# Questions about My Hood/Light/Ballast



## getnasty (Feb 26, 2012)

Quick questions here, ladies n gents.

The hood I have is a Hydrofarm Non-Aircooled hood. It does have ventilations slits in it though, at two spots. I was wondering if I were to afix PC Case Fans to them, and splice the wires onto AC adapters, if this would draw some of the heat away from the light? My space is not large enough to consider an air-cooled hood, and my temperatures are running in the mid 80's, a little too warm. Short of adding another centrifugal fan for an intake, instead of using my passive intake, I don't see that temperature dropping, even by adding a couple small oscillating fans in the closet. I'm assuming that, as MJ grows in various climates and temperatures, my mid-80's should be okay, yes?

Also, upon inspecting the hood, I noticed it says to use 400w MH only. Is it going to hurt anything if I put an HPS in there? I was under the impression that I was using an HPS bulb. However, after looking at pictures, I believe that bulb that's in it is a MH bulb. It's bulbous; not cylindrical like the HPS bulbs that I've seen on google. I'll be purchasing an HPS bulb if putting it in this hood isn't going to mess up the ballast.


-nasty


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## BackWoodsDrifter (Feb 26, 2012)

Um like i be sayin in nother thread be plenty of folks here what I see very very smart folks. ifin I may give yual my little 2 cents dont mix bulb with opposite ballest. MH for MH ballest and HPS for HPS ballest i do think I be herein bout some fancy ballest can do both but ifin yual not sure i wouldnt plug it in my friend. As for yur heat I run my grow cabin at mid 80s all the time without issue as low as 79 and even as high ifin I throws a large log on the fire as high as low 90s but dont do it to long ifin yual can help it. I reckon some other smarter folk be long soon enough to help yual out but I suggest not mixin stuff up until you research some more. Be hatin to here yual got a fire yual didnt want to set to keep warm. Be safe and I hope yur trail you walk leads to the place yual need to go. Be safe pilgrem. Much luck.

BWD


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 26, 2012)

BWD is correct.  You cannot use a HPS bulb in a MH ballast.  There are some ballasts out there are are convertible and there are some that are electronic and you can use either.  However, it appears that you have a 400W MH ballast and you can only use a 400W MH bulb in it.


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## ozzydiodude (Feb 26, 2012)

sounds to me like he might have a conversion bulb


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## WannaBgrower (Feb 26, 2012)

Hey Nasty,  Hemp Goddess and BWD are absolutely correct. Unless the Ballast says it is a switchable ballast you do not want to mix HPS and MH. Also you want to keep your temp between 75-85 I beleive. Good Luck and Happy Growing


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## Roddy (Feb 27, 2012)

My HPS bulbs won't fire if the setting is on MH on the ballast, so I don't think you could use one, regardless!


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## getnasty (Feb 27, 2012)

Thank you guys. Looks like I'm going to need to purchase an actual HPS before I move forward into flowering in a couple months.

@ozzydio - No conversion bulb, I checked. It certainly is MH.


-nasty


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## Hushpuppy (Feb 27, 2012)

You said your space is too small for a hood but could you fit a smaller cooltube that you could vent from one end and pull the growspace air out through the cooltube. This would greatly improve your ability to maintain a ballanced temp. It seems like the smaller the grow space is the more difficult it is to keep it from getting too hot or cool. There are several decent digital HPS setups in cool tubes on EBAY for good prices.


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## Growdude (Feb 27, 2012)

Just get a conversion bulb, much cheaper than a new setup.
Or just use the MH it will work fine.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Feb 27, 2012)

If you use a MH to flower, remember that they put out about 30% less lumens--most 400W MH are around 36,000 lumens, the HPS are 50,000 or so.  

I also would recommend looking at a cool tube or a small air cooled hood.  They do make small air cooled hoods.


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## Classic (Feb 28, 2012)

Roddy said:
			
		

> My HPS bulbs won't fire if the setting is on MH on the ballast, so I don't think you could use one, regardless!


Mine works if the setting is on MH but the lumens are decreased.  Somehow, my switch was accidentally switched to MH.  I didn't notice until I started getting some unexpected stretch in the plants.


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## BackWoodsDrifter (Feb 28, 2012)

I be cookin mine under plain old 400 mh and it be fillin my pouch regular without much fuss. Good luck on what yual decide my friend hope yur trail walkin leads yu to what yu seek.

BWD


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## getnasty (Feb 28, 2012)

The Hemp Goddess said:
			
		

> If you use a MH to flower, remember that they put out about 30% less lumens--most 400W MH are around 36,000 lumens, the HPS are 50,000 or so.
> 
> I also would recommend looking at a cool tube or a small air cooled hood.  They do make small air cooled hoods.


Hi there, lady.  My understanding is, if I use the MH for flowering with less lumens, my end product isn't doing to be nearly as dense as they would be with a 400w hps, correct? It would bother me knowing that I didn't do things to the best of my ability, if this were the case.




			
				Growdude said:
			
		

> Just get a conversion bulb, much cheaper than a new setup.
> Or just use the MH it will work fine.


Do conversion bulbs have a lesser amount of lumens than an actual HPS bulb?



-nasty


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## WannaBgrower (Feb 29, 2012)

Yes to both. Hemp Goddess and Growdude are absolutely correct. Another thing to consider is the light spectrum that you are going to get from a MH as compared to HPS. If your budget will permit you, I would recommend MH for Veg and HPS for Bloom.


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## getnasty (Feb 29, 2012)

That's what I thought. How many less lumens are there in conversion bulbs than regular hps bulbs? Probably enough that growing in my 4x2.5x7.5 space, it would not be enough, I imagine. Gonna have to come up with a way to afford $150 or so real quick. :O


-nasty


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## ozzydiodude (Feb 29, 2012)

heres a site that has the lumens listed with the bulbs hXXp://www.specialty-lights.com/bulb-upgrade3.html

Usually the conversion bulb run 5000 lumens less than the real bulb
A 400 watt HPS 50000Lumens and a MH to HPS conversion bulb 45000lumens


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## getnasty (Feb 29, 2012)

According to what I've read, that would be about 5000 less lumens that I would need, right? I have a 100w HPS light fixture I could probably take apart and use in addition to the 400w if necessary.


-nasty


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## ozzydiodude (Feb 29, 2012)

:aok:sounds liks a plan to me 

Good luck and Green Mojo for your ladies


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