A question of power

All the HPS lamps I've foundrun on 220 current. Is there any way of making these work at home?

also...


my circuit breakers pop at around 300 watts per, so how does one make a 400 watt or higher lamp work?

thanks!

 

hey bud im no electrician but i might be able to help alittle, alot of HPS lamps run on a standard (US) 120 current. Keep shopping and you'll find that a bunch run on this current.

Depending on your household, as a general rule of thumb, your allowed 1K watts of power per bedroom......say you had 1 bedroom.....that would be 1k watts....2 bedrooms, 2k watts etc......now if your running a bunch of electrical power in your house then this rule may dissipate......also if your not running much more than the obvious, fridge, washer/dryer, tv, computer, central A/C/heater, stove (if applicable), etc. then you may want to get your electrical checked out......you should be able to run 1k per bedroom even with the necessitys(sp??)......keep us posted. Im sure somebody like stonerbill should be able to help ya a bit more.

 

Bedrooms def run over 1k watts, hell a small a/c is 1500 watts.

 

From what you've said I can't tell if u hav a ballast or not, the lamp and shade is only one part of wat u need ... if ur running a 400W HPS lamp, u needa 400W HPS light ballast to stop ur light or power point from blowing up on u .... The ballast plugs into any A/C power point andis like a little (bt heavy lol) metal box with air vents that u can just sit on the floor, then ur lamp plugs into the ballast, the ballast controls the flow of electricity going to ur lamp and if u dnt have one, somethings guna go bang, crackle or pop ... if i'm rite and u dont have a ballast and choose to go buy one make sure its the same Watts as ur light...
E.G: 400W HPS Light -> 400W HPS Light Ballast.
400W MH Light -> 400W MH Light Ballast
600W HPS Light -> 600W HPS Light Ballast

Get it? Hope this helps!

 

ok, so then I need 400W ballast + 400W light = 800W total?
Thanks.

 

No, the ballest runs the light so 400w +a little for the ballast(almost nothing if you get a eletronic one). Most household breakers are 15 or 20 amps. 400w at 120v =3.33amps so that's plenty, not every outlet is it's own circuct so see what else is running on that circut. And read up on all of this before you try again.

 

U need a 400W Ballast and a 400W light, the ballast controls the light, the ballast itself doesn't use 400W ... they just say 400W Ballast on them so u know they're to control a 400W light ... if u get wat i mean.

 

There are plenty of ballasts that run on 120 volts, or normal household current, the only ones I've seen however are electronic HID. I am now the proud owner of a the purple lumatek digital ballast, it runs on 120 volt household current. These are a bit pricy however (150$) plus you gotta buy a 40$ socket and wire set for these (my ballast/socket setup cost a little less than 200$ total, priority mail shipping included)

If you are trying to go cheap however, you should check out the vapor tight lights at econolight.com, these are the absolute cheapest and easiest way to start growing, you can get a 150 watt HPS for 25$! All you gotta do is screw it on the wall (cab whatever), plug it in and start growing Hope this helps, heres links to lots of lighting setups.

Online Hydro Store, 2 day shipping! total stealth! came in a brown box

150 vapor tight light from econolight

150 watt club and resource guide, this place is great for ANY question you might have regarding a small grow.