MH vs cfl's to flower?

I have been undergoing my 1st grow and it has been as cool as id imagine. Because of growing in the states and in a very conservative one for that, i decided to keep my grow as low key as possible and i have my walk inn closet as my grow room. I have been growing with cfl's with a lot of success but this past friday i got what was supposed to be a 400w hps light witch ended up to be a 400w mh. And now approaching flowering im left with the question of what would be more effective as for the buds and for my electric bill and most important of all my safety (as in not gettin busted). I just switches my timer to 12/12 and my cfl's to 2700k to induce flowering but my question is, would it be better to flower with the MH even tho it wont be the right spectrum? Can i just put an HPS bulb inn it? (stupid question but im sure it has a couple answers). And how much aproximatly will it cost me to run that 400w light? power jumps are the main reason people get busted around here expect for rats witch is not much of a concern to me cuz absolutely noone knows

you can put a hps bulb in a mh light or vice versa it will the bulb just wont last as long.

i am not sure about putting a hps in a mh ballast. i am sure that you can do an mh in a hps ballast though.

i would take the mh over the cfls. but why not use both?? the more the better. the 2700 k cfls will help with the spectrum and add light. that is what i do with my hps.

as far as an electricity jump, dont worry about it. you will not get caught with a 400 watt light. to be honest, my energy bill is lower with my 400 hps and 150 watts of cfls running than it was before i put them up. so obviously household items such as heaters, ac's, ect use more power than a 400. but some people see a hike of no more than 20 dollars.

good luck.

thanks for the quick response guya.
yea maybe im worrying about the light bill a bit to much but like im juss tryina be safe like i said. Of course i thought of that, i knew the MH plus the cfls would be the best and ill prolly just end up doin that but ill probably get a special hps bulb that cam be powered by an MH ballast. i have read somewhere that you could use eather one on each but that the bulbs wont last as long like u said blazed but i dont think im gonna go stickin juss regular hps bulbs inn it. if im gonna buy a new bulb ill buy the convertion. bu thanks for the answeres, suscribe to my grow gernal

Hey Frank. like jact55 said, you can use a MH lamp in a HPS ballast, but not the other way around because HPS need an ignitor to fire. You can wire one into the circuit yourself in just a few minutes. Here's one for $14 on ebay.

You could install a switch just as easily. That way you can change between MH and HPS quickly.

I think the conversion lamps just have a built-in ignitor like this.

yea thats another option, thanks faux. But im gonna have to buy an hps bulb ether way so why not juss buy the convertion one? i can get it localy for $80...

Does anybody alse got anythang to say about electric bills and HID lights? lol
juss wondering...

cfl's do work good if you have enough of them and thats all you can afford.. i have seen some nice buds from a cfl grow.. good smoke to boot also..

Hey man, the same thing happened to me! I went to buy what I thought was a 400w hps from craigslist, but it ended up being a MH. I told the guy it wasn't the right thing and offered him $30 to take it anyway--to which he agreed! So I got a MH ballast, bulb and reflector for $30!

I went ahead and got a 360w hps conversion bulb to operate in my 400w MH ballast. Though looking back upon it I kinda wish I had tried out a "warm" or "gold" metal halide...they're supposed to broadcast in the 3000k range, which is supposedly good for vegetative and flower growth (3000k seems pretty close to 2700k, so I'm a little skeptical about it's vegetative merits...but I could be wrong). But I'm happy with my hps conversion bulb, it works fine.

You'll be fine on your electric bill with the 400w.

Edit: But I would highly recommend cfl's for vegging if you are concerned about an increase in your bill.

FrankRuzzo said:

yea thats another option, thanks faux. But im gonna have to buy an hps bulb ether way so why not juss buy the convertion one? i can get it localy for $80...

Does anybody alse got anythang to say about electric bills and HID lights? lol
juss wondering...

Click to expand...

Use your fuckin brain man. You can buy a conversion lamp for $80 or you can buy an ignitor and 6 standard HPS lamps for the same price.

You'll be fine on your electric bill with the 400w.

Edit: But I would highly recommend cfl's for vegging if you are concerned about an increase in your bill.[/QUOTE]




second this, i use cfls for vegging cause i dont want my hps to run 24/7. heat is an issue for me and the possibility of a slightly elevated bill. although heat is the real reason i dont

thanks for all ur response's again guys. And faux i am using my brain thats why we have this debate here. But jerry it seems like we think alike!! i juss did the same thing and baught the 360w convertion bulb, i was offered the warm MH bulb but from what ive read its still not the same as flowering with an HPS. And i am gonna keep vegin with CFL's cuz to tell u the truth they treated me great i juss want the power of flowerin with an HID.

Now how many plants could i grow under that 400w hps? or 360w for that...
i have 5 planst total, two 1 and 1/2 ft plants in soil and 2 smaller plants and a clone in an AG, will my HID be enough flower them all? ill prolly add a couple 2700k cfls to them anyways for side lightining. but if i can ill grow more!! lol

p.s: Got some Afghani x kush and some Church seeds on the way as of yesterday and that will be my next grow witch ill start under cfl's as soon as the seeds arrive.