I am a cfl grower, and i purchased a metal halide i was going to use for a sea of green. Thats great. I thought i was getting a 400w and it turns out to be a 1000w. How much power am i going to suck with this, and how far away will i need it from plants?Like i said, i am used to cfl's so this is going to be a big change for me. Any advice is great.

Your stoked! Keep that light at least 2 feet away from your tops. Hold your hand above your tops to feel the heat. You will be able to tell if it is too close. As for power, depends on your light cycle. Google "electricity calculator" you should be able to get a rough idea that way!
Your going to have a fucking jungle compared to those cfl's!

Ye thats is great.

But that is a lot of light and heat to.

Don't what your set up is like but you may need some bigger fans.

can i use a smaller bulb in a 1000w setup? I really only need 400w or so.

Not sure, but I think it would use the same amount of power?

Could I use this and a 200w cfl for a fully functional sea of green? Thats what i really want.

you have to run the wattage of bulb according to your wattage of your ballast if you ballast is 1000w than you can only run 1000w bulbs if its 400 watt ballast than you run 400 watt bulb etc...

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also cfl for vegging and hps for flwoering is best way to save money indoors metal halide are for vegging but you could use it to flower just get a hps bulb

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I'm sorry, I have more questions. What kind of area coverage am I looking at from just the one source(1000w)? I want to reiterate that i am used to growing with cfl's, and do not know the specifics for distance , space, timetravel. Shit like that.
Should i take the glass out of the reflector? I would like to cut down heat as much as possible. I searched and found 3 weeks old until under MH. Is this true generally?
Can somebody also post the link to the sea of green thread with the pictures of the rotations? I can't seem to find it.
Thanks to all those that have posted, I can use all the help i can get with this.

The manufacturer will tell you that it will cover a 8'x8' area. It does but the light intensity isn't strong enough on the edge of the 8'x8' to to produce quality nugs. A good rule when using H.I.D. is to figure 35 watts psf. With this formula, it will cover 5.4'x5.4' You can do a 8'x8' area but you will need to rotate those plants like crazy.

If your not cooling your lights, definately remove the glass. I made this mistake, there was glass everywhere!