I am growing for my second time, my first time I used flourescents the whole way through. I got a moderate yield but was impatient and harvest too early 3 weeks flower. Well this time I am letting them get to about 1 ft under 2 4 ft flourescents 2 cool white bulbs and 2 plant bulbs. I was wondering I know this is not the proper way but budget is tight and I am a bit handy. Can I wire a HPS 150 watt security light to a grounded cord and plug it into a wall socket or would I need a seperate ballast. If anyone has done this or knows about it I would appreciate the info.
the 150w security light i bought at homedepot came with a ballast built inside. i took the light setup apart and rewired it to make the ballast remote. and, for a 150w hps light to work the electricty has to run through a 150w ballast before it gets to the bulb. if that is what you were asking.
Thanks ya thats basically what I needed to know I also am looking into a Home Depot light. Did it work well for you the only thing I am worried about is like burning out a fuse or something.
Some of those lights have a photo cell that turns the light on when it's dark and off when it's light; cover this up with a piece of duct tape, wire in a plug if neccasary, plug it into a timer into a wall socket
I did exactly the same thing you are about to do Hella. I purchased the 75 watt security light from Home Depot, and wired it to an extension cord. Yes,it's doable, and its better than flowering with flo's, but I broke down and bought a 250 watt HPS for my last grow, and was very pleased with the results. Try and have a little more patience this time around with the flowering. You'll be glad you did! Good growing!
i use my 150w hps with a scrog in a box i made. it works pretty well for my attempts. a friend of mine got an ounce from one plant on his first try with a 150w. i use 120mm computer case fans for ventilation with my 150w. http://www.case-mod.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=25_59&products_id=382 i was looking at these for an upgrade. only 12 bucks!
Unless you are growing in a small metal or plastic case, you need a better fan than one made for a computer. A computer case is much smaller than a growspace, and pc's don't generate nearly as much heat as an HID light. And for effective ventilation in a growspace, you need intake and exhaust.
I am growing in about a 3X5 closet but heighth wise it only goes to about 5.5 feet it also is in an upstairs bedroom so the pitch of the roof figure in so the space is actuall smaller than a 3X5 rectangular closet. I was wondering would I be better off blocking of the part where it pitches towards the ground to make the closet more rectangular. So as not to lose much light. For a fan I am thinking of running a box fan or a small high powered fan in the closet.Would a box fan be sufficient for heat reduction or too noisy? Nobody really goes in this house and definitely not upstairs.
QUOTE Quote: from transistionranger on 4:51 am on Feb. 10, 2005 Unless you are growing in a small metal or plastic case, you need a better fan than one made for a computer. A computer case is much smaller than a growspace, and pc's don't generate nearly as much heat as an HID light. And for effective ventilation in a growspace, you need intake and exhaust. i grow in a wood box, using 120mm case fans. 1 is for exit air, and the other one is for circulating air. i've done 3 grows, and IMO its worked fine. Those fans in that link are 12 bucks apiece, and rated for 90 cfm at full power. 3 fans side by side would then pushing 270 cfm out the box. And for 12 bucks a pop i'm willing to expirment and find a flow that works rather than dropping 100+ on an inline or squirrel cage. if i ran a bigger box with say a 400, yea i would upgrade to a 'real' fan. as it is, my 20"x22" and 30" tall(wood?) box is ventilated with the biggest computer fan i found, a 120mm case fan. and it works. i could use 2 fans and it would work even better. (Edited by smotpoker at 7:30 am on Feb. 10, 2005)
