Quality Of HPS Bulb In Perpetual Grow?

Bwpz

Bwpz

Well-Known Member
I'm going to be doing a perpetual grow. The vegging will be done under t5s. I bought 5 white plastic 2x4 grow trays. One will be for mothers/clones, one will be for vegging, and the other 3 are flowering. I have 3 1000w/600w AC Lumatek ballasts. I have a few questions about the setup.

1. With it being a perpetual grow, should I buy $60 bulbs that are high quality? I'm guessing I should, but some people say to buy the $20 and throw em out after the grow. This grow is perpetual, so I don't think I should follow that advice.
2. Is 600w enough for a 2x4 tray with ~8 plants? Should I buy 1000w bulbs and just run em all at 1000w? All 3 flowering tables will be within a couple feet of each other.
3. With 2x4 trays, that should be 8 plants right? I planned on using 6" rockwool cubes.

Thanks :)
 
BeastGrow

BeastGrow

Well-Known Member
1. i feel like the quality was a bit higher for the more expensive bulbs.
2. 600w is enough for 2x4.. i run 400w in a 2x4 just fine pulling 6-8 zips every 9 weeks.
3. you could run 12 plants per tray 12/12 from seed or with a short vegetative period (less than 3 weeks)
 
tightpockt

tightpockt

Well-Known Member
I suspect the intensity of a $60 bulb after 1 or 2 grows would be much less than a brand new $20 bulb...
it would be interesting to see someone do a comparison.
 
skunkd0c

skunkd0c

Well-Known Member
Sunbiz1 said:
Think I might have to buy one of these, as I too have some concerns on bulb life/when to replace:

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/light-meter-lumens
Click to expand...
a 9 week flower period at 12/12 is 756 hours

Lumen Maintenance @ 20000 hours is between 80-90% on the philips bulbs others will be similar

a standard 400w hps @ 56k lumen will lose upto 20% or 11200 lumen atfer 20k hours of usage
which is around 26 grows at 9 weeks per grow

at 10k hours the lumen maintenance is between 85-95%
so i would suggest the bulbs are good for at least 10 grows
i replace them every 2-3 years,
since they cheap these days if folk want to replace them after every crop its pretty pointless but not going to break the bank

peace
 
Bwpz

Bwpz

Well-Known Member
skunkd0c said:
a 9 week flower period at 12/12 is 756 hours

Lumen Maintenance @ 20000 hours is between 80-90% on the philips bulbs others will be similar

a standard 400w hps @ 56k lumen will lose upto 20% or 11200 lumen atfer 20k hours of usage
which is around 26 grows at 9 weeks per grow

at 10k hours the lumen maintenance is between 85-95%
so i would suggest the bulbs are good for at least 10 grows
i replace them every 2-3 years,
since they cheap these days if folk want to replace them after every crop its pretty pointless but not going to break the bank

peace
Click to expand...
With my perpetual grow, I'd be harvesting plants every 3 weeks. I don't see a point in changing bulbs every 3 weeks, wouldn't the high quality ones work fine for multiple grows, like you said? I could replace them every 3-4 grows and be fine, and have the higher quality bulbs. Here is a picture of my setup.

Untitled.png
 
Sunbiz1

Sunbiz1

Well-Known Member
skunkd0c said:
a 9 week flower period at 12/12 is 756 hours

Lumen Maintenance @ 20000 hours is between 80-90% on the philips bulbs others will be similar

a standard 400w hps @ 56k lumen will lose upto 20% or 11200 lumen atfer 20k hours of usage
which is around 26 grows at 9 weeks per grow

at 10k hours the lumen maintenance is between 85-95%
so i would suggest the bulbs are good for at least 10 grows
i replace them every 2-3 years,
since they cheap these days if folk want to replace them after every crop its pretty pointless but not going to break the bank

peace
Click to expand...
Thanks, just saved me time and $$.:peace:
 
skunkd0c

skunkd0c

Well-Known Member
Bwpz said:
With my perpetual grow, I'd be harvesting plants every 3 weeks. I don't see a point in changing bulbs every 3 weeks, wouldn't the high quality ones work fine for multiple grows, like you said? I could replace them every 3-4 grows and be fine, and have the higher quality bulbs. Here is a picture of my setup.

View attachment 2985564
Click to expand...
For sure i do not think you should replace bulbs until you have at least used them for 10,000 hours and this is only because they are cheap now or i would say 15,000
hps were 3x the price 10 years ago hps keep a much better lumen maintenance than MH bulbs which are still expensive

they do dual/twin hps bulbs they are quite rare not even sure if they make them any more, they have 2 tubes in each bulb
only one of the tube lights at a time and they come on alternatively on each switching this give each bulb 2x the life span



if you are only losing 5600 lumen on a 400w and 9000 lumen on a 600 after 10,000 hours it would seem pointless to change it

i have 3 x 600 hps with a combined lumen output of 270,000 lumen
how much more yield would i get if i were to add 3 x 125 w CFL lights
these are 10,000 lumens each
or how much yield would i lose from older bulbs at 90% power or 27,000 lumens less

personally i think this 27-30k lumen difference would be insignificant either way
if only using 1 light maybe it would be better to change it more often

peace
 
booms111

booms111

Well-Known Member
I have gone threw a bunch of philips and sylvania bulbs in the past, they work fine. Ive switched to Ushio for HPS and never looked back and wouldnt buy a non grow bulb again though. The Ushios put out more lumens then pretty much any other bulb out there. For MH im in love with my Digilux 600s, no other 600 MH is comparable.

I like to replace bulbs every year along with new carbon filters.

@skunkd0c-Recently helped a buddy replace 4 hortilux 600hps that were a year old and put in new Ushios and you could tell a noticable difference when 1 old horti bulb was still running and 1 new ushio bulb was running right beside it and there pretty similar bulbs new.
 
Bwpz

Bwpz

Well-Known Member
skunkd0c said:
For sure i do not think you should replace bulbs until you have at least used them for 10,000 hours and this is only because they are cheap now or i would say 15,000
hps were 3x the price 10 years ago hps keep a much better lumen maintenance than MH bulbs which are still expensive

they do dual/twin hps bulbs they are quite rare not even sure if they make them any more, they have 2 tubes in each bulb
only one of the tube lights at a time and they come on alternatively on each switching this give each bulb 2x the life span



if you are only losing 5600 lumen on a 400w and 9000 lumen on a 600 after 10,000 hours it would seem pointless to change it

i have 3 x 600 hps with a combined lumen output of 270,000 lumen
how much more yield would i get if i were to add 3 x 125 w CFL lights
these are 10,000 lumens each
or how much yield would i lose from older bulbs at 90% power or 27,000 lumens less

personally i think this 27-30k lumen difference would be insignificant either way
if only using 1 light maybe it would be better to change it more often

peace
Click to expand...
You ever considered using a light mover instead of 3x 600w lights? Possibly use 1x 1000w on a light mover over all 3 tables.
 
skunkd0c

skunkd0c

Well-Known Member
Bwpz said:
You ever considered using a light mover instead of 3x 600w lights? Possibly use 1x 1000w on a light mover over all 3 tables.
Click to expand...
Yes i have considered something similar although 1 x 1000 would not be enough to cover my space as it is just over 9 ft long even on a light mover i would use 2 lights
2 x 600

peace
 
Bwpz

Bwpz

Well-Known Member
skunkd0c said:
Yes i have considered something similar although 1 x 1000 would not be enough to cover my space as it is just over 9 ft long even on a light mover i would use 2 lights
2 x 600

peace
Click to expand...
Would 2x 600w on a light mover work just as well as 3x stationary 600w, you think?
 
booms111

booms111

Well-Known Member
Bwpz said:
Would 2x 600w on a light mover work just as well as 3x stationary 600w, you think?
Click to expand...
No. Not even close. Light movers are really only effecient in rooms that are 1ft bigger then they should be, like a room that should be 4x4 but is 4x5 a mover would be good. 3 600hps=270,000 lumens and 2 600hps=180,000, cant replace that many lumens by just moving a light.
 
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