# LIGHTING salvage, SHOULD I ?



## rbsremodeling (Nov 12, 2007)

mdshunk said:


> These will be great fixtures for your garage, aka grow room.
> 
> If you pay about 9 cents a kilowatt hour, considering a lamp consumption of 400 watts and a ballast loss of 60 watts, each fixture will cost you a little over 4 cents an hour to operate.
> 
> Be advised that these fixtures need to "warm up" to come to full brightness. No good for a quick trip in and out. If you sometimes do this, install a regular incandescent fixture to provide minimal lighting for quick trips in and out, and use these for when you'll be in there a while.


Yeah but will they have any negative effect on the weed??:blink:


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

rbsremodeling said:


> Yeah but will they have any negative effect on the weed??:blink:


Yeah, the plants will need watered much more often.


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## rbsremodeling (Nov 12, 2007)

mdshunk said:


> Yeah, the plants will need watered much more often.


Ok thanks. Not that I really needed to know but sometimes these bits of info come in handy later in life or if the economy continues like this much longer.:no:


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## Magnettica (Dec 19, 2006)

Speedy Petey said:


> Of course he is better off with the newest technology. Thing is these are free.
> If they will work in his application why not use them.
> 
> 
> May I ask WHY you say his shop will have to be "re-wired" if they go???



Because every building in the northeast needs to be rewired. Everyone knows that! I have to eat you know. :laughing:


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## Magnettica (Dec 19, 2006)

rbsremodeling said:


> Yeah but will they have any negative effect on the weed??:blink:



Only if they become de-energized.


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## mtm (Oct 25, 2007)

They would make decent lights for your workshop, I would personally change the reflector. The only other thing that no one has mentioned is that they can not be "Hot started" The bulbs must cool down before turning them on again.


Oh and High pressure sodium lights are better for flowering plants. (More red and yellow spectrum)


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## genecarp (Mar 16, 2008)

mtm said:


> They would make decent lights for your workshop, I would personally change the reflector. The only other thing that no one has mentioned is that they can not be "Hot started" The bulbs must cool down before turning them on again. Oh and High pressure sodium lights are better for flowering plants. (More red and yellow spectrum)


 
Thanks everyone for the input, i am going to give it a go, MTM, if you "HOT START" them, will it do any damage? G


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## mtm (Oct 25, 2007)

You will usually just see the bulb give off a low blue colored light. The ballast may hum louder than it usually does. You will shorten the ballast life, and it is possible the bulb will blow. Shooting red hot pieces of glass all over the room. I never saw that happen though. It happens a lot though with power outages and mechanical timers. Just flip it back off and wait 15 minutes or so. 

One other thing, ballast life if hit or miss. Keeping them cool and a constant schedule seem to be the best for the life span of them. They give off a fair amount of heat that needs to be dissipated. It seems to me from my wifes job, that the ballasts that run 20hrs a day last longer than the ones that are turned on and off every 8 hours. She has some that are closing in on 20 years


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## mtm (Oct 25, 2007)

Gene, just to be clear. My experience with all of these lights comes from the horticultural end of things. (My wife runs a commercial greenhouse) Those bulbs are the biggest 400watt MH bulbs I have ever seen. I would check the socket to make sure they are a normal Mogul socket and nothing you would have to special order if the bulbs fail. 

If you can see who makes the bulbs, check there web page to make sure they can be hung horizontally and vertically. In case you decide to ditch the reflector and make a smaller one. Some bulbs can only be mounted in certain positions. Dont ask why Im not sure. I think it has something to do with the igniter and starting up. Like I said though Im not really sure.


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## MALCO.New.York (Feb 27, 2008)

genecarp said:


> if you "HOT START" them, will it do any damage? G


No! It just can not physically be done. Throw the switch and NOTHING seems to happen until they are "ready" to be restarted. Then the slow glow until they are "excited" enough to emit sufficient light.


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## genecarp (Mar 16, 2008)

Thanks again everyone, much obliged.


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## MALCO.New.York (Feb 27, 2008)

genecarp said:


> Thanks again everyone, much obliged.



http://www.donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/b.pl/m400u.html











http://www.donsbulbs.com/bulbs/g632/b/e39.gif

"Shopping results for sylvania m59
MS400/C/HOR	*$77.00 *- GoodMart.com
HID Lamp M400/U/ET/18 400W Metal Halide	*$50.09* - WholeSale Industrial ...
64847-SYL, Sylvania BALLAST - MS360/SS/LAMP ...	*$108.01* - Superior Lighting"


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

mtm said:


> Those bulbs are the biggest 400watt MH bulbs I have ever seen.


They look normal, to me. In the horicultural use, they often use "reduced jacket" lamps, which are physically smaller.


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## Speedy Petey (Sep 30, 2003)

I guess he's never seen 1000's. They are freakin' huge. What, about 18"-20" long and about 8" wide?


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## Electric_Light (Nov 25, 2007)

Go with F32T8, 841 or 850 x 4 fixtures running on a QTP4x32T8ISH high output ballast.... or use two regular 4 lamp ballast each driving 2 lamps to achieve higher output without having to buy a special highlight ballast. The light is much more even, starts faster and color rendition is beautiful. 

a 400W MH will not light up evenly unless you install it at a supermarket ceiling height.


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## MALCO.New.York (Feb 27, 2008)

Electric_Light said:


> a 400W MH will not light up evenly unless you install it at a supermarket ceiling height.



Dats wah I done saied!!!! Somewheres in dis tread. Sheeeet!


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## Electric_Light (Nov 25, 2007)

Magnettica said:


> I'm thinking you'd be better off going with something like fluorescent T-5 lamp fixtures. I have agree with watt's [sic] been said about start up time with these fixtures and the cost to have them up and running. And if you do decide to use the fixtures from the supermarket they're mostly wired at 208/240 volts and your work space will need the same. When they go your shop will have to also be rewired. I say trash 'em!


six tube F59T5HOs fixtures are starting to replace 400W high bay metal halide at one-to-one ratio. The 59T5HO runs hotter than F32T8, so they fare quite well in cold area and there's a significant saving in maintenance cost. Since the light is provided by six lamps, if one or two goes out, the area becomes slightly dark. Oh well. They'll be addressed at next re-lamp.

But when a single lamp metal halide goes out, the dark spot created becomes unacceptable, so the lamp has to be replaced as soon as it goes out. 

For home use, F32T8 is the best way to go, as they're cheap and fixtures and lamps are readily available. There are not many types of F59T5HO available to the general public and they're around $8/ea retail.


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## mdshunk (Mar 13, 2005)

Electric_Light said:


> six tube F59T5HOs fixtures are starting to replace 400W high bay metal halide at one-to-one ratio. The 59T5HO runs hotter than F32T8, so they fare quite well in cold area and there's a significant saving in maintenance cost. Since the light is provided by six lamps, if one or two goes out, the area becomes slightly dark. Oh well. They'll be addressed at next re-lamp.
> 
> But when a single lamp metal halide goes out, the dark spot created becomes unacceptable, so the lamp has to be replaced as soon as it goes out.
> 
> For home use, F32T8 is the best way to go, as they're cheap and fixtures and lamps are readily available. There are not many types of F59T5HO available to the general public and they're around $8/ea retail.


GUYS! He got these fixtures for free! I'm pretty sure he doesn't want better one's. Free is good. He's putting them in a workshop. THey'll be fine.


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## Electric_Light (Nov 25, 2007)

mdshunk said:


> GUYS! He got these fixtures for free! I'm pretty sure he doesn't want better one's. Free is good. He's putting them in a workshop. THey'll be fine.


If it doesn't fit the application well, even free is not always the good price when you consider it takes time and effort to put it up.


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