i have a 1000w HPS light, hood and ballast and all. But i only have one plant that needs it right now, the other bastards ended up being gentlemen. but anyway, i dotn want to possibly spike the electric bill or to even use that much power. could i buy a lower watt bulb, 400, or even 150, and plug it up to the 1000w ballast. or will it blow my face off? could be a dumb question, but you never know. thx anyone.

don't do it. you will burn your house down.

and no, i'm not kidding.

kp

The bulb wattage must be matched to the ballast. A smaller bulb will usually be fed a wattage close to what the proper bulb takes, and will generally overheat and may catastrophically fail. In other words bad shit happends.

and your house burns down.

Yeap and the neigborhood kids roast marshmellows over your 1000 watt grow light as it goes up in flames.

and then you get to be on the news.

"a resident was arrested today for growing 25 million pounds of marijuana. this marijuana was being grown with alien technology, and the house circuitry could not sustain the massive power loads, and caused a fire. four officers were wounded in a rescue attempt, the grower allegedly tried to use a laser beam to ward off the policemen.

thanks to our local officers, the streets are a little safer tonite."

good example of how a simple mistake can lead to tragedy all the way around. cops alway exaggerate, and so do news crews...


kp

And even ***IF*** you could use a lower wattage lamp the 1000 watt ballast will still use 1100 watts to fire the lamp.....

oh well, just thought I'd ask. Thx alot guys.

The neighborhood gets stoned at the marshmellow roast

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if your worried about the power bill run it off peak hours, depending on your local utility it could save 30% or you could take clones off your plant and fill out the room, or still yet you could grow a monster, top it a few times so it grows like a huge bush