Grow light confusion Please Help!!!

12 years ago

Hello!

I bought a few dwarf citrus plants this year and the time has come to bring them in for the winter. As I do not have a bright window for them, I'm going to put them in a room, with a growlight. The growlight is 400W and has a mogul base, so I needed to buy a special fixture, which just came today. However, I looked at the plug this evening and I have never seen anything like it. A little googling just has me more confused, as it almost seems like this Hydrofarm company has its own special plug. Admittedly, I should have paid closer attention beforehand. The only adapters I've seen convert it to something called a BAASP plug, which I've also never seen before.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to connect to a normal plug? Can a normal outlet even handle this kind of thing? Sorry I'm so clueless, but I'm not familiar with these kinds of things at all. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

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Comments (6)

art33
12 years ago
Hi Soulfire,

Well, I've never used that kind of light but I'm thinking that the plug in your picture must be made to plug into a ballast. Is your 400W bulb a high pressure sodium bulb? If so, I think it requires the use of a ballast. The HydroFarm BAASP plug adapter you mentioned adapts HydroFarm reflectors to other brand ballasts.

Hope this helps,

Art

This post was edited by art33 on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 10:30
Soulfire
Original Author
12 years ago
Great info, thanx. I definitely need the ballast & I've checked into them. Now I have what is a really basic question--- I now know the Hydrofarm reflector plugs into the ballast. But does a ballast plug directly into a house outlet? Or is there yet another thing I didn't consider?

I'm specifically looking at a Phantom 600W ballast.

This post was edited by Soulfire on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 19:39
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art33
12 years ago
Soulfire,

As I mentioned earlier, I've never really used that type of light but I think most ballast can be used with 120 or 240 volts. The ballast should plug directly into the source voltage. So, unless you specify differently, I'd assume the plug would be for normal 120 volts and plug directly into your house outlets.

Art

This post was edited by art33 on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 20:00
stevemac00
12 years ago
You can get a cheap ballast for $85 on Amazon. It's even dimmable.
http://amzn.com/B0052ACH0E

I use the Hydrofarm Phantom

I bought the 600w version and use it mostly at 400watts but I wanted the possibility of more light if I needed it.
Soulfire
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Art!

stevemac00- Do you use a 400W bulb in it? I know the site says that you can't but I'm a bit skeptical.
stevemac00
12 years ago
I'm not sure of the rationale except the bulb might be cheaper but wouldn't that savings would be gained in longevity in the higher rated bulb?

My ballast can't do that anyway as the ballast needs to bring the light up at full strength to heat the gases then it backs down to less power. This seems smart to me but I have no scientific basis for that opinion.