Gallium and multi-spectrum lamps have cooling requirements fairly equivalent to mercury lamps. Special care is required for iron lamps. If an iron lamp overheats, the iron will irreversibly become part of the quartz tube. This will not cause lamp failure but you will lose the iron portion of the UV spectrum.

Most metal halide lamps will not fail this way if operated according to the lamp manufacturer's instructions, but there is always the possibility. The likelihood of a non-passive failure is increased if the lamps are operated round the clock and not powered off at least once a week. The reason that the lamp can fail this way is inherent in their design. The center arc tube is made of quartz.

Metal Halide lamps should be changed at least every 6 to 12 months if you're burning them 18 hours per day. High Pressure Sodium bulbs, burned at 12 hours per day, will last between 6 months and a year and a half depending on the bulb.

You may have noticed that our metal halide light kits are more expensive than other models available online. The reason is that our light sources utilize HQI and electronic ballast technology. Less expensive kits use core-and-coil technology, which causes the annoying "buzzing" sound that you are used to in parking lots.

Yes and No. Some gas companies offer special incentives for the installation of certain gas A/C systems. In some cases, special rates are also available for residential customers.

The difference between these two types of HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights is the color spectrum that is emitted from each. The High Pressure Sodium bulb emits light that is concentrated in the red to yellow side of the spectrum and are weak in the blue-violet end. While the Metal Halide bulb emits light that is very balanced and contains all the energy peaks at wavelengths of the visible spectrum.

The ImagePro will physically fit into the Altman Shakespeare, ETC Source Four , Selecon Pacific, and the Strand SL. At the time of this writing, the following options had been tested: Altman Shakespeare CDM 150 – Fine. Normal lifespan of slide. ETC Source Four HID 150 – Fine. Slide lifepsan increase by approx 20%. ETC Source Four MSD 250 – Too hot. Slides burns out. Selecon Pacific MSR 575 – Fine. Normal lifespan of slide. Selecon Pacific 80v - Fine. Normal lifespan of slide.

Yes you can. You will need to change out the ballast, capacitor, ignitor and lamp. However, there are several cautions that must be taken: the metal halide wattage must be within the fixture limitations; the socket position may need adjustment; the reflector may be different or the ballast strapping may not fit properly. Please contact the factory for a specific product.

Pulse start metal halide is a new system that removes the ignitor from the lamp of a typical metal halide system and incorporates a high voltage ignitor with the ballast (similar to high pressure sodium), which improves the run up time of the lamps to two minutes.

ExceLine currently offers the electronic ballast in our "EB" Lumastar and "EB" Constar, we are willing to look at additional applications.

Metal halide lamps typically require between 100 and 200 hours of operation to "burn in." Lamps operated continuously should be powered off and allowed to cool a minimum of once per week. Performance of lamps can vary, even among those from the same manufacturing batch.

First, what type of natural light are you working with? When supplementing natural sunlight, use a High Pressure Sodium bulb to extend daylight in the early spring and fall. You can also use them on low light cloudy days. When no natural light is available at all, a Metal Halide bulb is most frequently used, , which is a very wide spectrum bulb perfect for indoor growing. Halide lights are excellent for vegetative growth for leafy plants like lettuce and basil.

Although both types of lighting systems appear very similar, the main difference becomes readily apparent when you turn them on. A Halide system emits a balanced white light similar to the spectrum of sunlight. This type of light promotes vegetative growth. A Sodium system emits a light spectrum and gives off a warmer colored light. This type of light helps stimulate a plant to produce flowers and fruit.

In our controlled trials, we found that High Pressure Sodium (versus Metal Halide) when used for an entire crop cycle, slightly but noticeably out performed Metal Halide. We have also found that High Pressure Sodium gives a marginally better yield if it used for the bloom phase and the Metal Halide performs slightly better during growth. Our results would not justify purchasing both the lights for growth and bloom but this may not be the case with all species and strains.

There are a couple of reasons growers switch between bulbs during different stages of plant growth. First, Sodium bulbs can make some plants grow "leggy" and stretched out due to the high yellow to red spectrum they give off. Halide bulbs tend to keep plants "tighter", with less space between internodes.

Although it pains us to say this...there are many people who don't understand their responsibilities in regard to shipping a package from the United States to a foreign country. First and foremost, it is your responsibility to know the ancillary or additional charges for shipping a package to your country. In other words, besides the actual cost of postage (shipping and handling), there may be customs fees, duties, excise taxes, local taxes, etc. that you may incur.

Our partners in China, the Hunan Provincial Education Department, require that our volunteers be native speakers of English, under the age of 65, and free of sexually transmitted infections.