Ceramic HPS

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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
I just heard about this in the Advanced Section.

http://www.eyehortilux.com/products/CHPS600-PerformanceSpecs.aspx

It's a 600W lamp that produce 34000 lumens and has a nice looking spectrum...

I digitized their SPD chart and calculated LER to be about 221lm/W. This would give it a radiant efficiency of ~25.7%. There's clearly a lot of power distributed after 750nm that's not included on their chart, but I don't think that would have much affect on the LER calculation. It does make it a bit harder to calculate how much of that falls in the PAR region, but with the data given, I calculated 84% of the power is within 400-700 making these lamps at best 21.6% efficient in the PAR range. This would be even lower if the chart included wavelengths upto 900nm.

Am I making a mistake here, or does it seem to make more sense to stick with a good old fashion HPS lamp?

@alesh you have a lot more experience with this. What do you get for LER?

ceramic HPS spreadsheet.jpg
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
it's a poor attempt at cmh. it's not a digital bulb. it doesn't use a square wave ballast. It only runs on a magnetic ballast. For a magnetic ballast the allstart 330 is a better option and it puts out more ppfd and a higher cri.
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Evil-Mobo said:
No match for a proper T5 :P
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As bad as T5 might be, T5 looks to have better PAR efficiency than Ceramic HPS if you only include 400-700nm, although the Ceramic HPS might have a better spectrum with all the red and far red, and UV. They both look like pretty bad options, although I've never seen a grow with Ceramic HPS yet.
 
Evil-Mobo

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
churchhaze said:
As bad as T5 might be, T5 looks to have better PAR efficiency than Ceramic HPS, although the Ceramic HPS might have a better spectrum with all the red and far red. They both look like pretty bad options, although I've never seen a grow with Ceramic HPS yet.
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I'm waiting on medgrower1 from YT. He is suppose to swap in a growers choice CMH/HPS into one of his fixtures to test it out. I am curious to see the results. While a lot of people bash him I like him because to me he represents the average Home/Personal grower and regardless of his lights he produces, which shows you need to have a growing foundation under your belt, not just the fanciest newest shit out for gear.

Now to stir the shit a little more, I would venture to say when one customizes the T5 a little with picking out specific bulbs, one could create a spectrum that is good for the plants. This is exactly what I myself was/am after. I am full aware T5 is old Tech, but these bulbs are fairly new. Not all gardens are the same, so I have the time and the means to test what interest me.

I will add that as of right now, the Sunsystems 315w LEC CMH is the light I have been the most pleased with, and in my room the tent it's in only runs 3-4 degrees warmer than my 2x4 with the Tasty LED in it.

It's just great to have options, but sometimes folks get too heated and then nobody learns a damn thing. And that should be what we are all here for to share info in a civil manner so we can all help each other be better growers.

Just my $0.02
Cheers
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Nanolux DE 1000W throws out 136,000 lumens.
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This is why my guess is that a DE would wipe the floor with ceramic HPS. My calculation for a Philips Master GreenPower DE shows a radiant efficiency of 38.1%. That's many leagues ahead of the Ceramic HPS at 25.7%.
 
cdgmoney250

cdgmoney250

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
it's a poor attempt at cmh. it's not a digital bulb. it doesn't use a square wave ballast. It only runs on a magnetic ballast. For a magnetic ballast the allstart 330 is a better option and it puts out more ppfd and a higher cri.
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From Hortilux website...

  • *Ceramic HPS should only be operated on EYE HORTILUX Gold Series eBallast.
  • **Do not use on Magnetic Core & Coil ballasts.
  • ***During start up, Ceramic HPS take 20 minutes to produce white light and get to full power

http://eyehortilux.com/products/ceramic-hps.aspx
 
cdgmoney250

cdgmoney250

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
their e ballast is a magnetic ballast. it's all marketing
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There is quite a difference between electronically controlled ballasts and old school coil ballasts, marketing or not.

Their bulbs are especially finicky with other brand ballasts. No clue about the ceramic, but I would imagine it behaves much like the 600 BLUE which is choosy about which ballasts it likes, IME.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
cdgmoney250 said:
There is quite a difference between electronically controlled ballasts and old school coil ballasts, marketing or not.

Their bulbs are especially finicky with other brand ballasts. No clue about the ceramic, but I would imagine it behaves much like the 600 BLUE which is choosy about which ballasts it likes, IME.
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I know a couple people who have tested it. They said it only runs on Magnetic. One of which is the owner of endomaxx. Yeah it's finicky. I just assumed the ad was b.s. considering they only work in magnetic ballasts.

They even lie about their t5's. too.. They claim they're made in the U.S. when I emailed them asking what about the epa ban on manufacturing flourescents in the U.S. and they had no answer to that. Still said their t5's are made in the U.S.
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
it's a poor attempt at cmh. it's not a digital bulb. it doesn't use a square wave ballast. It only runs on a magnetic ballast. For a magnetic ballast the allstart 330 is a better option and it puts out more ppfd and a higher cri.
Click to expand...
@hyroot inserts foot in mouth :P

  • *Ceramic HPS should only be operated on EYE HORTILUX Gold Series eBallast.
  • **Do not use on Magnetic Core & Coil ballasts.
  • ***During start up, Ceramic HPS take 20 minutes to produce white light and get to full power
- See more at: http://www.eyehortilux.com/products/ceramic-hps.aspx#sthash.GZRkxgOU.dpuf
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
@hyroot inserts foot in mouth :P

  • *Ceramic HPS should only be operated on EYE HORTILUX Gold Series eBallast.
  • **Do not use on Magnetic Core & Coil ballasts.
  • ***During start up, Ceramic HPS take 20 minutes to produce white light and get to full power
- See more at: http://www.eyehortilux.com/products/ceramic-hps.aspx#sthash.GZRkxgOU.dpuf
Click to expand...
hit one didn't the read the rest of.the thread

do you have the 600 cmh bulb that has only been released people who are in the lighting industry. It is released to everyone else next month
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
must be something special to the color temp because its 1/3 the intensity of my 600w lamps.i would test one if it will work on a standard digital ballast
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
sixstring2112 said:
must be something special to the color temp because its 1/3 the intensity of my 600w lamps.i would test one if it will work on a standard digital ballast
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The ceramic HPS has a much lower LER than HPS, so you can't tell from lumens alone. Even with the lower LER, a 600W HPS lamp is still more powerful, just not 3 times.
 
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