Hi all

does anyone have any experience if using both a 400w and a 600w light in the same enviroment? I currently have 4x400w in an aircooled system, but am thinking of a complete new room refurb which will involve 600w lights and maybe ditching the aircooleds.

After reading a recent article on digital ballasts my 4x400w produce 220,000 lumens. But 2x 600w on a digital ballast i will produce 210,000 lumens (almost the same but using 400w less!). I assume this would also produce less heat?

The other option is to run 3x600w lights in an aircooled system which would use additional 220watts to my current setup but produce 315,000 lumens!!! an additional 50% more lumens for only 15% more leccy.

So i'm serioulsy considering upgrading the lights but it is really a matter of heat as im pretty maxxed out at the moment. Will a 600watt light produce 50% more heat than a 400watt light? It sound like it could in theory but i have a feeling that it wont in practice.

Unfortunatly i do not have the money or patience to experiment

Hello, just a point about the lumens, i know a 600w is the most efficient light putting out more lumens per watt than a 400w or a 1000w lamp, but having to have it higher off the canpoy reduces the lumens anyway. Removing the aircooled lighting and putting a 600 watt is like going one step forwards and two steps back imo.

Why can't you keep the aircooled lights and use 600's?

I'd say 2X600's would run much cooler than 4X400s, but 3 would run slightly hotter. Best way to try it would be to buy the 2 600's if you really want to go down that road, and if the temps are quite good then look into getting a third one.

Or just move more air through the room with bigger/more duct fans.