400 or 600 hps?

dbkick

Well-Known Member
Oh the galaxy boasts 99.9 % efficiency where the solis only claims 99%. One up for Galaxy.
Galaxy states to only use turbo charge on 1kw lamps. I assume turbo charge is the equivalent of solis boost which although worthless in my mind you can use on any wattage lamp.So they do have their differences no matter how small.
Other than that pretty much the same ballast. Same features but we really don't know where parts are sourced and I'm sure there's some differences there. Galaxy 3 year warranty where solis has a 5 year warranty.
 
That's actually another misleading marketing tactic unfortunately. There is a huge difference in driver efficiency and power factor.

Driver efficiency is how efficient the ballast turns your standard 120/240v into whatever waveform your bulbs use - that's the efficiency you want to take note of. One of the dead giveaways that these ballasts aren't as efficient as they claim is the fact that they're huge and have to act as a heat sink to lead heat away. A 99.9% efficient ballast as a whole would only need to radiate 1 watt - around your cellphone when it's working hard. You don't need metal fins for that. If it's operational and really 99.9% efficient you wouldn't even be able to feel it by touching it - it would actually feel cool.

Power factor, which if you look at their spec sheet, is what they're actually rating as "efficiency" which is misleading at best or lying at worst. That's how efficient the ballast converts your input voltage to feed the driver. So really it would be 0.99 * 0.93 (Jayo driver efficiency as told by Mike) - 80 watts becomes waste heat in the ballast which would make the ballast quite warm indeed.

Also keep in mind the power factor advertised by Jayo is >= 99 so .999 is possible.

Solis/Jayo/Galaxy digital are all actually quite inefficient compared to some other competitors. The best I've found so far is Gavita which has a PF of ~98% and driver efficiency of 95(120v)-98(240v)%

That minor difference in efficiency will likely end up saving me the cost difference in the ballasts and then some.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
I'm on to bigger and better things anyway. those LEC 315 do a number.
If I ever go back to high wattage HID I'll be surprised.
Now to get rid of two matrix , one luxor and a couple other air cooled hoods.
Posted one setup on craigs and the only reply I got was "got any product?"
bwhhahaha. My ad didn't mention anything about product. Then the dude throws a guilt trip on me and says something about growers courtesy or some shit like that. Did I feel guilty? hell no, there's plenty of ads on craigs for product.
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
op, sorry to dominate your thread but it was worth it, I learned a few things about solis and even though I like their ballasts I don't think they'll be getting anymore coin from me, I was thinking about the HiLED but I believe I'm done with solis. I was kinda done with them when I found out they are sleeping with sunpulse!
 
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