The mercury vapor lamps produce only 60 lumens-per-watt and does not fulfill the requirement light spectrum thus making it a pour light source for horticulture. Not only it is an expensive to operate, but it produces most color in areas that are not helpful to plant growth.
no
I bought 2 - 400 W
metal halide for 30 bucks apiece at a flea market that came out of a factory. All I had to buy is new
bulbs. They are out their. You can go into almost any large building or factory and look up and you will see MH
lights. When those factories go out of business somebody buys and resells those lights for almost nothing. Resell shops may be a good place to look for cheep lighting.