Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a question concerning a hps lighting setup. Clint

shoot.
-----
-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

Hey bud, i hope you know your sparks, I have a 1000w high pressure sodium lamp. When i run this thing in a spare bedroom it gets way to warm. What i would like to do is put it on a dimmer switch or use a lower watt bulb, 600w i was thinking. Is either of these an option? The altenative is buy a fan and hook it up to a cooling thermostat, i would like to avoid this if at all possible. I got this light last year and was growing my orchids and vegis with it, i would like to put my snakes in this room as well, but as is the light brings the temps up to 90 degrees. If you need any specs from the transformer let me know. Clint

Reading your thread. Near as I could figure you could use a dimmer and lower the output of the light. But that would decrease the lumen factor of the bulb and then whats the point if you don't need the light. Just go with regular flouresents.
You could put the lamp behind a sheet of glass and ventelate that area. with a fan like you were saying. What ever you do remember HID and HPS lighting runs off of a ballast for a reason. The standard 110v wall output isn't sufficient they require something in the 25000v range. Good luck trying to dim that.

As Bighurt stated dimming wont work it will burn outthe xformer. Depending on the type light and taps it has off the xformer it may be possible to wire it for a different wattage light. but dimming will only cause a wallet hurt when the xformer burns out.
-----
Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....My Boa Can Kick Your Boas _ss!www.cheapcages.com
Visit the new website while the Jungle gets made over.

yea ... no dimming.... but you can go down in wattage on your bulb... if you can find another bulb with a lower wattage and the same sized base. the base size is going to be the hard part - usually smaller wattages use smaller bases.
-----
-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

My Website
N. American Rat/Corn snake care sheet I wrote
Information on substrates

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

The bases are the same ,buck up before you buck up dude, this is my house. There can be no chances taken. Clint

I can't take chances with this, all the bulb bases are the same size 400w, 600w, 1000w. its doable but i'm unfamiliar with how transformers work, i see a potential for a hazard here. I've negated the idea of a dimmer, thanx to those who replied. I emailed the co. twice now with no reply, i was really hoping someone here had some insight, very expensive light. Clint

I'm not to concerned about the lumine output, as the specs give my room full coverage. I could use a little dimming as all the plants don't need full sun requirements. The others here say don't dim, what are your thoughts? This light runs off of a transformer, i'm just a dumb mason, i need facts from a qualified sparky. No offense but no guessing either as its a 500 dollar setup, burning up the transformer or my home is not an option. Clint

the lamp works off of a ballast, that ballast is speciffic to the wattage and type of bulb you have a 1000watt ballast therefore you must use 1000 watt bulb, you cant use a 400/600 watt bulb in a 1000watt hps, nor could you use a 1000watt in the 400-600 hps, it will explode if you try it, go with the cooling system.