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#2
01-14-2010, 04:59 AM
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Cool, I'm interested in doing this, also If you can document any difference between the over driven lights and the lights that are not over driven would be great information. During the summer I may be able to find a place to setup a small place for lettuce in the house, where I would be able to better control the air and nutrient temps.
P.S. Also the difference in energy consumption. In order to decide weather it's more reasonable to just double the lights rather than the ballasts. Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-14-2010 at 05:01 AM. 
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#3
01-19-2010, 07:23 AM
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ho'ing
Overdrive the heck out of them. use 8ft ballasts in the place of a 4 ft and you have ho. No secrets here. The best part is your use a f32 bulb and buy them for $1 each in the bulk pack at the big box store. then every 3 months you change them out tell the box is empty of new ones and return the olds one fro a exhnage of new ones. I have never had aissue at the box store returning them and getting another new box. its says there good for 10000 hours or so and i take them back when the lumens fall off a smidge at 3 months or so. this way i get new bulbs at no cost all the time and the guy that gets them next gets tested and run in bulbs. over driving a t32 at $1 cant be beat. t5ho is a waist of money. i would like to get a t12ho ballast and over drive a t32 that would be 96 watts or so i think cant remember. beats the t5ho at 54 or so.
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#5
01-19-2010, 07:33 PM
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overdrive
I have some of both styles. we just built a set up to sit over three 5 gallon buckets. we used a hood that was for a old 4 tube set up and installed 12 tubes in it. then installed to large computer style fans on top of that with all the ballasts. the fans are cut through to vent the top of the grow box that this fixture is the top of. it has temp sensor in fro the fan control and air pumps etc. the bulbs are all over driven the amount of light is amazing and were only about 6 inches off the strawberry pants tops. just panda plastic hangin on the sides to keep the light out of the room its in at night. I'll snap some pictures off. its about as simple a hydro system indoors can be.
One thing i found is that you need to be checking the amps being used by the ballast to know if it is overdriving. i'm not a eletricain just been playing with it for a while. What is the difference betwen my set ups that are running 8ft ballsts to 4ft bulbs or the 4 light ballasts i have running 2 bulbs? We always have called it overdriving either way its done. My current grwo room is running all new t32 ballsts with t32 bulbs. its is 2500 lumes right on the bulbs but its between 1200 and 1500 lumens in the middle between the tubes from the top to the bottom. i have up until the is grow room rebuild used 400 hids and went after the magic 5k lumens to the plants leaf. I can say i'm not really seeing all ath much difference but what it is i think is the hid had to penetrate the plants canopy. but with the tubes vertical the plant absorbs so much more light evenly and from the top and bottom of the leaf it seems to have found some cross over point where it balances it all out. Home depot had these fixtures on sale all last year for $3.59 each so i bought about 200 of them. i have spare parts and ballast for ever i think. the ballst was $18 or the whole fixture was $3.59 and there electronic. i had thought i may need to add a 25o hid on top during fruiting times but now after seeing some growiing i'm all good. also as the plant grows up the lights its right on the bulbs geting the full 2500 lumens jacked right into or through the leaf so this is equal to a t5ho bulb at one ft. the lumens at the bulbs are half at one foot almost always so getting the plant to the bulb really helps.
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