Hey guys, hows everyone doinnn. Alright so first of all let me say I still do not have the exact cabinet I am going to build which means I still do not have my size. I've been looking at lights, and figure since its going to be a cabinet it probably will not be bigger then 3' by 3'. Which at first I was thinking of going with a UFO. Sort of realized the yields are not as good and there are more people made about them then there are happy so I guess I will go HPS. I'm not going to bother with MH also as I here HPS all the way through is what works and does give you higher yield. So now my decisions with HPS, a 400 watt HPS is going to be way strong for my small space, I figure venting is going to be a bitch.

This is what it looks like its going to come down to. These digital greenhouse ballast from HTG or HTGs own HPS.

Digital Greenhouse
http://htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=45667

The digital ballast say 'new tech' and 'less heat'. Is this true, would it be worth getting the 400 watt in my small area or is that just going to be too hot?

If these 400 watt HPS are too big then what wattage would you suggest. HTG seems to have 250 or 150 watts. Keep in mind if I can work with the 400 I would like to as I may go bigger in the future.
Thanks for the info and input

A 400 wat would be perfect for a 3x3. But as you know its gonna need some kind of inline because they get hot. I have been hearing nothing good about digital. I would get a switchable and get the mh bulb to. The mh is ideal for veg but you can also use the hps for both veg and flkower. Mh is better.

Yo, I tried growing with LED's and I got great quality but real low quality. I figured that the technology was almost there and I started looking around and found some much brighter LED's. I tried the new light out in a space that was about 3 x 3 and pulled 13.5 zones out of it. I was doing it real simple to, 2.5 gallon soil. So you can pull weight. I think that there are just a lot of shitty lights out there giving it a bad name.

But if you are going hps, absolutely do not go any lower than a 400w. you are going to have to insulate the reflector and exhaust it well because it will heat that small space up real quick, but you are not going to get shit for weight off anything less than 400w.

Thanks for the replies guys. You quoted do not go below a 400w hps, why is that?

So it turns out my cabinet is really a lot smaller then I thought it would be as its my first time. Theres a post on the grow room/setup forum. Its 30'' across and 12'' deep, prob only about 10'' when not including the walls. So that gives me 2.5 square feet? haha... sounds really small...

Would the 150 HPS be good for that, right now that is what I am thinking, the one from HTG most likely or the sun systems one, but with the ballast outside the box it makes me think HTG would be better.