Found a very interesting page on re-wiring normal fixtures to run t-5s. This guy might be nuts. Or a genius. :D
http://www.geocities.com/teeley2/overdrv1.html
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Found a very interesting page on re-wiring normal fixtures to run t-5s. This guy might be nuts. Or a genius. :D
http://www.geocities.com/teeley2/overdrv1.html
Genius, definately genius. That makes me want to put 2 tube ballasts into my single tube 20W fluorescent grow lights.
yeah well u need a 4 lamp ballast.
Nice find Scott! I'm gonna give this a try this week and I'll post up with pics and my results.
Yeah, I've got some 2 4 bulb electronic ballasts for a big 4 lamp fixture from where I work. Got the fixture for free and the ballasts cost me $50 with shipping. That with some 26w cfls on the sides will be pretty good for veg. I'll still use the HPS for flowering. I'm thinking aout trying out LEDs for flowering but I'm waiting to hear more other peoples experiences first before I make that kind of investment. CFLs have always worked for me in the past so I'm confident these will work well. I don't have heat probs in my sealed and A/C'd room usually (recently had a timer failure that went un-noticed):( those snow whites are bullet proof. Only six out of ten sprouted but all six appear to be female :stoned:
Bah! My spare ballasts are for the 8-ft units in my shop. I wonder if they'll work... What happens if I drive a 4-footer with 'em?
As far as LED's, I haven't seen any results that convince me they are worth a shit for growing - yet. A couple of people have interesting projects, but noone seems to be able to cop a decent harvest/yeild using LED's alone
I'm curious about running 4' bulbs with 8' ballasts as well. Maybe next project.
Word of warning. I bought my ballasts from United Industries. They appear to be used, beat up and have a generous 1" of wire to work with. Not exactly what I thought I had purchased. I'll let you know if they work or not. Sylvania/Osram QTP4X32T8/UNV ISN-SC.
Well, the ballasts don't work. Atleast the company seems to have forgotten to charge me for them. I suppose I can't bitch too much about it.
Nope, these ballasts are paper weights. Tried every combination 1x 2x 4x and nothing, not even a flicker. Off to Ace Hardware ;)
I'm gonna head to my shop and play with the 8-footers today or tomorrow, I'll keep ya posted with results
Well, I ended up ordering four Sunpark s15 ballasts. They should be here next weekend. In the meantime I've got a huge flourescent light fixture scattered throughout out my livingroom. Projects always end up that way at my house.lol Now trying to decide if I'm gonna run one 4lamp fixture at 4x or 2-4lampfixtures at 2x.
Holy crap! I can't believe how bright these bulbs are. 4' 4 lamp fixture at 4x output. When I first turned it on I wasn't impressed, brighter than normal but not blinding. After a few minutes the bulbs warmed up and it was blinding. I don't know the actual lumens but it's pretty good. The bulbs I'm using are cheap used Ace Hardware 40w 6500k that were in the fixture when I got it. After I burn them up I'll get some GE 6400k. I can't wait to see how bright it is with new bulbs.
I highly recomend these for veg. I have the light about 8" away because I don't mind a little stretch in early veg. I think it's easier to take clones that way.
So you are running , basically one bulb per ballast? What was the cost on the ballasts?
When I shortened my 8' fixture and put some 4-footers in it, they wouldn't ignite - it acted like the bulb was blown, you know the strobing type effect. a ripple of light kind randomly jumps around? When I plugged the bulbs back in a 4-footer they worked fine, so I need to do some research and see if I can use em
I think with shipping it was around $50 all together direct from Sunpark. One of these old bulbs is starting to strobe a little bit. Gonna have to get new one's sooner than expected. Gonna top again this week for more clones. They really shot up under the new light compared to 3 160w mecury vapors and a few 26w cfls for 6 snowwhites and a crazy looking sativa that keeps tangling its branches up. Oddly the sativa isn't any taller than the snw's I'm sure that will change though. Less juice and heat, more light, can't beat it! I'm still gonna use my hps for flower. Need to get 2 more 400 watters after the skunk is cured.
That law has been around for a while, and always wins.
If getting more power worked it would be in factorys all over the world.
Ohms and a few other laws just are what they are, not something a lawer and even work around.
If you drive the bulb more , it puts out more in direct relation to its life.
Damn Ohms law, may be in 20 more years the sodium bulb micro wave bulb, and led will output the 30+ year old Mh and hps bulbs.
Think of this one if cpf worked industry would use them.
If leds worked NASA would use them
Keep hoping for a free piece of tail , once again there is nothing for free.
Hang on O Lord I'm comming
Keep trying even a few thousand Phd in electric would like for it to happen.
OHM's Law 1 Human's 0 O God I feel the power , but she slapped me. zap
Piece on earth , but never in the sand.:(
:) so true Sanclem.. nothing is free..and I SO want to see some results with LED's, but thats the number one rule of LED grows, as you well know.... never post results of a complete grow!
I don't think we were concerned with bulb life, which is what the main end user of flourotubes is looking for - unless, apparently it is only a matter of hours... :)
Lets say a tube lasts 10000 hours - If I could double the light output, even by quartering the lifetime, it would be a win-win since tubes are so cheap (compared to HID bulbs)
Don't get me wrong, I don't think flos will ever take the place of my dual spectrum in the flowering room (unless there are some major breakthroughs).. Just trying to find alternate veg room solutions and cheap alternatives.
Damn Ohms , watts is watts win win but at the possible of fire, flames and the cops. Yea it will work , and heat and voltages amps are changed. If it was worth it lighting companys would due it in a heart beat. OHMS 2 Human -1:thumbsup:
safety first , fire department 2 td, police 3 td is it realy worth it.
Again, you assume we are looking for bulb life - thats the least concern IMHO Bulb manufacturers and lighting companies strive to make stuff last longer , not neccessarily the brightest thay can. As long as the proper gauge of wire is used for the load involved and the setup is done right, the bulb itself is the "fuse" if you will... safety is a non-issue at that point, they can be just as safe as a UL listed piece.
Since we are relatively certain bulb failure will not result in bulb shattering, even being overdriven, then fire can be ruled out. The ballasts aren't doing any more work than they normally would, the output is the same, resistance/load is just 1/2ed. A fan on the ballasts shouldn't even be neccessary, but is something I will install once I get it setup.
So what if I burn out a 1.00 floro tube once a month even??.. in 3 years its still cheaper than 1 metal halide bulb
I've read that overdriving these tubes will definately shorten their lives but 10k hours still is a long time. The main advantage that I see is heat reduction. My room is completely climate controlled but the less the A/C has to run the better. There is less plant damage if they happen to grow into the lights as well but these overdriven bulbs will still burn leaves but not as bad as HID. As for safety these ballasts seem to creat vey little heat, just barely warm to the touch. I'm really happy with the cost advantage for cloning and veg states, much cheaper than the T-5 setup that I was thinking about. I'm thinking about making some more of these for side lighting in the flower room.
Very easy i have a 4 lamp im going to have to try this thanks!!!
Well i tryed it and it worked so i have two bulbs 2x as bright anyone with flouros should do this!!!!!
Hi OK I have read the whole thread and i am confused as to
what ballast your using.?
How many bulbs on it 2 or 4?
I think your saying you got a ballast from a T12 2lamp 8ft fixture
that runs 2 T12 8ft bulbs,(aren't those the high voltage ) and drove 2 T12 40w 4ftbulbs with it?
So basically you goto HomeDepot or Lowes get a (?________) ballast $$$, a 4ft 2 lamp shop lite$10/2 4ft 40w 6500k floro's 2pk7$I'm guessing those ballast are cheap!max20$???
so it will only cost a max of about $30$ Genius! :thumbsup:
plz correct me if i got it wrong and post the correct parts list(ballast)
I'm back with some soldid #'s for growing w\/flouro tubes. Been otg w/o internet for sometime. Using my diy fixturess been getting 1.5-2g per watt w/mandala hashberry. No ac is needed anylonger. Light bill is under $100 now 200 summer for whole house. Grow space is sog 8'lx 2'w'2'h. Plants finish about 10 -12" in Wendy's cups 32oz. Space holds 60 plants. While not too impressive when you can grow in an attic in southern LA stealthily. Grams per watt not great. Dollars per gram is awesome. I'm using the cheapest 3000- 3200k t12 t8s I can find. Not worth the expense for expensive ho bulbs. This is cheap lowes dirt w/minimal GL brand superbloom and alaska fish fert and Ultragreen when they look like the need more
N.
I must say that I run a perpetual grow in most of the cab of several varieties maybe 20-30 hashberry at a time. I averaging hb w/plants per and grams per watt. I'm thinking about losing the side mounted t8's for led 50w panels. I could fit anther 30 plants in that way. This system has halved the light bill without the cooling necessary for 800Whps. It has taken a long time to get the best out of flouro tubes. You can see the used car heater core that is supplied by well water in the summer..140f in atttic summer 90-95 in cabinet. Plants grow to touch lights, t12's have 86f surface temp. Some of the cheap shoplight ballasts have failed due to deletion of heatsink on one of the components. Replaced ballast w/GE96hoMVNDIY from homedepot 2 out of 16 fixtures (including veg/clone areas). 24hrs veg 13.5hrs flower. Can't get video to load. Low tech guy new to andriod.
Interesting...
I started out by buying a $35 HD two bulb T5 fixture and two HO bulbs. Then I discovered that the HO bulbs needed a different fixture. I just bought some regular lights and put it up in my garage for light.
Then bought HO fixtures.
Curious about what the thread was about, the original link is missing.
So you have lots of small plants, I haven't tried doing that. You just put them into flower when they're one month old or so?
If you take apart 2 Walmart lights of America shop lights you can wire each bulb w/it's own 2bulb ballast. While over the years I have tried almost every bulb/ballast combo, the cheap stuff works just as good. Flower time is faster w/ colored bulbs red 625nm kino flow and 420nm on seperate timers (think low $ PAD). The yeild suffers. I've even tried some German 60" Osram L58W/60 in different colors. PIA. I'm thinking about a detailed instructional video. Tacman w/ flouro tubes SOG is the only way to get yeild up
I'm running 60 at a time in flower cab packed like sardines when they get top heavy they hold eachother up.
That sounds great, I might have to give that a try.
Each plant is just one bud?
How long do you veg?
I'm running an 8 bulb T5 which is using close to 500 watts! Only 3 plants in there, now that I've trimmed the fans there is more room, so I'm going to move some other plants in with them. The 3 are almost finished.
Less electric bills would be nice.
If I made a 2' wide 2' tall 4' long box, you think two T5 HO bulbs would do? or more like 4 bulbs?
Thanks for the info!
Tacman- I veg a bit longer than that. Keep taking clones 'till the main stem is nice and stout about 8" and have 3-4 nice size colas (on hasberry & most heavy indica) on sativa leaning strains I keep mainstem shorter and maybe 6-8 colas like a candlabra. A lot of the time my veg time depends on space. Always keep flower cab full. Keep nitrogen out of the flower cab unless obvious def. Or you'll have to trim inflower sometimes you do anyway f98ks up main cola but end up w/hard little nugs lower down.
Those t-5s might do 4 for veg 2 for clones but inflower you have to have all 8. The evenness of floro is the advantage not penetration. If there is no bulb directly over the plant no yeild. I just pulled a runt that only ended up about 12" tall 10" away from light 5grams if I'm lucky and that is with side light. The cab you describe would have 20-30 minimum 50 if you don't have any sidelights. 50 times 10-15 grams minimum :-)
but was