630 cmh?

Any buddy out there running these? Are they really worth the cost. I have almost 6 feet of of head room, and I keep my plants low and bushy. With the limited room would my foot print be to small? Also I would I fry my girls?

I own 6 now. I've ran hps/mh, led, cfls, but $ per quality just doesn't compare to CMH. I run the Dimlux pros with dimmable ballasts and the Phillips bulbs. The PAR light readings of hps at the top of the canopy is the same PAR readings at the bottom of the canopy with CMH, so the myth of their lack of penetration is just plain wrong.

Where you normally get small popcorn underneath, they actually turn into dense nugs under CMH. They are great for veg and bloom making it nice not having to switch fixtures or bulbs. They dissipate approximately half the heat as HPS, use around half the electricity, and the bulbs last around 4 times longer. In my experience. Until LEDs become slightly more efficient and cheaper I wouldn't recommend any other light. I have noticed in side by sides much better terpene production and color changing especially much earlier into flower. Lots of pinks and purples come out under these bulbs without cranking down the temps. Hopes this helps.
Btw you can run them 60" above the canopy all the way down to 36" above. Lower than that without dimming the ballast will give you some light burn until the plants harden off.

I'm personally waiting on the Low Freq Square wave ballast before I hop on the 630s, but I love my 315s. I plan on running the red boosted 630 from GC

Thanks for the replies guys,
Growers choice is offering a DE 630 that fits into a normal DE hood and runs off of a 1000w digital ballast that needs to be turned down. Any buddy out there grow with these yet? Price isn't really a concern. I have right now a little over 3 feet of light room, For the most part my girls are done stretching. Could I run these with proper ventilation? Or is the light just to intense?

Yes, but at the risk of bulb degradation. 10% light output can be 10% less yield. The 1kW Ballast runs a High Frequency Sine Wave and the CMH is supposed to be on a Low Frequency Square Wave. Risk it if you want, but a proper ballast for the lamp will be out soon.

HockeyBeard said:

Yes, but at the risk of bulb degradation. 10% light output can be 10% less yield. The 1kW Ballast runs a High Frequency Sine Wave and the CMH is supposed to be on a Low Frequency Square Wave. Risk it if you want, but a proper ballast for the lamp will be out soon.

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I run 4 of the Sun System 630 LEC's and they are awesome. They penetrate deep into the lower canopy, producing less popcorn. The Sun Systems also have low frequency square wave technology.

I'm running mine at less than 3 feet personally. Once they harden off to the light you won't have any problems. I had slight light burn for 3-5 days after switching them from T5s. If they've been under anything more intense than T5 already then they will be fine.

xmatox said:

I run 4 of the Sun System 630 LEC's and they are awesome. They penetrate deep into the lower canopy, producing less popcorn. The Sun Systems also have low frequency square wave technology.

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I'm not sure how I feel about the two bulb lamp. It's already shown that the 315 can penetrate just fine... The two bulb 630s that are out are all self-ballasted, so you can't use them in a DE setup.

I'm really interested in growers choice de 630. I haven't seed any reports on them yet...

HockeyBeard said:

I'm not sure how I feel about the two bulb lamp. It's already shown that the 315 can penetrate just fine... The two bulb 630s that are out are all self-ballasted, so you can't use them in a DE setup.

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True, but I haven't seen any issues with the two bulbs. I'm curious as to how much better the DE will be compared to the two bulb, if any.

No, I don't foresee any issues, per se, but with two bulbs like that, it'd probably be more beneficial to just use two hoods. I think the real issue is the cost of those two bulb hoods. You can get a 315 complete setup for around 370... How much was the two bulb, out the door? I think the DE will be better in spectrum, because the GC bulb has enhanced red and added UV. After that, I'm not sure. I've yet to see any ppfd numbers for either setups.

HockeyBeard said:

No, I don't foresee any issues, per se, but with two bulbs like that, it'd probably be more beneficial to just use two hoods. I think the real issue is the cost of those two bulb hoods. You can get a 315 complete setup for around 370... How much was the two bulb, out the door? I think the DE will be better in spectrum, because the GC bulb has enhanced red and added UV. After that, I'm not sure. I've yet to see any ppfd numbers for either setups.

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I don't know how you would effectively light up a 4'x4' space with two separate 315w fixtures.
I'm farting around with two sunlight 630's and they each light up a 4x4 beautifully( 2 of them over a 4x8 tray)