Brick Top
New Member
When I bought my first HID lighting I purchased two 250-watt lights, one MH and one HPS. I ended up adding more because like some people do, I overestimated the capability 250-watts of HID lighting. Over the time I used them I did go with either two MH for veg or one MH and one HPS and rotate my plants. I tried using one, a MH, for side lighting with the two HPS in flower once but the closet I was using was pretty filled by plants and only those in front of it got much light and I didn't think it was worth the checkers playing with pots/plants to keep moving them for what I seemed to be getting, so I never repeated that one. I even added some CFLs a while back for vegging during one grow so when I spoke poorly of them I would at least have some experience to base it on. I guess I have played with lighting a little bit over the years.
I think a mixed spectrum can be a double edged sword. At times it seems good and yields benefits and then there are some negatives if used from start to finish so it is one of those if it works for you or you just believe in it, then do it, sort of things. If it gives a level of comfort and confidence that won't be found not using it, regardless of it being best or not someone might as well use it or else they won't have that warm fuzzy feeling.
I have come to feel that dealing with any indoor lighting regardless of wattage you are severely limited in light rays compared to the sun and since plants do require mostly light-colors in certain ranges at different phases of growth flooding them with the max of what they need the most when they need it the most seems the most logical way to go.
Arguments can easily be made for other beliefs but I think the ‘what they need the most when they need it the most in the largest amount possible’ belief has the least number of questions that can be raised against it. That means all MH for veg and all HPS for flower is how I normally go, though I may at times play with a week extra MH into early flower now and then.
The reason I was curious about your lighting, and how I figured it was a dual system or unequal wattage, is I have been curious about the dual spectrum bulbs for some time now. I have read a good bit about them, but that is not the same as hearing about them from someone who uses them and of course no where near having real experience with them.
When I first saw them for sale they were offered in 400-watt, 600-watt and 1000-watt. Now some may be different but all I have ever seen worked out like this …. The 1000-watt light had one HPS filament that is a 600-watt light and another filament that is MH and is 400-watts. The 600-watt bulbs I have seen have been equal splits, 300-watt of HPS and 300-watts of MH. I do not recall what the 400-watt bulbs were but I haven’t seen them offered for a while.
There have been bulbs in the 400-watt range that had a slightly increased level of MH/blue spectrum for ages but these had a more even split like the 600-watt and 1000-watt bulbs. I do not know if it was not popular so places stopped selling it, or even offering it for order, or if it was a pure flop or what?
If a flop I figure it was because it was under-powered. The way I see it in each wattage you would end up with less light penetration than using a straight MH or HPS bulb. In a 1000-watt light the two filaments would together make a 1000-watt light but one filament would be a 600-watt and another a 400-watt. Regardless of them being combined into one larger outer bulb it would be no different than running separate MH and HPS bulbs in those same wattages side by side, or end to end I guess.
Two 250-watt lights do not put out the light of a single 400-watt, let alone what a 500-watt one would if one exists. Things just do not add up like that. Logically, a dual spectrum bulb would have at most the light penetration of the highest wattage of the two filaments in the single bulb, in the case of the 600-watt equal amounts, but then in a 1000-watt light there would be less light penetration with the other filament, the MH filament.
At least it seems it should be that way ... and I would like to hear from someone who has used dual spectrum bulbs of that type/wattage for a while.
I sort of hoped you used such bulbs and could let me know how things seem to you. I have had people, even some in sales, try to tell me that even split between two filaments of different spectrum ranges, the light penetration remains the same as a single filament bulb.
I don’t buy it …. but I would like to find out.
I run a simple modest 400-watt system. When I first learned of the bulbs and the 400-watt ones were easy to find I almost purchased a couple thinking it might be good. I did not think about the possible loss of light penetration compared to regular bulbs, which might be why the 400-watt one seems to have died out, if split equal that’s two 200-watt lights and if my penetration belief is correct that is not an amount of penetration anyone would want or accept from their 400-watt light, so maybe I got lucky not trying them.
But I would like to run across someone who has given them a good fair test and could say how in their opinion they compare.
If I am right, if I had a 600-watt light I would actually have one 300-watt MH and one 300-watt HPS in one bulb with the light penetration of two 300-watt lights burning next to each other but not like one 600-watt single filament bulb would provide. That isn’t much more than a 250-watt and not as much as a 400-watt so the more I think about it I don’t know if I would want to use such bulbs unless it was in a 1000-watt or multiple 1000-watt light system.
