Sunmaster Warm Deluxe

I was curious if anyone has tried using this bulb for budding. It is a Metal Halide but the box reads it is for flowering, 3000K. Any success stories?

I am going to be using a 250 watt bulb in a 400 watt ballast (in a closet). I was also wondering if I should stick to budding just one plant a time or if I could possible get away with 3. There is enough room for 3, just wondering if this light is strong enough.

250 watt lamp in a 400 watt ballast sounds like a recipe for disaster unless your ballast is dimmable. You can safely run a 400watt lamp in a 250 watt ballast, but not the other way around.

You're right. It is a 400 watt light running in a 250 watt ballast. I mixed that up lol.

The bulb is also a base up burning bulb. How does it affect the light if its run horizontal?

well as most people will tell you get a bulb that matches the ballast, but you could run it like that, but the s[spectrum will be blue because you are under powering the bulb and it could end the bulbs life sooner than normal

horizontal, vertical, or universal depends on the manufacturers specifications on running the bulb. placing it in other orientations can end the life of the bulb sooner

polyarcturus said:

well as most people will tell you get a bulb that matches the ballast, but you could run it like that, but the s[spectrum will be blue because you are under powering the bulb and it could end the bulbs life sooner than normal

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Actually what typically happens when you underpower a lamp, it will have an amber shift (more red spectrum) rather than blue. I'm not sure about the lamp life of underpowering. With a normal incandescent, you can actually extend lamp life by underpowering it. Fact is that those "long life" bulbs they make are usually rated for 130 to 130 volts, but since wall power (in the us) is 120, it can extend the life by 2 or 3 times an many cases. However, HID lights are not a standard incandescent lamp.

Personally I run a HPS 250w lamp at 200 watts, because my 400w ballast is dimmable (don't need to full 400 for veg) and I had a free 250 laying around. I know if would be better to run a 200w, but for my it's close enough for veg. In flower I'm more picky and run a 600w Digilux lamp (95,000 lumens) in a Galaxy digital 600 ballast.