Here's my .02......each sun pulse $145.00 X 3 (all the 3 spectrum's they say you should use) or 1 $110.00 superHPS (my prices at local shop) I'm willing to bet if you take the cost vs. yield increase you will be wasting $$$ but if you got it to blow then Kudos....however I don't and HPS is still king of flowering last time I checked and with my 1 year warranty on my HPS'S from my shop I haven't bought a bulb in 3 years so I actually applaud them burning out in my digital ballasts....free bulb!!! And as for the sun pulses how come my shop won't warranty them and said they were going to quit selling them??? Like LED's I will give them 5 more years until you consumers do all the companies research and development for them for free and tell them how to improve there products. I never buy ANY "new" tech shit for this reason 1. It's going to be half the price in 2 years 2. It will be 3 times better in 2 years anyways...IMO
Here is what I think. Let's say you buy for $145. so 6.4k, 3k, and 10k. That's $435 for 3 lamps. Then you buy 4
hortilux's for $440. Sun pulse has a 2 year warranty and claims that their is little lumen loss and color shift over that period of time especially if kept cool.
Hortilux has a 1 year warranty. People usually replace their
Hortilux once a year or they blow out prematurely in digi's.
Let's say you do a 21(18/6) day veg and a 70(12/12) day flower for number purposes so you could do 4 runs in 364 days.
The
hortilux would have a total of 4872 hours of running time on it if used alone.
Now for the sun pulse running times 6.4k(18/6 veg 21 days) 3k(12/12 flower 56 days) 10k(12/12 flower 14 days) You have to split the 3k and 10k in the flower days because you use the 10k for the last two weeks.
The 6.4k would have 1512 hours. The 3k would have 2688 hours. The 10k would have 672 hours.
So if you ran the sun pulse lamps for the same amount as the
hortilux(4872 hours) then the 6.4k theoretically could last you roughly 3 years(4546hours). The 3k would last you roughly 1 year and 9 months(4838 hours). The 10k would last your roughly 7 years and 3 months lol(4872 hours)
So basically the more lamps you buy the time lessens for each lamp you run and it can be used for a longer period of time(well same hours for the lamp but stretched out over a longer time period)
another perspective:
Let's just say you only want to use the 3k witch they recommend for 1 lamp systems. Yes it costs about 35 dollars more per lamp but the warranty is twice as long. If you divide the cost by the warranty that means you would only be paying $72.50 a year instead of $110 a year if you replaced your lamp every 2 years instead of once a year.
I do however agree that if your horti breaks in your digi and you keep on getting fresh lamps I suppose that is cool but the incompatibility could also be stressing out your ballast.
So to me it sounds more like a long term investment that actually ends up being cheaper if you keep track of lamp hours and change them accordingly. Sun pulse warranty guarantees that their lamps run for 17520 hours(24 hours a day 365 days a year for 2 years) with little or no color shift and lumen loss.
Hortilux warranty guarantees that their lamps run for 8760 hours(24 hours a day 365 days a year for 1 year) and doesn't not say anything about color shift or lumen loss. Both lamps are suppose to be able to run for 20,000. Interesting how Sun Pulse guarantees practically the whole life of the lamp where
Hortilux doesn't even guarantee half.