Posts Tagged ‘metal’

Grow Lights in hydroponics gardening – Metal Halide (MH) grow lights

Generating between 65 to 115 lumens of light per each watt of consumed electricity, metal halide grow light lamps are considered to have high efficiency. MH lights produce light, which is very close to the natural sunlight with the rich blue spectrum. Due to this, MH lamps support vegetative growing in the most desired way – when plants have many leaves on the stem with short internodes.

Structurally, metal halide lamp is a vacuum glass tube. There is also an arc tube inside, filled with mercury and other metals in iodine form. Under the influence of electric current, those metals start to generate light and heat intensively. Though metal halide bulbs can be either transparent or coated with phosphorus, the first type is more preferred for the indoor gardening, since it produces very bright light.

There are different sizes of metal halide lamps, starting from 70watts and finishing with 1500 watts. However 250w, 400w and 1000w are modifications, most commonly used in hydroponics systems gardening. In order to make MH light to work, it is necessary to use a ballast, designed for a particular bulb size. Ballast is, in fact, a transformer, which decreases voltage to some predefined amount.

The lamps can work only in the positions they were designed for. Those marked with BU or BD should be used only in vertical position; while those lamps, which carry HOR sign, are for horizontal application. Besides, there are also universal (U) lamps, which can operate in either position. 

There are also many different styles of metal halide lamps available on the market today. Along with typical or regular MH bulbs, there are also Super Bulbs, which can produce up to 10-12% more light than ordinary bulbs.

Regular metal halide bulbs should be replaced after about 18 months or 9500-10000 hours of use. Super bulbs are less durable and should be replaced more frequently – approximately after 12 months or 6500 hours of use. These recommendations apply if grow lights will work 18 hours daily.

My name is guy. I am the founder and owner of the urbangardenershop.com.au . I fell in love with hydroponics gardening. As time went by I gathered a vast knowledge base and 2 years ago I decided to find a way to make hydroponics gardening a hobby that anyone can peruse. I added a hydroponic gardening information center to our hydroponic supplies site that offers a large range of hydroponics articles. Thank you for your interest and feel free to ask questions on hydroponics gardening in our site
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What Every Indoor Gardener Should Know About Metal Halide Grow Lights

Metal halide grow lights create fantastic light under which your plants will thrive. These grow lights are a HID, or high-intensity discharge, light. They are small grow lamps that produce a lot of light, and yet are more efficient to run than either incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs. Indoor gardeners and hydroponics enthusiasts get great results with their plants when they use metal halide lights.

Metal halide lamps are made up of several different parts. There are tungsten electrodes which are connected to a quartz arc tube, where the light is produced. Inside the arc tube is where you will find mercury vapor, different metals and noble gas, all of which play a part in creating the light produced by MH grow lights. The arc tube is covered by a glass bulb. There is a metal base, and a connection to the power source. Some metal halide grow lights use an arc tube made of alumina or aluminum oxide, as well. This type of grow light requires the use of a ballast to control the flow of the current through the arc tube in order for the grow lamp to function properly.

Each different type of grow light has a particular color-rendering index and correlated color temperature. This is true of the metal halide grow lights. Some of these lamps have an 80 color-rendering index, on a scale of zero to 100. This index ranks lights to show how well or poorly they reproduce colors of objects being lit by the lamp.

100 is the best rating, and zero the worst. Therefore, an 80 is reflective of a very good quality white light. In terms of correlated color temperature, MH grow lights can range from 3,000 K to 20,000 K. 3,000 is in the yellow range of the spectrum, while 20,000 is in the blue range. (K refers to the Kelvin temperature scale.) In terms of comparison, daylight registers in at 6,500 K, whereas a television screen is at 9,300 K and moonlight is at 4,100 K. If you are an indoor gardener, you are trying to recreate daylight in order for your plants to thrive, so you will want a bulb as close to daylight’s 6,500 K as possible.

Light produced by a grow lamp can fall at different spots on the electromagnetic spectrum. Some lights lean more toward the blue end of spectrum, while others land on the orange and red end. This matters to the indoor gardener, because baby plants need light in the blue spectrum in order to grow well. If you want a mature plant to produce fruit or flowers, then you will need lights in the red and orange spectrum.

Susan Slobac has enjoyed hydroponics gardening for years now, and has experimented with numerous types of grow lamps. She’s had great success using metal halide grow lights for her indoor gardening at home and as part of her local gardening club.

From Fluorescent to High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide, Grow Lights Help You Flex Your Flower Power

If growing plants indoors is something that interests you, then you’ll most likely need grow lights to help accomplish the job. A grow light provides the special lighting and light spectrum that plants need to grow and thrive, and there are two types of lights that accomplish this: high intensity discharge lights, and fluorescent lights. High intensity discharge grow lights come in two varieties — the metal halide grow light (often referred to as MH), and the high pressure sodium grow light (often referred to as HPS). The metal halide light is designed to nurture plants during their growing cycle. The growing cycle applies to pants that are non-fruiting and/or non-blooming.

The high pressure sodium lights are designed for those plants that are in the fruiting or blooming processes. The HPS grow lights come enhanced with the blue spectrum (this is used for vegetative growth) or the red spectrum (this is used for the flowering growth). The nice thing about these types of grow lights is that they can be used throughout the entire growing, fruiting and blooming process for most plants. Fluorescent grow lights do not emit as much light as the other types of grow lights that are available on the market, and so they are not intended to be used during the plant cycle, since the lack of a bright light will yield only small growth results. Instead, fluorescent grow lights should have its softer and gentler light used to help seedlings and cuttings begin to generate growth. Fluorescent lighting is best used to help nurture young plants and blooms.

No matter what type of grow light systems you have, it will use some kind of ballast system which enables the bulb or tube to generate enough energy to strike and give off light. Typically, metal halide grow lights and HPS grow lights run from remote ballasts. A remote ballast is a special configuration in which external boxes contain the electronics and wiring needed to pre-heat the lamp, and then keep it running. Why should you use grow lights? Well, look at a plant as if it is a factory that manufactures goods from raw materials and products. Factors need energy to run, and so do plans. The energy source that enables them to grow comes from grow lights (hence the name). Usually, it is natural sunlight that is used to feed plants with the energy they need, but grow lights can be a reliable and suitable substitution.

Kimberly Green is a girl with a green thumb in grow lights 101, sharing her insight to the wide world of grow lights and grow light systems.

GrowSpot 15 Watt LED Growing Light Bulb-Plant Grow Light Rivals 200 Watt Metal Halide/HPS Full Spectrum Growth Lite


Product Description
GrowSpot TM – The energy squeezing GrowSpotTM showers your plants with the perfect blend of light needed for fast, vigorous growth. The GrowSpotTM fits into any standard light socket making it the most versatile LED grow light on the market today. Consuming only 15 watts, the GrowSpotTM led grow light rivals the output of a 200 watt Metal Halide / HPS grow light. Use a GrowSpotTM for seedling propagation or to provide light wherever plants need it most. Suitable for… More >>
GrowSpot 15 Watt LED Growing Light Bulb-Plant Grow Light Rivals 200 Watt Metal Halide/HPS Full Spectrum Growth Lite

GlowPanel 45 – LED Growing Light Panel – 27 Watt Plant Grow Light Rivals 250 Watt Metal Halide/HPS Full Spectrum Growth Lite

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The GlowPanel® LED grow light consumes up to 80% less energy than HPS & Metal Halide grow lights and emits virtually no heat. The GlowPanel® covers 1.5 square feet and can be used as a primary or supplemental light source. GlowPanels work great for starting seedlings or to provide additional light to you garden. The GlowPanel® is a plug and play grow light. There are no ballasts or reflectors needed. It works right out of the box. The GlowPanel® lasts 50,000 hours. Hanging kit
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1000 Watt Sunmaster Super HPS Light Bulb | Plant Square

Product Description The GlowPanel® LED grow light consumes up to 80% less energy than HPS & Metal Halide grow lights and emits virtually no heat. The GlowPanel® covers 1.5 square feet and can be used as a primary or. …

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Pro Gardening Systems » Blog Archive » Galaxy Electronic Grow …

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