It used to be said that led was the future but cmh is the present. It's looking like the future is here.
I replaced hps with cmh, no complaints. The cmh vegging lamp must be bluer than blue. The one time I tried it, the plants grew to 12+" diameter and only a few inches tall. Ideal for growing under the bed.
That's where led is going to win imo. The red/blue ratio affects the shape of the plant. If we can adjust that ratio on the fly, we can control the shape of the plant to suit our setup.
I got to playing with numbers on running costs. A 600w resin sealed magnetic ballast hps has a draw of ~690w. 2 x 315w cmh has a draw of 640w. If only bought for power saving, it would take the cmh a long time to pay for itself. 50w for 84 hours a week is 4.2 kw/hr. A saving of ~£0.71 per week of 12/12.
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