lighting?

[littlechub]

newb here so bear with me! i have a chance to buy 6 400 watt metal halide lights for a really really cheap price. the shop im building is a 30 x40 pole barn with 12 ft sidewalls. i guess i dont know much about these lights and need a few answers/ opinions. first of all how well will 6 of these lights plus some 8 ft flouresents light up my shop? will the performance be affected by my low ceiling height? a buddy tells me that he had trouble with his getting too hot in the summer time and shutting off? thanks for any advice and opinions.

 

[Franz©]

6 400 watt MH lights will get you halfway to the place being lit for hydroponic growing.
3 down thru the center of the prak should make it very bright inside. Heat shouldn't be a problem with a quality fixture.

They do have a warmup period, and you'll need to pay attention to fixture design and orientation, some MH bulbs are position sensitive. If they are Hi Bay fixtures you'll need to modify the reflectors or they will be close to worthless.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Metal reflectors? or Acrylic? High bay fixtures tend to have a much more focused light beam with less spread, this is to get the light to the floor from a great height. Low bay fixtures are designed to spread the light more and not project it as far straight down.

With 12 ft walls you need to mount these lights as high as possible. Six lights, two rows of three, the thirty foot way thats 15 ft apart and 7-1/2 ft from the walls, and the 40 ft way they will be 10 ft apart and 10 ft from the walls. If they are low bay, and you are able to get them fairly high, that should be sufficient light.

If they don't have wire pigtails and plugs on them, be sure to use 105C rated wire and wire nuts on the pigtails. These things do get hot.

Charles

 

[theblur98ss]

6 of these should be more then enough. I was in a 36x48 with 4 of these the other day and it was super bright. He had white ceilings and walls.