110 or 220 for I power 600 watt MH

Hello, I’m a 30 year outdoor Gurilla whose spent more than half his life dodging thieves, hunters and helicopters in Dixie.

I decided to give indoor a go again but it’s been 25 years since my last indoor grow in which I used a 600 watt MH. I gutted the back room of an old mobile home painted it flat white and ordered a 6 inch fan and an I power 600 watt metal halide hps combo.

I notice something right off the bat my old magnetic ballast was hot and hummed. This new digital has 4 settings 200, 400, 600 and super lumens. It has the option of going 110 or 220. Now the mobile home wiring was inadequate so I ran new 10/2 electrical wire on a 50 amp breaker. I hooked it up to 110 forgetting it could also be used on 220.

My question is what’s the difference in power usage, light intensity etc between the 110 and 220 option? Anyone running one on 220?

It’s been awhile " 25 years of smoke" but it seems like the heat off this bulb is way less than I remember a 600 watt magnetic MH being. I can put my hand to within 6 inches from this MH bulb before my hand gets warm. Seems like I remember my old one being hot at about 10 inches. I have ordered two 2000 watt led purples. " or whatever wattage as its a Chinese version that I can find no actual wall wattage on" for additional lighting. I plan on running 9 five gallon buckets on a 6 by 4ish footprint. ILGM White Widow Auto and Bruce Banner auto with a scrog net.

The evolution of autoflowers has led this old Gurilla indoors to see what the rage is all about. So I’m an auto newbie but a lifelong outdoor Gurilla in the previously most anti cannibis state in America as medical was just legalized. I hate taxes so doubt I’ll be participating.

I will be running my same soil mix of 1/3 peat, 1/3 super soil from my chicken pen slash compost pen 1/3 perlite with 2 cups domesticius earth, 1 cup lime, 1 cup gypsum, 2 cups oyster shell which phs to 6.5 I mix my soil in a wheelbarrow and ditched my fabric pots as outdoors the roots often get busted if they are moved and went with buckets for ease of moving them and went back to the 5 gallon buckets of yesteryear. My soil is always hot but I’ve found its better to get it 1200 ppm and water a week or so everyday down to say 500 ppm as it gives the lime time to work it’s magic and then top dress with a 5 5 5 organic mix with the bugs.

Least that’s what I’ve done outdoors for decades. I hope this works as good indoors in pots. Soil and such are getting off topic I know but felt the vets here would like to hear more about my setup. I use the domesticius earth as I’ve found it works magic on Gulf Coast sandy soil and the gypsum adds iron and sulfer which our soil seems to lack.

I plan on installing a window ac but with my door cracked and using an inkbird thermostat hooked to a heater and 6 inch inline fan ducted through a new roof exhaust vent I’m holding a pretty steady 77 degrees with 55% humidity. A humidifier is on its way. I am going to run 24hrs till sign of flower then go to 20/4.

The fan is my only concern works great, but it’s loud as hell. I hooked it to the 4 inch low wall vent that previously was used by a butane water heater and outside the wall you can hear it sucking air big-time so im gonna use it for my roof exhaust. It’s one of these vivosun jobs.

The noise is a concern so my next project is a fence to keep ears out of range. Meth head thieves are a concern around these parts and most of em were potheads before they started frying their brains. I got a dog or two that love biting methheads! I will be ordering a quite fan but I’m about tapped out as setting up indoor and running electricity has this old boy is wondering now how reading about auto flowers caused him to spend so much money to see if it’s true that an old dog and Gurilla can learn new tricks. We will see.

Outdoors the power never goes out and I guess now instead of worrying about helicopters and thieves I will worry about power outages.

Nice to meet you all, if I can ever be of service give me a shout.

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I got one more, is the 600 watt setting on the I power digital 600 watts? If so is the next setting up super lumens 600 watts or is it more? The super lumens seems brighter so is it more than 600? I still can’t believe a 600 watt mh now days runs off a ballast that’s as small as a car stereo amplifier and looks like one.

Welcome to the site I hope you like it. @dbrn32 may be able to help with your lighting questions. I have only run Led’s so I’m really no help with the MH…sorry.

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I couldn’t find a data sheet on the ballast, but most of the led drivers I work with run somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3% more efficient with higher input voltage. Probably similar on digital hid ballast. It would certainly run on lower current using 240v, but not that big of a deal running a single 600 imo. If you had a few of them would definitely make sense to run at higher voltage.

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I’m new to growing but not so new to electrical. You can use either voltages but the 120 volt Will run at 2x the amp draw as 240. If actual draw is 600 watts then 240 volts Will draw 2.5 amps where 120 volts Will draw 5 amps. Electric bill will be the same either way but 240 vac won’t heat the wiring and breaker as much as 120 vac.

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