

$425 is probably more than you had in mind for a light, but HPS bulbs suffer lumen depreciation much faster than LED. If you consider electric savings, assume a 126 watt LED = same yield as a 250w HPS. 126 watt LED actual draw ~150 watts. 250 watt (magnetic ballast) HPS actual draw ~300 watts. Assuming 15 cents per KWH, HPS cost $2000 to run for 10 years. LED cost $1000 to run for 10 years.

Something to consider anyway. Good luck with your build!

andya12420 said:

Hello everyone happy new year! im looking to make a new light purchase, im thinking 400 watt hps. My room is about 2 feet wide 3 feet deep and 4 feet high. I can deal with the heat, but my question is should i spend the extra money on the bulb upgrade or is the standard bulb good enough? Thanks in advance Andy

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I have no first hand experience, but I would think that it would be hard to justify 50%-100% more for a bulb when you should replace them every 6-12 months. Could there really be that much a difference with a 400 watt's, maybe it would have been better to go to a 600, or 1000???

I bought a 400 watt ballast that came with a standard bulb (china).

A couple weeks into the grow the light stopped coming on. I had to go to the shop and get a Hortilux bulb. Its been working every time now.

Thanks guys. This is a tough decession on what light system to get, insidesun has a referbed 400 watter for 99$ but im not sure if im buying junk? Also what is the diffrence between all the diffrent ballasts available. I need it to be as quite as possible. Any help or light suggestions would be great!

Any help would be great! Bump

I use a 400w hortilux bulb for my veg. I run a nextgen 400-600w ballast. My veg time has been cut in half. The ballast is about as loud as a computer fan very very quiet. In my opinion the hortilux eye bulbs are above the line.

you get what you pay for... i run a 600 hortilux and love it.

andya12420 said:

....Also what is the diffrence between all the diffrent ballasts available. I need it to be as quite as possible. Any help or light suggestions would be great!

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for noise, a digital ballast would be quieter, also most have the advantage of running any bulb MH or HPS up to the rated wattage so you could veg w/ a 400 watt MH bulb & move up to a 600 watt HPS to flower.
as for the top end bulbs,they are better but for what you spend on a few over the yrs,you could have jumped to a bigger light & get better results.

Thanks again guys, i am going with a digital ballast 400 watt i found a good deal on ebay, 184$ for the whole setup hortilamp bulb included. I think im going to start a journal for my next grow that underway now. Four supposid Kush seeds and two white lightning clones. So far so good on the seedlings! My avitar pic is from the skunk plant i have in flower right now about 7 weeks in under a 150 watt hps.

One benefit of digital ballast is slightly increased efficiency over magnetic ballasts, which will result in slightly less heat from the ballast as well. Another benefit that won't directly affect your power bill, but will affect the environment is the power factor. Digital ballasts have near 95%+ power factor whereas magnetic ballasts have around 50%. From what I understand, a 50% power factor means the power company has to supply double the power the lamp is rated. If this is true that means a huge increase in coal burned because only about 27% of the energy from coal ends up as electric power in your home.

I checked my little 70w HPS (magnetic ballast) using a Kill-A-Watt electric meter. It consumed 80 watts total and had a power factor of about 50%.

Apparently it is true. Just found this site which explains the differences between true power, reactive power and apparent power. "Power factor can be an important aspect to consider in an AC circuit, because any power factor less than 1 means that the circuit's wiring has to carry more current than what would be necessary with zero reactance in the circuit to deliver the same amount of (true) power to the resistive load."

quote is from page 3.

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_11/1.html

The added blue arch tube is what the SuperHPS like Hortilux lamps have over the std ones. You can supplement for the blue spec in other ways (a daylight cfl or 2 for example) if desired. I ran a 400W mag ballast for a long time. 120$ + shipping from HTG.

ive done a side by side with a 20 dollar GE hps and a 90 $ hortilux the GE bulb streched my plants the hortilux kept them compact the buds were also tighter i yielded a little more with the hortilux

justsaymint said:

ive done a side by side with a 20 dollar GE hps and a 90 $ hortilux the GE bulb streched my plants the hortilux kept them compact the buds were also tighter i yielded a little more with the hortilux

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Tighter nodal spacing is from the added blue arc in the SuperHPS lamps. Either get SuperHPS or supplement a good daylight CFL or 2 for the added blue spec.

Good info justsaymint. I also experienced a lot of stretching with a plain HPS, especially if air temp get above 80. I did supplement with daylight CFL which helped but it's hard to get even coverage and still get them close up.

Thanks for the info guys. I made the purchase yesterday. hopefully on my door step by the end of the week. ill post somthing when it comes in. Maybe some pics of the new setup!

I run a CMH, and will never switch back to HPS at least for veg. My flowering area is almost complete I just need to install another 400w CMH, and dump some clones under a 12/12 to see how the CMH handles flowering compaired to my old HPS. The CMH gives me a nice even spectrum with more than enough UV as well. No supplemental lighting here.

One thing is certain, the CMH runs way cooler than the HPS did.

I have a magnetic 400w HPS ballast.