Yes you can definitely use it on your plants. I currently have a 400 watt metal halide light being used in the vegetative growth and will be switching to HPS for flowering/fruit. The 400 watters give off just shy of 50,000 lumens of light. There are MH bulbs available that provide enough of the reds to complete your whole grow with the MH bulb. Hydrofarm makes them. Does it say anywhere on the ballast if it takes bulbs of higher wattage by any chance? If not, 360 should work just fine and probably give you at least a 3x3 grow area.

I would check the reflectors as they are likely high-bay lights coming from a warehouse. High-bay reflectors are meant to be mounted at 20-30' above the floor to work properly.

Also check the ballasts as they fail, too.

I suspect that your plants will grow about 2X faster if you supplement the regular MH light with incandescent light, especially halogen. You can easily verify this by growing your plants under pure MH light except shine an incandescent floodlight on just one and noting the improvement in growth. If you follow this advice, please, let us know how well it worked.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look closer at this thing when I get back home from WI. It's still in the box. The only thing I have looked at is the bulb. I can't wait to get home and hang it up.

metal halide bulb = not energy efficent
my electric company charges .16 a killawatt hour, which is 1000 watts, so 400 watts cost you .04 a hour to run. If you use it 16 hours a day = .64 a day, 19.20 a month, $230 a year

here is the exact math
.16 cents killawatt hour / 1000 watts = .00016 cents per watt
.00016 * 360 watt light = .0576 per hour
.0576 * 16 = .92 cents a day
27.6 a month
331 a year

I can see that it's not very efficient, but when I have my current lighting setup on, then I don't have to turn on any other lights. I'm sure this thing will light up the room. Also, with the heat this thing will probably generate, I'm hoping to save on my gas bill. At least that's what I'm wishing for.

sambo, when i calculate efficiency i dont just calculate the price. the growth rate is also a huge part of the equation. thats what makes HID lighting more efficient.

Actually, HID lighting is the most efficient source available in terms of lumens/watt. Its more efficient than LED, fluorescent and etc.

Don't confuse cost with efficiency. Any light will cost money to run. The only way to reduce the cost is to reduce the light.

Do you really need 50,000 lumens to over winter cut back plants, or even for starting seeds? Maybe if you are trying to grow some of that purple stuff.

Does it take that much light to grow the happy plants? I was trying to get fresh peppers, but the flowers keep falling off. I do the exact same thing as I did when they were outdoors, but no peppers. I figured that meant I needed more light. The CFLs will get the plants going, but I just can't seem to get any fruit under them. Plus you can't turn down free.

If you are trying to get fruit, then yes you will need the metal halide bulb. I thought that you just wanted to grow seedlings or over winter the plants.

If you are going to have fruit inside, you will need from 30-50 watts/square foot of plant crown.

Lots of chiles have a mature plant crown of 7-10 square feet.