How to Choose the Best HPS Grow Light for Your Plants?

Introduction

When you are growing your weed indoors, you are at a certain disadvantage as compared to the person growing their weed outdoors. The one growing their weed outside has the advantage of using the natural light from the sun for the proper growth of their crops. You can however use lights to achieve the same lighting effects outdoors crops receive from the sun.

Indoor growers have the option of using LED grow lights or high-pressure sodium HPS grow lights among many others. We have discussed a number of LED grow lights in our previous articles and today, we focus on HPS grow lights. HPS Grow Lights are unique in their own way.

They come with different performances and designs as compared to other grow lights. When it comes to generating lumens for your indoor weed, HPS lamps are the best as they provide very adequate lighting capabilities. They are better than incandescent bulbs by a large margin and they are great energy savers.

What Is an HPS Grow Light?

High-pressure sodium (HPS) grow light bulb.HPS (high pressure sodium) grow lights are one type of HID (high intensity discharge) light. HID lights are all filled with gas that emits light when it’s heated. The difference between the types of bulbs (mainly HPS and CMH) has to do with what gases and chemicals they contain.

HPS Light Design: HPS bulbs generally contain sodium, mercury, and xenon. These chemicals are held inside what’s called an arc tube. This arc tube is typically made up of aluminum oxide ceramic, and the bulb is powered by a ballast that ignites the gas by sending energy through the arc tube.

HPS Light Spectrum and Intensity: HPS grow lights have lots of red, orange, and yellow in their spectrum. This makes them an ideal grow light option for flowering plants.

While HPS lights do offer some blue light from xenon, their blue levels tend to be lower than other types of bulbs. As a result, they’re not always the best choice when it comes to vegetative growth.

Overall, HPS lights are pretty good at mimicking natural sunlight when it comes to color and temperature.

How HPS Light Works

HPS light works by using ballast, which creates a pulse that stirs the gas in the bulbs or lamps. The ballast first ignites the xenon gas, which in turn generates a flow of electrons. The electrons heat up the arc producing a pale blue light. After this, the arc vapors mercury into gas generating a deeper blue color. Finally, the sodium gas vapors turn the arc into a yellow color spectrum.

These are all the colours that provide lighting effects that influence the growth of the crops. All the colours have different wavelengths depending on the gases inside them. Majority of the HPS bulbs are ideal for the flowering phases of the crops because of their orange and red lights.

Though you can use the lights for other stages, it is better to supplement HPS grow lights with other lights during the other growing stages for even better yields. Before we look at the advantages and disadvantages of HPS grow light, we did a roundup of the best HPS grow lights in the market and came up with the following 3 products that you cannot afford not to try if you want the best out of your cannabis.

ECO Farm HPS/MH 1000W Double Ended Grow Light Hydroponic Grow Kit

Features:

ECO Farm HPS grow light provides 35% more available energy than the standard high pressure sodium lamp. The jacket is made from quartz glass. 

High output of PAR light (2,050 μmol/s) promotes photosynthesis.

High-efficiency, full-spectrum lights: Ideal for plant growth stages, trigger rapid growth, speed up turnaround time and improve the overall efficiency of indoor gardens.

The absence of frame wire eliminates any shadows in the beam.

MH grow light bulb can emit an enhanced blue and violet spectrum that is among the most energy-efficient sources of indoor lighting and extends the growing season.

Street Light DE HPS 1000W with Fixed Reflector Grow Light

Features:

High-frequency digital dimmable ballast, 400 Volt DE technology provides excellent light output and fantastic spectrum, with 4 output settings-600w, 750w, 1000w, 1150w.

The highly reflective 1000W full luminaire accelerates growth and provides excellent control. Excellent color rendering, excellent quality.

Full spectrum lamp: includes a super HPS double-ended 1000W HPS bulb, high standard output, 35% more energy available than standard HPS bulbs.

Hang the grow light at an appropriate height above the plant canopy. We recommend that the distance from the lamp to the canopy is approximately 700 mm (27-28 inches).

 Iluminar 1000w DE HPS Complete Commercial Grow Light

Features:

High frequency digital dimmable ballast: 120V-240V designed for double-ended growth lamp 1000W (HPS/MH), adjustable to 600/750/825/1000/1150W output.

High reflectivity: The sturdy reflector is made of German aluminum, the reflectivity reaches 96%, the quality is excellent, and the candle holder is of excellent quality.

Full spectrum lamp: Including a HPS double-ended 1000W HPS bulb, high standard 2100um+ output and enhanced PAR maintenance rate for more than 10,000 hours (> 95%).

It penetrates the plant canopy more deeply than other lamps, thereby increasing the content of essential oils, resins and terpenes, and increasing the growth rate and explosive yield.

Benefits of Using HPS Grow Lights

Growing house plants under an HPS grow light.So why should you use an HPS grow light as opposed to all the other types of grow lights on the market? There are a number of benefits to these lights that make them among the best available.

They’re Affordable: For starters, HPS bulbs are as affordable as grow lights come, and you’re not sacrificing any quality for the price! Many powerful, high-end HPS lights are still cheaper than LED lights. Plus, if one part of your HPS light system fails, it’s easy and cost-efficient to replace as opposed to having to buy a whole new system.

Due to their affordability, HPS lights are an especially good option for less experienced growers who aren’t quite ready to go all out on an expensive system right off the bat.

They’re Dimmable: Another factor to consider is the fact that HPS lights typically all have dimmable ballasts. This makes it easy to control the intensity of light your plants are getting to ensure they aren’t overwhelmed.

They’re Powerful and Effective: One of the biggest benefits of HPS grow lights is their high potential for power. A 1000w HPS bulb gives off 130,000 lumens! Overall, they’re way more powerful than CMH and even LED lights.

All this power means they can help produce incredible, abundant yields — and they can do it fast! They also offer a light color and temperature that’s sure to promote great flowering in your plants.

Flexibility: There are a lot of different types of reflectors available when it comes to HPS grow lights, especially compared to other varieties of grow lights. This means maximum flexibility in order to create the perfect, customized setup for your grow room.

When you’re choosing HPS lights, you also have the option to choose between single-ended and double-ended lights, which have different benefits.

Things to Consider When Buying HPS Grow Lights

First of all, you’ll want to consider whether you have enough ceiling space to handle HPS lights. If you look at any distance-from-foliage chart for HPS grow lights, you’ll see that 1000W bulbs need to be hung at least 24″ from the top of the plant canopy. 

If you’ve got the space for growing weed indoors with high-pressure sodium lights, here are a few more things to consider:

Coverage Area

Like all types of grow light bulbs, HPSs come in a range of sizes and wattages. The size and wattage value you choose determines the light’s coverage area (and the hanging distance from the plant canopy). 

The higher the wattage, the greater the coverage area and the more distance required from bulb to canopy. The most common wattages for HPS lights are 150, 250, 400, 600, and 1000. A 150W bulb can handle a 1.5’x1.5’ space while 1000W can handle 6’x6’. 

Single or Double-Ended

Single-ended HPS bulbs look like a traditional incandescent lightbulb that is screwed in on just one side. Double-ended bulbs look more like fluorescents since they screw into the system on both sides. So which one is better, single or double-ended?

Double-ended HPSgrow lights are pricier, but they also come with a lot of advantages. Both the pros and weed-growing hobbyists are using double-ended HPS systems for maximum yields and more even distribution of light. 

But if you’re a beginner, it’s completely understandable to start with a more basic (not to mention more affordable) single-ended HPS. 

Air-Cooled Design

So you already know that one of the drawbacks to using HPS grow lights is the high heat output, but there’s a solution: the air-cooled design. Air-cooled lights work to eliminate excess heat from the garden. Here’s how… 

The heat from the bulb is contained within a chamber (there’s a sheet of glass keeping the heat from escaping over the plant canopy). There’s a venting hole in the light’s hood for ducting (usually 4 or 6”), allowing you to pump the heat from the light chamber out of the grow room.

If you’ve got the money to spend, we recommend buying an air-cooled HPS. But since this is more advanced technology, low-scale growers with strict budgets often think of other ways to cool down the room or tent.

Cost & Warranty

Cost is an obvious buying factor, but the good news is that the average price of HPS grow lights is less than LEDs. Just try to avoid anything that’s suspiciously cheap – it’s probably cheap for a reason. 

Conclusion

There are a lot of factors that can influence your decision. You choose the best HPS grow light according to the size of your garden and your own needs.

Like l mentioned, I advise you to start with an HPS grow light kit. Therefore, due to the efficiency, l would recommend ECO Farm HPS Grow Light kit for you. I hope that these reviews will help you to make the best conditions for your plants.