Industrial Use Metal Halides

Hello, newbie here with a lighting question. I'm in the process of aquiring the knowledge and materials needed to start my first grow (on a tight budget) and while looking at different lighting options for vegging I'm really considering going with a metal halide.

I've been watching craigslist adds for a while too for used lights that occassionally pop up and I've often seen industrial use metal halides taken out of shops, barns, etc for very reasonable prices. For example I could get one right now for $10 thats a 400 watt MH M59. After looking up that designation (seems to be a common one) I've found that it's a 5200K color temp which should work very well for vegetative grow.

From my very basic observations it appears that these industrial lights differ from most grow specific lights in that the hood is basically a curved metal reflector (might decrease effective light area?) and the ballast is attached to the top of the reflector (heat issues in grow area?).

These lights are described as being 277 volt, three prong twist-lock plugs. Can I simply plug one of these into a basic home outlet and have it fire up just fine? Sorry for the newb questions, I have zero experience with HID lighting yet.

Could this possibly be a good selection as a starting veg light? It would certainly be more cost effective and probably quite a bit more powerful then the 4 bulb, 4 ft T-5's I was looking at originally. Thoughts on this?

You will need to ask if the fixtures are 'multi-tap' . then you can add a cord to the fixture to use in a regular home outlet. but you cant use 277 volt unless you are wired that way

Angry Pollock said:

You will need to ask if the fixtures are 'multi-tap' . then you can add a cord to the fixture to use in a regular home outlet. but you cant use 277 volt unless you are wired that way

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Hmm, I knew it couldn't be as just simple as plugging it in

Can you please explain to me what multi-tap means? I guess the next step is to try and figure out a way to modify it.

Multi-tap is a transformer that has selectable input voltages. cn

That is what I use they work great I wired a 12 gauge cord to the 110 wires most will have a set of wires for 110 and 210 only thing that sucks is space make sure you have alot these kind of lights are on a fixed fixture so they are more bulky and alot harder to move other then that I think there great

Check this out..you can probably get everything you need from Radio Shack. I saw a video on youtube showing how to switch the voltage on high bay lights..easy as hell
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=66850

the industrial ones tend to make more noise too.

I am telling you that you dont need all that stuff its very simple all you need is a heavy duty cord and a heavy duty plug $15 not very noise I have 2 and can not hear them in the other room

my light




like I sad most light come ready to wire 110 or 220 just connect the 110 wire



what they can grow

pics w/exif = free nugs

lol I get it now Fixed

You're right weed, you don't need all of that stuff if you want to keep a hot ballast in your tent or cab, it'll work fine

doesn't need to be in your grow area it can be remote

That's what I was pointing out

Smoked a duby decied not to be a dick so I'll edit this warped your post was not needed you pointed nothing other then heat issues however I have none infact I have a mini heater in my room to keep temps at 76

robert 14617 said:

doesn't need to be in your grow area it can be remote

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Nicce that would make it a lot eaiser. But it is still doable on a budget which I think was the ops actual issue he can't afford proper lighting

And no one here ever disputed that weed, I don't see what your problem is. In my case, I don't need the extra heat, and the sheer size of it would be totally out of the question. Maybe you have the room.. good for you, use it. I'll bet you not everyone here has the vertical space to use that light as is. I only pointed out an alternative method of using similar lights.

Most of the commercial industrial style MHs (400, 600 and 1000 watt) around have multi-tap voltage inputs if not on the outside of the ballast, inside the case on the transformer. And are visibly labeled as such, where it doesn't require an electrician to figure out how to make it work. An old grow years back incorporated several of these that can be had for pennies on the dollar with some looking around. We even stripped out the Mogul socket and removed the hood, making them remote ballasts with a cord off the socket extending to it's original connection in the ballast. It's quite easy to do by just tapping into the wire nut connections to replicate the original wiring configuration to the Mogul socket. Screw the now remote ballast case back together and- "Voila!" Now you're crankin' and spankin' with the pros.

Cool! Thanks guys. I just talked to the guy who is selling them and he said that it states on the fixtures that they can be rewired for 120! Guess that means I'm in luck. I'll probably pick up 3 of them, even if I only need one it'd probably be cheaper just for the light bulbs on the other 2!

Cool pictures weedworm. So noise and excessive heat aren't an issue at all for you? Thats good to hear. Can you give me any more info on what kind of cord you'd recommend for re-wiring to the fixture?

Jar Man, that sounds great. I'd really like to try modifying one of these like that. Think you could break it down for me a bit more? I don't want to worry about burning my house down haha.

What did you do for the hood? I have a friend who works as a sheet metal fabricator and he could probably make a new hood for me if I came up with some plans.

No I have no problem with heat but thats me my grow room is in a chilly basement so the light actually helps out alot heat wise. noise is pretty quiet you can hear a hum in the room but when you come out you don't hear anything

You want a 12 gauge extension cord dont matter what kind as long as its 12 gauge take that cut the female end off wire it to your light only problem with this is that 12 gauge extension cords are pretty expensive find one on sale prob between $20 +

another route which is cheaper

Buy house wire you can go to most home improvement stores and buy it by the foot 12 gauge wire runs $16.99 at homedepot for 25 feet you probably only nee like 5 foot so maybe $5
and a heavy duty plug is $3.99 so under 10 bux per light

Ok, I went to the store and after having some problems finding seperate heavy duty plugs for the 12 gauge electrical wire and not wanting to pay more for actual extension cords I found something that might work. I picked up some 14 gauge electrical cords made to be used as replacement power cords on small power tools that I think should work fine.

On the lights its listed as:
Input wattage: 455
Input voltage: 120
Max Amperage: 4

Those 14 guage power cords are listed as being able to handle 1875 watts, 125 volts and 15 amps. Although not quite as heavy duty as the 12 guage those should work perfectly fine, right?