Skip the CFL's: The $20 150w complete HPS with ballast and bulb Link

daisy2687

Well-Known Member
Good job posting this. I've been trying to preach about the 'security lights' for about a year now. ALL YOU NEED IS A 3 PRONG CORD AND A SIMPLE WIRING DIAGRAM WITH GROUND, NEUTRAL AND LIVE WIRES... :)..and maybe some electrical tape

I bought one and made a housing for it out of sheet aluminum at work
 

la9

Well-Known Member
Good job posting this. I've been trying to preach about the 'security lights' for about a year now. ALL YOU NEED IS A 3 PRONG CORD AND A SIMPLE WIRING DIAGRAM WITH GROUND, NEUTRAL AND LIVE WIRES... :)..and maybe some electrical tape

I bought one and made a housing for it out of sheet aluminum at work

I understand what you mean. for some reason people don't want to listen. Whether they don't believe you can get one for such a price, or they think it's too complicated, they just don't want to start out with and HID light.
 

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
Don't people use HPS's in grow tents all the time? They have them in the tents at the grow shops I've been in. You'd probably just have to rig up some way to exhaust the heat off the thing well as if it were in a vented hood, these don't put out that much heat really so I'd guess a 4" duct or better would do it with a cheapo inline fan. Even if the duct intake were just over the top of the light and the light were hung sideways with a sort of homemade batwing.

I'm sure there are others who have figured a cheap and simple way to DIY this already
 

theotherc

Well-Known Member

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
Theotherc

No I would make a DIY batwing reflector out of any sheet metal or aluminum you can find. Aluminum is easy to cut and you can take it from an old pc case or whatever might be around but thin steel would work too.

Anyway just hang the light SIDEWAYS with the ballast the way it is and a batwing on it. Either that or a DIY cooltube made out of those candle chimneys at the craft stores. There are threads on these ideas and links to the chimneys already and you can look up batwing to see how easy one of those would be to bend and cut out of a piece of metal.

Even the light alone hung sideways would be fine with no hood if you're too lazy to do anything more... Yea all you would need is a cord

I would NEVER buy that reflector, especially not at $20. Two of these with no reflectors would be a better deal and work better than one light with that relfector, wrong orientation for the bulb and not a good design for growing.
 

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
Best light for a small veg grow? What area? IT all depends on what you want to do and how big a box or whatever.

HPS could do it and you can't beat these lumens for this money but HPS makes veg plants stretch if used alone.

You could use one of these and some flouro light to stop the stretching.

Give more details on what area you plant to grow in, dimensions, how many plants, etc.
 

theotherc

Well-Known Member
Theotherc

No I would make a DIY batwing reflector out of any sheet metal or aluminum you can find. Aluminum is easy to cut and you can take it from an old pc case or whatever might be around but thin steel would work too.

Anyway just hang the light SIDEWAYS with the ballast the way it is and a batwing on it. Either that or a DIY cooltube made out of those candle chimneys at the craft stores. There are threads on these ideas and links to the chimneys already and you can look up batwing to see how easy one of those would be to bend and cut out of a piece of metal.

Even the light alone hung sideways would be fine with no hood if you're too lazy to do anything more... Yea all you would need is a cord

I would NEVER buy that reflector, especially not at $20. Two of these with no reflectors would be a better deal and work better than one light with that relfector, wrong orientation for the bulb and not a good design for growing.

I get what you are throwin down! I do have the mean's of doing a diy reflector. Just wanted to make sure the cord bit I was on point with. I am thinking of doing one of these in the middle of 2 cfl's (x 2 with splitters)

Thanks man.... I cant wait in the next few week's I will be setting up a cabinet. Mainly to veg right now. But the 150 hps + cfl's I believe I could get a satisfying yeild if I started flowering as well.
 

AGbags

Well-Known Member
A real small are like almost 2 feet wide of space in a closet 2 1/2 feet high very small But i want to stuff at least 8 plants if possibe
 

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
Yea you could use this then, and a couple cfl's to control stretching in veg. That would let you yield a good little SOG perpetual grow or whatever in there with plants in 16oz/1ltr containers, flowered at about 8" of plant growth or less. Just cram as many soda bottles as you can in there and grow single cola small plants. You'll get fat little cola's enough to always have smoke.
 

theotherc

Well-Known Member
which light and how many and what kind of cfls
Me?

I am either considering 2 of the 150 hps and making them into cool tubes.

Or doing 1 with 2 105 watt cfl's (5000k) 6200 lumens on each side or doing 2 42 watt cfl's (2700k) each side. I have a cab that is long with shorter depth. Figure I can run a few cpu fan's and take care of temp issues etc.
 

theotherc

Well-Known Member
I am talkin 2-4 plants max vegg'in and flowering. scrog style if I end up flowering in the same box.
 

AGbags

Well-Known Member
Cool Any other ideas how about flowering I thought a would just use the 250 watt hps on a 12/12
 

theotherc

Well-Known Member
I dig what you are saying.

Right now I figure 2 (23 watt cfl's 6500k & 5000K each) on each side of 150 hps will be killer for veggin.

If I want to veg and flower then switch to two 2 42 watt 2700k on each side or do 1 105 (5000k) 6200 lumen's on each side. I am excited!!!
 
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