dual spectrums

[midwestbluntman]

Ok i have a 400 watt hps and a 400 watt MH,im thinking of combining both lamps in one hood,for an 800 watt dual spectrum.My question is how safe do ya's think it would be to run both ballast off the same timer?think i would be better off buying a second timer?

[Mel]

MWBM - I have a 400/600 in the same hood set up off two ballast, i run them into one timer no overload. You could do a little sun rise/ sun set thing with 2 timers. A wise Manatid once told me that it takes 7 min for the sun to rise and set over the horizon. Have your MH on the "east side" of the hood and kick on first then 7 min later the HPS on the "west". You will get a 7min MH sunrise, and a HPS sunset for 7 min :eek: Ain't it crazy

the more you know the less you know whoa!

[Cranky]

the green mantid strikes again.very intresting intresting mel;) i like the way it gets a thinking......dose it make a diff?hmmmmmmdose it make a diff?

i'll give it ago one day;)

cranky

[Fillabong]

Run them in the same hood for sure:D

The timers? I have little cheap x-mas timers and through it I ran my 1000HPS and a 200wfan. One is ok;)

[midwestbluntman]

My timer dont do minute increments it does 15 so id have to have a 15 min sun rise,lol.If i use 2 timers i could give them 2 hours of 400 watt halide then the hps would kick on and run the dual specrum of 800 watts for 8 hours then the halide kick off and get the last 2 hours of 400 watt hps.something to think on but for now i'll go with one timer,thankx ya'll

[Mel]

My timer dont do minute increments it does 15

you could set both timers to 12/12 plug one in then 7 min later or when ever you want twwo minutes whatever, plug in the second one create your own incriment.. just a thought , but mine use one timer and turn on together:rolleyes:

[Jr. Greenthumb]

Well I guess from the Electrical side of it you need to see how many watts the timer is good for bro. Most of them are usually 1500 or 1700 watts. This is total watts, not the wattage of the bulb itself. If your ballast don't tell you how many watts it is, it should tell you how many amps it is. To figure your watts out you need to mulitply your amps times your house voltage. So, if your house voltage is 120v and your Ballast is 4 amps then you have a total wattage of 480 watts. The ballast itself usually uses a little bit of energy that the bulb don't put out in light. I guess that is the best way to word that... Anyhow, even on the high side, If your using 2 - 400 watt ballasts you wouldn't be using much more than a 1000 watts of actual energy. That is if you are not putting anything else on the circuit. Some of the cheap ass light-weight timers only handle 800 watts so make sure you look at the timer first.

If nothing else get a better timer. Or, you can get a relay and run it off the relay. Or two timers...... :D

Make any sense to ya?

[midwestbluntman]

lookin at the electrical side,the grow room is branched off from the clothes dryer circuit.the dryer circuit is 220 volt on 60 amp fuses,as it enters the grow room it is branched into 2 legs of 120.This powers the entire grow room/shed,so maybe 2 timmers would be in order so i can split the loads across both circuits.Im sure each 120 v leg would carry it but when the dryer is thrown into the equation that may tend to be a bit of an overload,not to mention the heat is electric out there.so i guess alittle advanced studing is in order here thankx for all the input.