Lighting Are hps light setups loud?

[Surfer Joe]

Does running a 400 or 600 watt hps or mh light setup create a lot of noise?
Is a ballast noisy, or the way that you have cool it make a lot of noise?
I was reading that some guy sold his hps setup because of the noise but I don't understand.

 

[GoAuto6]

The electronic ballast is quiet the magnetic on the other hand hummmmm.

 

[Surfer Joe]

So I should make sure to get a digital ballast if I want a silent system?

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I have a 1000W magnetic ballast and two 400W digital ballasts. The magnetic ballast has a pretty good hum to it; but nothing so loud it would cause anyone to question what it was (my gaming computer is louder with its fans than the ballast, if that helps visual.) The digital ballasts I have both have small fans in them, but I've seen lower wattage digital ballasts with passive coolers on them (so no fan noise.) The fan noise on these is VERY negligible though.

Much of the noise (in my opinion) associated with HPS/MH lighting is due more to the cooling that is most often accompanied by them. These lights produce an intense amount of heat compared to CFL's and LED's, so often time growers will get vented hoods (enclosures with 4" or 6" duct openings on each side with a glass plate under the light, so that you can run duct work on each side of the hood and have most of the heat produce by the light confined to your ventilation system.

They also make enclosures called "cool tubes", which are cylindrical tubes (most I've seen are 6" tubes) that again are sized appropriately for duct work. The bottom half of the cylinder is glass, allowing the light through, while the top halves are typically reflected. They are also usually supplemented with add-on reflector wings.

There are also some HPS/MH lights that are just an open reflector wing (no vent, no tube, no duct.) Since you're not running duct to these (and no inline fans,) these are definitely the most quiet in the grand scheme of the setup, but offer the least amount of control for heat.

So long story short; magnetic ballasts produce the most noise, digital ballasts produce the least noise. Neither produces a tremendous amount of sound, but there's definitely a night and day difference between the decibels of the units. Most of the sound you'll worry about will come from whatever in-line fan you would be using if you decided to go the route of venting the light directly.

Hope that helps bro :smokebuds: :karma Cloud:

 

[Surfer Joe]

Thanks. I was planning to get a 600 watt dimmable digital ballast so that I could run either 400 or 600 watt hps or mh lamps.
Is this a good idea?
I already have an extractor fan going to a carbon filter, and it's not too loud. Could I use my fan to filter the exhaust and also cool the lamp enclosure? I have a small tent about 80 x 80 x 180cm and only grow 3 or 4 plants.

 

[GoAuto6]

if its a 6oo you'll use a 600 bulb but the nob will do 100%,75%, and 50%.

 

[Surfer Joe]

Thanks. I understand it now. I would always need to get 600 watt bulbs but I could run them at lesser power.
Do you think that a 400 or 600 watt light would be better for a small grow tent that is about 7 sq ft?
My understanding is that a 400 would give about 48000 lumens and a 600 about 95000 lumens, and that I should aim for about 5000 lumens/sq ft.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

if its a 6oo you'll use a 600 bulb but the nob will do 100%,75%, and 50%.

I 100% agree.

Thanks. I was planning to get a 600 watt dimmable digital ballast so that I could run either 400 or 600 watt hps or mh lamps.
Is this a good idea?
I already have an extractor fan going to a carbon filter, and it's not too loud. Could I use my fan to filter the exhaust and also cool the lamp enclosure? I have a small tent about 80 x 80 x 180cm and only grow 3 or 4 plants.

I personally would never put a 400W light into a 600W ballast, nor would I put a 600W light into a 400W ballast. Will they fire up if you DO anyways? Oh yeah! I accidentally hooked my 1000W light up to my 400W ballast (darn cords all look the same!) I heard a very distinct electrical noise, the kind that makes you go "oh ****," and sure as heck the light fired on. Not something you want to play with though; very good way to start a fire.

This is taken from American Electric Lighting's HPS service guide:

HID lamps will operate at their rated wattages only if
the lamp and line voltages are nominal. Variations in
lamp and line voltages can cause a lamp wattage
variation of up to 20%.

HID lamps should not be operated at higher-than-rated
wattages. This can be caused by using a capacitor with
a rating too high for the fixture, or by installing a lamp
with a lower wattage rating than the fixture. Although
light output may increase, the excess wattage
dramatically increases operating temperatures of
electrodes, arc tubes and bulb walls. The arc tube may
bulge and possibly shatter. Lumen maintenance and
lamp life also are significantly decreased.

Pretty scary stuff; don't mess around with electrical unless you know what you're doing.

Some ballasts have a toggle switch on them that allows you to go from 400W to 600W. My 1000W magnetic ballast has an HPS/MH switch that has to be toggled depending on the light. I would say if you're worried about 600W being too much or you want to tone down the electric bill, grab a 600W dimmable so you can operate at 300W, 450W, and 600W.

As to your question with the extractor fan, absolutely! I actually use that very setup in my grow room! I would set it up like this; Carbon Scrubber->Extractor Fan (pulling air through the scrubber, not pushing it)->HPS vented hood/cool tube->exhaust duct.

The extraction fan pulls the inside grow room air through the carbon filter, which then pushes through the hood/cool tube, which exhausts through duct outside the grow space.

The big dependency of this setup is making sure that your extraction fan is powerful enough to keep up with the additional duct work, and that your inside grow room temperatures are cool enough that you're actually doing some good (if you've got some hot temps already, pushing hot air on a hot light isn't going to cool much, and you actually run the risk of burning out the bulb faster.)

Hope that helps bro! :stylez rasta smoke:

Just my

 

[GoAuto6]

price wise they ar not that different, I would go with the 600 just because this growing thing is an addiction and you'll always want more room, more plants, more more more..

 

[Surfer Joe]

As to your question with the extractor fan, absolutely! I actually use that very setup in my grow room! I would set it up like this; Carbon Scrubber->Extractor Fan (pulling air through the scrubber, not pushing it)->HPS vented hood/cool tube->exhaust duct.
The extraction fan pulls the inside grow room air through the carbon filter, which then pushes through the hood/cool tube, which exhausts through duct outside the grow space.
The big dependency of this setup is making sure that your extraction fan is powerful enough to keep up with the additional duct work, and that your inside grow room temperatures are cool enough that you're actually doing some good (if you've got some hot temps already, pushing hot air on a hot light isn't going to cool much, and you actually run the risk of burning out the bulb faster.)

Thanks. That's exactly the setup I wanted to use.
My tent is in an unheated garage that gets quite cold in the dead of winter, so the only heat would be coming from the lights themselves. Even in summer, the daytime temps outdoors are only in the 70s and 80s.
I was planning on using a small 700 watt oil radiator in the tent in case the temps got too cold when the lights were off.
Also, I was planning to grow auto flower seeds since I could keep the lights on 20/4 for the whole grow and keep the tent warmer, especially if I time the dark period for the middle of the day when it would be warmest outside. Some people suggested to just run it 24/7 but I was thinking that plants need a little rest period to process their chemistry. I don't know enough about this.