150 HPS question

So I picked up and old light off a friend, its a 150 watt HPS and the ballast looks rather old it doesnt have a case or anythign just sits there in the open. I dont have any spare bulbs and the hardware store in town sells 150 watt hps bulbs that looks similar but not exactly the same shape they look like they fit my fixture but on the box it says use only with ANSI ballast. I dont really wanna go spend the money buying the bulb and not have it work does any one know if all 150 bulbs will work in any set up

If it says its a 150w HPS, then you only want to be using a 150w HPS bulb in it. There are 'retro HPS-to-MH' bulbs which are MH that run off HPS ballasts but they cost a bit more and a 150w one will be hard to find (they're usually 400w+). I'd say find a 150w HPS bulb and you're good. Does it have a bulb holder/lamp shade? Or just ballast

jrk152 said:

If it says its a 150w HPS, then you only want to be using a 150w HPS bulb in it. There are 'retro HPS-to-MH' bulbs which are MH that run off HPS ballasts but they cost a bit more and a 150w one will be hard to find (they're usually 400w+). I'd say find a 150w HPS bulb and you're good. Does it have a bulb holder/lamp shade? Or just ballast

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The bulb that I have is kinda shapped like one of thoses small xmas lights that u would hang on your house only bigger and the one at the store kinda has a big bulge in the middle then rounds off to a nipple. I have the holder and it came with a lamp shade but the shade was made for horizontal bulbs but the way my set up is my bulb hangs vertically so I had to modify my own shade everything works fine as it im just looking for a spare bulb.

If it'll fit into the fixture, you should be ok if they're both 150's . The reason the bulb is diff is because its a street light and they one your buddy gave you was made for growing..pretty much the same thing though.