Lighting Question 3 lights 1 ballist?

Hey everyone, just had a question that i need a second opinion on. TECHNICALLY, it should work if you have 3-200watt HPS lights, hooked up in SERIES, on a 600watt ballist.

Can anyone prove or disprove this idea? I just really dont want to buy 3 ballists if i can have them all on 1.

Cheers!

bump please, anyone?

it sounds like it could be a fire hazzard.

I too would like to know this.

From the standpoint of power consumption I would think it should work. I would think parallell would work as each lamp would take an equal amount of the available energy totalling up to the required wattage. If this would work it would greatly simplify a cabnet grow with say 4-100w HPS and 2-260watt sulfur plasma.

NavySupra said:

I too would like to know this.

From the standpoint of power consumption I would think it should work. I would think parallell would work as each lamp would take an equal amount of the available energy totalling up to the required wattage. If this would work it would greatly simplify a cabnet grow with say 4-100w HPS and 2-260watt sulfur plasma.

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If you did it in parallel, it would give each 200 watt light, 600 watts, no?

Sorry - but there are a couple things working against you here:

1.The ballast has 2 stages for the "On" position - Igniton & Run. "Ignition" is when the bulb first lights up, or "Strikes" - this is an ultra high power "Zap" to get the "show started". Once the bulb has fully ignited, the ballast drops the power down to "Run mode". If all 3 of your bulbs "Strike" at the exact same moment, this might work; but I think that is pretty unlikely. HID bulbs all seem to ignite at thier own liesure.

2. The selection of 200 watt HID bulbs is very limited, even at 1,000bulbs.com.

But on the other hand, "Best of luck to you"! If this works, let us know - I would love to try 4 "250'"s in a 1,000 watt ballast!

yea man what cammo said im an electrician and there is know way that will work once started would run fine sure but there is know way to ignite all three with one capp. sorry

remove the 1 cap and wire in 3 smaller caps , 1 for each bulb?

I've looked at the phillips site, and around and I've had no luck finding electronic 70 or 100 watt HPS ballasts, but quite a few for Mh. For my plans, I think I'll need more of the red from the HPS to fill in for the Sulfur plasma.

Running lamps in series or parallel would solve a number of issues for me. Is there any fire hazzard, if I was to use an old style magnetic 150 watt ballast to try and fire up two 70 watt hps lamps? What would be the ideal way to try, series or parallel? What should I watch out for?

So what if you had 3-250s on a 1000 watt ballast? How much extra power is it really consuming? can anyone put a volt meter on their light the next time it starts? It would be much appreciated! Thanks!

I accept with informationarallell would work as each lamp would take an equal amount of the available energy totalling up to the required wattage. If this would work it would greatly simplify a cabnet grow with say 4-100w HPS and 2-260watt sulfur plasma.

futasty said:

I accept with informationarallell would work as each lamp would take an equal amount of the available energy totalling up to the required wattage. If this would work it would greatly simplify a cabnet grow with say 4-100w HPS and 2-260watt sulfur plasma.

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I'm dropping my current Sulfur Plasma plans, mostly due to cost, in favour of running two 400 watt Philips ColorMaster HPS-Retro White's Ceramic Metal Halide.

I hope to experiment with sulfur plasma in the future, but the CMH is a highly cost effective alternative... enough so to run two ballasts and not worry about lamp ignition issues.

well if u really want to know ifit will work buy or study a dual 600 if theres two igniters then it wouldnt work each light would have to be ignited on it own igniter if thatmakes sense idk, but whos knows im no electrican junkie

This site here claims the HPS will use 10 more volts during ignition, up to 400 watt bulbs anyways:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/253736467/INNER_IGNITION_HIGH_PRESSURE_SODIUM_LAMP_ED_SHAPE_.html