These days, it is difficult to not notice how cannabis use has been growing at a steady and rapid pace. This is because there have been a lot of countries and states now slowly legally and socially accepting marijuana for both medical and recreational use. The growing use of cannabis has been the main reason as to why this organic product has been increasing in consumer demand as of late.
In line with the increase in demand of cannabis, many people have now decided to grow their own plants in the comforts of their own home or properties in the hopes of probably making a profit out of it or consuming it themselves or with their friends at the very least.
That said, it is now imperative for cannabis growers and cultivators to know the most cost and time-efficient means to grow cannabis so that they will be able to produce high-quality products while maximizing harvests and profits and minimizing costs. In line with that, using the best types of lights for your home or indoor cannabis operation is key in making sure you get the most out of what you have planted.
The High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) Grow Light
- What is it?
Grow lights were not always used as such before indoor cannabis growing blew up. These lamps were actually invented and used for more practical purposes such as for street lights. In that regard, the low-pressure sodium (LPS) lamp was born. It was made specifically to answer the need to light the streets in the most efficient ways.
The LPS is a popular choice in Europe and in some other countries because of how it is very efficient and cost-effective. But even though it tends to be an efficient type of lamp, it can light up a much larger area compared to the other types of lamps. On top of that, it is a sensitive kind of lamp that tends to be easy on the human eye.
However, the problem with LPS is that it does not have the best color rendering compared to the other lamps. That is why it has not become the most successful and popular light source both for practical and growing purposes.
Years later, an improved version of the LPS was born. The high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamp was first sold in the general market during the 1960s and has since become one of the most, if not the most, widely used type of lamp in the world.
The HPS is mostly used for street lighting particularly because of how it is a much better version of the LPS. It is an efficient and very effective lighting source that also tends to be smaller LPS. On top of that, it has a better lifespan and can last quite a lot longer than most other types of lamps on the market.
Since its introduction to the general market, the HPS has become one of the more versatile lamps. It is not only used for street lights or for homes but has become a great choice for indoor plant growers. And yes, this includes cannabis cultivators as well.
Cannabis growers have learned that high-pressure sodium lights are effective tools to use for cultivating cannabis right in the comforts of their own homes or rooms regardless of whether the entire operation is large or not. It has since become a good option for large-scale cannabis cultivation or even for casual recreational users that grow a few plants in their home for their own personal consumption.
- How does it work?
Inside high-pressure sodium, the bulb is a narrow arc tube made out of aluminum oxide ceramic to make sure that it does not corrode when exposed to sodium. This tube is supported by a frame so that it stays in place. It also contains sodium, xenon, and mercury.
The common HPS lamp starts when an ignitor sends a high-voltage energy pulse that makes its way through the arc tube as it lights up the xenon. It then heats up and lights the mercury up to produce a bluish color within the bulb. As the bulb continues to heat up, it vaporizes the sodium to create a yellowish light that mixes with mercury’s bluish color to give a light that is closer to the whitish color.
Because of this process, an HPS lamp usually takes a while before it fully lights up. It can be a little slow to start when compared to the other types of bulbs but it tends to have higher efficacy and quite cost-efficient.
The ballast in the bulb regulates the flow of electrical current that ignites the entire lighting process. This ballast is the resistor. The moment the ballast deteriorates, it will be unable to supply the electrical energy needed to make the entire process startup. At this moment, the bulb now becomes useless and it is now time for you to go purchase a replacement.
- Why are they being used?
When growing cannabis or any other plants in an artificial indoor system, you need a light source. Light and heat are essential for almost any plants’ species’ life and is one of the more important elements in making sure that your cannabis plants are thriving and growing well in your own indoor operation.
That said, any grower or cultivator needs a light source that can emit enough heat to mimic a portion of the energy provided by the sun in outdoor environments, where cannabis is naturally grown. This is where high-pressure sodium lights come in.
For almost 50 years since the day this type of a bulb or light source has been introduced, HPS lamps have been one of the favorites grow lights for a lot of indoor cannabis growers. This is because these lights produce a lot of heat and can really emit enough light to supply energy to a rather large amount of marijuana plants. These lights, in fact, are so strong that they can even provide a similar amount of heat that low-end heaters can.
While HPS grow lights are older and even though there have been a lot of types of lights that have been introduced into the market over the past few decades, they still are some of the best options for any grower. High-pressure sodium lights still maintain their place in the market and are grow lights that can find a place in any cultivator’s indoor operation.
Why Choose HPS Grow Lights?
There might be a lot more types of lights used for cannabis today than there was 30 to 40 years ago but HPS grow lights still dominate because of their benefits and advantages. Here are the reasons why you should still choose HPS to grow lights over their competitors:
- They are cheap
The fact of the matter is that high-pressure grow lights are so cheap and affordable to the point that even growers with the lowest budget for marijuana cultivators can still purchase these types of lights at a relatively low price. In fact, high-end HPS bulbs might still be more affordable compared to even standard LED lights, which are considered more expensive options.
On top of its affordable price tag, an HPS lighting system is the sum of its parts. This means that this modular type of grow light can easily be fixed when there is something wrong. You can just simply replace one part with a new one if you find that, for example, the bulb does not work anymore. What that means for you is that you do not have to purchase an entirely new system to replace the old one in case something goes wrong.
However, despite its relatively cheap price, an HPS grow light is not something that has poor quality. In fact, it is actually one of the best in terms of overall efficacy. The only reasons why these lights are cheap is that they are relatively easier to make and that it is not too difficult to enter the market as a new competitor.
- They are effective
Nobody can ever say anything to refute the fact that HPS grow lights are downright effective for growing cannabis. That has become an accepted truth in the cannabis community as many growers or cultivators will agree that these lights really are great at doing their job.
Many growers will say something bad or negative about how effective certain lights are for growing cannabis. However, you will hear almost nothing bad about how effective HPS lights are. They really do bring the best out of your cannabis and will result into high-yielding plants because of how they tend to be strong enough to provide the amount of light or heat needed.
And the best part is that this is a trait that is common among HPS lights. No brand or company can lay claim to producing the only effective types of HPS bulbs because almost any manufacturer can produce an effective and high-quality HPS light that can give you the results that you want.
A lot of commercial growers today use HPS grow lights because high productivity is almost always their main goal. That said, if you really want to maximize your yields, then HPS bulbs or lamps should be on the top of your list of grow lights to use.
- There is a size that fits your needs
Another great reason why you should go for HPS grow lights is that they are scalable. This means that it comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes so that you can easily find a smaller or bigger bulb depending on your indoor cannabis operation.
For example, if you are merely a casual grower that cultivates one or a few plants in your own room for your own consumption, you can go for a simple 150W HPS grow light. But if you are operating on a much large scale, the usual size that most growers use are 1000W HPS bulbs.
In other words, HPS lights are so scalable that there will always be the right size for your needs. You do not always have to spend on a large one if your indoor cannabis operation is small. Likewise, there is no reason for you to go for smaller and less effective bulbs especially if you are operating on a much large scale. And, if you find yourself somewhere in the middle, there are also sizes that are right for the type of indoor operation you have.
- They are not complicated
The fact of the matter is that there is nothing complicated about using an HPS grow light at all. There is nothing about an HPS grow light that makes it difficult to use and hard to predict. You do not even have look beyond the label because a simple 600W HPS bulb will simply eat up that much electricity without any hidden costs whatsoever.
The brand also does not matter because a 600W bulb from Brand X will not have much of a difference compared to the same 600W bulb from Company Y. You cannot say the same about other lights because CFL and LED bulbs use equivalent ratings as opposed to the actual wattage.
What makes HPS lights uncomplicated is that these lights are just so simple to us that you can merely plug them in to make them work. These lights have been in use for decades already that what they give you already seems too predictable at times. So, if you have a good amount of experience in a 600W HPS grow light, it is possible that you will be able to carry that over if you move to a 1000W bulb.
Overall
HPS bulbs really have a lot of advantages that come in a relatively cheap and affordable price tag. That makes it a great type of grow light to use for any grower regardless if he/she is a beginner or an experienced one. It is a lamp that fits your budget and will yield results that certainly prove it is worth the investment.
HPS grow lights guide
Now that you know the reasons why you should opt using high-pressure sodium grow light for your indoor cannabis operation, here are the things you should consider to maximize your yields and to make sure you get the best out of your HPS lights.
- Knowing the right size
The first you need to know is the ideal size of HPS grow light for your cannabis plants. As mentioned, HPS bulbs are scalable and are available in different sorts of sizes that fit small, medium, and big operations. That said, you should choose the size of your HPS grow light depending on how many plants you plan on raising.
The importance of knowing the right size of HPS grow lights to use cannot be overstated because costs also play a factor. For all intents and purposes, you may use a larger bulb for a relatively small number of cannabis plants but you will only end up using more electricity than necessary. In the end, your costs will turn out to be bigger than your returns.
Knowing how much a certain size of HPS bulb costs per month and how many plants it can potentially provide enough heat for is essential. For example, a 250W HPS grow light can potentially cost about $70 a month on electricity alone and can be used for as much as 2 oz of cannabis. Of course, bulbs with higher watts will cost more on a monthly basis but will be able to provide heat to more plants.
If you are merely growing cannabis plants as a hobby or for your own personal consumption, you might not want to go over 600W because the upkeep will become too expensive for you. But, if you are in the business of earning a profit out of growing marijuana on a larger scale, you might want to look for 1000W HPS bulbs.
- Distance from plants
HPS grow lights produce a lot of heat. Because of that, knowing the proper distance between the lights and the plants is important for you to avoid giving your cannabis light burn. In some cases, putting them too close to the lamp might even actually burn them.
Because different HPS bulb sizes emit varying amounts of heat (the bigger, the hotter), the distance between them and the plants will vary. The best test to use to tell how far the lamps should be from the plants is to use your hand. Place your hand just on top of your plant and with your palm facing the light for a few seconds. If the light feels hot for your hand, then the most probable outcome is that it will also be too hot for your plants.
But, if you do not always have time to use the hand test, we actually have a guide for you to use. For 150W bulbs, the most optimal distance is about 10 inches. As you move up in size, add at least 2 inches to the distance between the bulb and the plants. For example, a 250W bulb should be about a foot away from the plants while a 1000W bulb needs to be almost two feet away from your cannabis.
Knowing the proper distance ensures that your cannabis plants get the right amount of light or heat while making sure that they do not get light burn. At the same time, you also do not want your plants to be too far away from the light or else they will not get the optimal amount of nutrients they need from the bulbs.
- Exhausting the heat
As mentioned, high-pressure sodium grow lights produce a lot of heat especially if you use larger ones and if you have an operation that is quite large. And because you are most likely grow your cannabis plants in an enclosed space with not a lot of windows, the room will tend to get too warm and heat. In worse cases, the increased room temperature might become detrimental for your cannabis’ growth and health.
To make sure the room does not get too hot, it is important for you to set up an exhaust system that ventilates the heat out of the room and through a window in as quick and efficient a manner as possible. The reason as to why the heat needs to be ventilated out quickly is that exhausts are less efficient when the air has to travel further because it will disperse through the room before it even goes out the window.
The best way for you to ensure that your exhaust functions as efficiently as possible, you might want to invest on a strong exhaust fan that can immediately pull the heat out of the grow space. You might also want to use smaller fans that can blow air above and below the plants to make sure that there are no spots that tend to be hotter than others.
Of course, the stronger your grow lights are, the stronger your fan should be. The size of your exhaust fans should be directly proportional to the size of your HPS bulbs. For example, a 250W bulb needs a fan that has a CFM (cubic feet per minute) of at least 80. Likewise, if you are using a 1000W bulb, it needs a stronger fan that has a CFM of at most 336.
Knowing the right exhaust fan to use is also very important because you do not want to use a fan that cannot ventilate heat efficiently. At the same time, using a fan that is too strong for your HPS grow lights might end up exhausting too much heat that it deprives your cannabis plants. However, the grow space climate also needs to be taken into consideration. If you live in a particularly cool place, then you might want to use a fan with a lower CFM than suggested.
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High-pressure sodium grow lights are effective and efficient tools for any cannabis grower out there whether they are cultivating the plants on a large scale or on a hobbyist level only. This is because these versatile lights are cost-effective and easy enough to use for anyone looking to make cultivating cannabis plants a part of their daily life. That said, there is no wondering why HPS grow lights are still widely used today even as technology has come up with new alternatives.
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