Light : Dimming Ballasts

[St3ve]

So I'm really liking the dimming feature on my ballasts. I'm thinking on trying some things with it and would like to know if anyone else has tried similar or different ideas.


Veg
1) Dim it coming out of clone entering veg for the first week to ease them into it.

2) Last week of veg, raising it UP from 400 to 600 for a week to ease it into hight watts going into flower. (obviously using higher wattage bulb not 400w :) )


Flower
3) Dim it down and drop the hood closer for the first week of flower to save a little elec and not shock the ladies. Raise it one setting the second week then full watts at third.

4) Drop it down again the last week as I've heard the plants don't use as much light anyway while they are ripening. This would also keep it cooler which again I've heard helps ripen. (?)

Thoughts?

I've also been wanting to try going to like 14/10 the last week before flower to ease the stretch. Dunno..

 

[ibTheMan]

theres alot of confusion around dimming, ive been told buy many that you dont dim say a 1000w bulb to 750 or 600w, you run a 600w bulb if you dim it to 600w not dim a 1000w bulb to 600w. but some say different, bulb companies wont replace your bulb if you dim um.

 

[Seamaiden]

Huh, really? So, what you experience a brown-out, will they replace a bulb if something's happened to it then? How would they know (unless you told them)? I usually overdrive my bulbs, not underdrive. We had our first strong brown-out the weekend before Christmas and it was extremely weird. Tv's and computers didn't work, fans went really S L O W, lights were super dim.

So I'm really liking the dimming feature on my ballasts. I'm thinking on trying some things with it and would like to know if anyone else has tried similar or different ideas.


Veg
1) Dim it coming out of clone entering veg for the first week to ease them into it.

2) Last week of veg, raising it UP from 400 to 600 for a week to ease it into hight watts going into flower. (obviously using higher wattage bulb not 400w :) )

Sure, I've done it, but I only have one digital ballast. I like the energy-savings, even if slight, that can be afforded this way and the plants do adjust more easily when being moved from fluoro to HID lighting. Previous to buying the Quantum I was raising the light and lowering it daily to acclimate the girls.

Flower
3) Dim it down and drop the hood closer for the first week of flower to save a little elec and not shock the ladies. Raise it one setting the second week then full watts at third.

4) Drop it down again the last week as I've heard the plants don't use as much light anyway while they are ripening. This would also keep it cooler which again I've heard helps ripen. (?)

On 4 you'll just have to try it, it's not something I personally have done and I don't know that any of my other indoor-growing friends have done anything like that. On 3 I sort of don't see the point, they've spent a couple of weeks at least under those lights at full strength, I just drop the hoods down to the point I think they can take it, then raise as they stretch. Dimming could increase stretch, just as raising can increase it.

Thoughts?

I've also been wanting to try going to like 14/10 the last week before flower to ease the stretch. Dunno..

I haven't played around with that yet, so I don't know that going to a 14/10 will ease stretch, but if it works then I am totally down to try it. I've played around with using a 13/11 photoperiod to increase yields and it wasn't worth the extra power.

 

[Mr.]

I have heard that you can save some money on power by having the ballasts turn on at 50% power to keep the initial power surge down and after about 15mins you can crank em up to 75 or 100%.

 

[St3ve]

theres alot of confusion around dimming, ive been told buy many that you dont dim say a 1000w bulb to 750 or 600w, you run a 600w bulb if you dim it to 600w not dim a 1000w bulb to 600w. but some say different, bulb companies wont replace your bulb if you dim um.

Well thats not really the point of this thread really.

For the sake of testing though I have no problem testing a 1000k dimmed to 600 next to a 600 dimmed to 600. If it does negativily impact the higher wattage bulb dimmed down then its easy to just swap them out. It means nothing to me to swap out a bulb when I'm dimming the ballast.

 

[St3ve]

Huh, really? So, what you experience a brown-out, will they replace a bulb if something's happened to it then? How would they know (unless you told them)? I usually overdrive my bulbs, not underdrive. We had our first strong brown-out the weekend before Christmas and it was extremely weird. Tv's and computers didn't work, fans went really S L O W, lights were super dim.

Sure, I've done it, but I only have one digital ballast. I like the energy-savings, even if slight, that can be afforded this way and the plants do adjust more easily when being moved from fluoro to HID lighting. Previous to buying the Quantum I was raising the light and lowering it daily to acclimate the girls.


On 4 you'll just have to try it, it's not something I personally have done and I don't know that any of my other indoor-growing friends have done anything like that. On 3 I sort of don't see the point, they've spent a couple of weeks at least under those lights at full strength, I just drop the hoods down to the point I think they can take it, then raise as they stretch. Dimming could increase stretch, just as raising can increase it.

I haven't played around with that yet, so I don't know that going to a 14/10 will ease stretch, but if it works then I am totally down to try it. I've played around with using a 13/11 photoperiod to increase yields and it wasn't worth the extra power.

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. And the point of #3 would be simply to save electricity. Just using the hood height and watts together to achieve the desired lumen reaching the plants.

 

[St3ve]

I have heard that you can save some money on power by having the ballasts turn on at 50% power to keep the initial power surge down and after about 15mins you can crank em up to 75 or 100%.

hmm.. I'll have to look into that. I can't quite remember the power used when the digital ballasts fireup. Thanks for the info

 

[Seamaiden]

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. And the point of #3 would be simply to save electricity. Just using the hood height and watts together to achieve the desired lumen reaching the plants.

So.... (trying to wrap my head around what you're planning on doing @#3) you would drop the dimmed light during that first week or two of stretch? Am I understanding you correctly? I wonder what kind of savings could be realized doing this... (I am terrible at math.)

I'm currently considering another power balancing act myself, I really want a separate mother/cloning room and vegging/pre-flowering space. That I can stand up in.

 

[St3ve]

Yes drop/lower the hood/light closer to the canopy.

From the top of the canopy to the light, at about 35" or so you're getting around 5k lumen with the 1000w. You get the same lumen with the 600w at around 26". You lose the penetration of the 1k but at that first or second week the plants are shorter so I'm thinking its not as critical as when they are fully stretched. Then towards the end of stretch kicking in the 1000w's for maximum penetration.

My math says it should save around $6 or so per cycle.. and every little bit counts. :) If shaving off at the END of the cycle as well.. might even get closer to $10 savings. HEYOOO! :) lol

Let me know what you come up with for your new room. I have a veg/clone room together as well. I just sit my cloner on the floor next to the veg table to get less light on them.

 

[Seamaiden]

Right now it's a flower room and veg-table, which is a raised box on wheels, fully enclosed. It's being overrun between trying to keep mothers and growing out cuts for the next flowering cycle. I have two dozen cuts that could honestly be flipped right now, they're at the perfect height for a sog (my favorite!), but I can't because the flowering room is currently being used and there's no room at the inn.

So, a veg-room would allow me to accomplish exactly the same thing, but on a much LARGER SCALE.

Interesting how the math works out, I think I need to invest in a second Quantum either way.