Can I run a HPS and MH off the same ballast?

Hey guys, need some help on a growbox I'm designing. Ideally I would like to have a chamber for vegging and a chamber for budding. Am I going to have to get two ballasts, one for a high pressure sodium lamp and another ballast for the metal halide lamp to make this thing work?

Tha Professa said:

Hey guys, need some help on a growbox I'm designing. Ideally I would like to have a chamber for vegging and a chamber for budding. Am I going to have to get two ballasts, one for a high pressure sodium lamp and another ballast for the metal halide lamp to make this thing work?

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you can do it if you have a switchable ballast,but if you have a mh ballast you cant put the hps on it bc,the mh ballast lacks the compaciter that ignites the hps and makes it burn

I bought one of these: http://www.htgsupply.com/growlights.asp?categoryID=1&subcategoryID=101&typeID=58
It's a 600w ballast they have mh/hps ballasts from 400w up to 1000w. 48" T8 or T5 fluorescents work great for veg also.

Tha Professa said:

Hey guys, need some help on a growbox I'm designing. Ideally I would like to have a chamber for vegging and a chamber for budding. Am I going to have to get two ballasts, one for a high pressure sodium lamp and another ballast for the metal halide lamp to make this thing work?

Click to expand...

I think the other guys didn't quite understand your question.
the answer is yes. if you'd like to run two bulbs, simultaneously, you'll need two ballasts...unless there is some ballast out there I'm not aware of that will run two bulbs at once...but, since you can't flower until after you have vegged, you can wait awhile before buying your second one. that will give you time to save up for your flowering ballast/bulb...right?

the answer is no you can not run them both. what the digital ballast can do however is run either mh or hps
so you can start out with mh and whn your ready to flower change bulbs and go hps without changing hardware.
my advise would be to run Fluorescent Fixtures for the veging mothers and clones.. it saves you money!
when you are going to move to the flowring room run a mh for the first month in 18/6 then pull the mh and stick in the hps for the 12 and 12

you can run an MH off of a hps ballest, but not the other way around. The reason for this is a HPS requires an ignitor/capacitor to light up, other than that one capacitor all the internal workings are the same as a MH ballest. Pop a mh in there and it ignores the ignitor capacitor.

but if you put a HPS in a MH ballest, without that ignitor it wont light up.

You can run two bulbs off of one ballest if you get one of those fancy dancy ballast switches you see advertised in catalogues, it splits your ballasts and switches back and fourth so fast neither light loses ignition. But these are expensive, for 6 bulbs on 3 ballasts is in the neighborhood of $5-700 they even have 48 lights off of 24 ballasts. Which at that point would be pretty cost effective vs energy consumption.

onenumcat said:

I think the other guys didn't quite understand your question.
the answer is yes. if you'd like to run two bulbs, simultaneously, you'll need two ballasts...unless there is some ballast out there I'm not aware of that will run two bulbs at once...but, since you can't flower until after you have vegged, you can wait awhile before buying your second one. that will give you time to save up for your flowering ballast/bulb...right?

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so if i am reading this correct i can run a mh bulb of my hps ballast ??? if so woo hoo

coll said:

You can run two bulbs off of one ballest if you get one of those fancy dancy ballast switches you see advertised in catalogues, it splits your ballasts and switches back and fourth so fast neither light loses ignition. But these are expensive, for 6 bulbs on 3 ballasts is in the neighborhood of $5-700 they even have 48 lights off of 24 ballasts. Which at that point would be pretty cost effective vs energy consumption.

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ya but he cant use it for his application he wants to veg and flower at the same time .
so he needs 2 systems

http://www.laststoplighting.com/902488.html

Just a example... GOOGLE is your friend

can some one say yes or no to my question abput running a mh bulb off a hps ballast

Yes you can.

scottish lad said:

so if i am reading this correct i can run a mh bulb of my hps ballast ??? if so woo hoo

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only if it is a digital digital's can run both but you need to tell us what ballast so we can be sure

its one out an industrial light so i dont think it will be a digital.

thought i was going to save my selfmoney there rather than having to go get a mh ballast lol o such luck

scottish lad said:

its one out an industrial light so i dont think it will be a digital.

thought i was going to save my selfmoney there rather than having to go get a mh ballast lol o such luck

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sadly no if the balast was a lumitek i would say yes alltho one of them wont work due to bulb wattage issues
that is why i use lumitek

i will check the make latter the nite once ma light turns on that way i know for sure .