Calling all electricians and DIYers: Help me turn this 250w HPS into remote ballast

Howdy

Just went out and bought a couple 250w HPS lights for $30 off Craigslist. I want to turn one of them into a remote ballast and if successful, use or sell the other.

Right now, these are on 277vac, perfectly useless for my purposes. So first step will be to go into the ballast and switch it over to 120vac. I am pretty handy but electricity scares me and I want to be safe as possible. I will make frequent updates as I go along and when I get stuck.

Please, anyone good with electricity feel free to jump in and help me along. I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks everyone! And good luck

Well, I have it disassembled to the guts, and it looks like this is going to be incredibly simple. However, for safety sake, I ask all those knowledgeable about electricity to chime in at this point.

The negative (white) wire was connected to the wire that said 'com', and I assume that it will go back this way.

The black (positive) wire was connected to the wire that said '277'. I assume I am going to ignore this wire, as well as the ones that say '208' and '240' and go right for the wire that says '120'. I will, however, go back and cap the '208', '240', and '277' wires.

Now, I have some questions....

1) What type of wires (what gauge) should I use to extend the mogul away from the ballast?

2) Can I wire the wall plug right onto the yellow wires that say 'com' and '120', or should I use some lengths of black and white wire in between?

3) What the hell do I do with the the ground wire? Does this need to wire to the wall plug?

4) What am I missing? Does it sound like I am on the right track? Or am I going to blow myself/house to smitherines?

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can provide. RIU rocks

By the way, here is how it looks now. One picture is the guts and the other picture is the scrap housing.

you are on the right track... and i would use that orange extension cord that lots of people use... i believe its 13 amp which i believe would hold 1560
120 volts x 13 amps = 1560 watts i believe that is right ... someone correct me please if its wrong. and you should have your extension cord going from the wall to the ballast and give it a few feet or so then use the other part of the cord to use to wire up the lamp.. and here is a pic i found that might help you out..

Using the leftover orange cord to extend the mogul away from the ballast is a great idea to save some money, thank you very much for that (+rep). Also, thanks for the diagram. I took apart the other one of these last night and figured out what to do with the ground wire.

I am headed off to get supplies and will test it when I get back. Provided everything works, I wil then construct a safety box to house/cool the whole ballast/cap/ignitor mess and a cool tube for the lamp since this bulb is 100 watts more than what I need but was just too good a deal to pass up.

If anyone Portlanders want a great deal on a 250 watt HPS, just let me know and I will refer you to the people selling them ($25 each but they want to get rid of them so they did 2 for $30).

dukeofbaja said:

Howdy

Just went out and bought a couple 250w HPS lights for $30 off Craigslist. I want to turn one of them into a remote ballast and if successful, use or sell the other.

Right now, these are on 277vac, perfectly useless for my purposes. So first step will be to go into the ballast and switch it over to 120vac. I am pretty handy but electricity scares me and I want to be safe as possible. I will make frequent updates as I go along and when I get stuck.

Please, anyone good with electricity feel free to jump in and help me along. I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks everyone! And good luck

Click to expand...

This is what you are looking for I did the same and it worked great.

It is a tutorial on how to change a industrial fixture to remote system

https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/164853-how-use-industrial-low-bay.html

crazy7605150 said:

you are on the right track... and i would use that orange extension cord that lots of people use... i believe its 13 amp which i believe would hold 1560
120 volts x 13 amps = 1560 watts i believe that is right ... someone correct me please if its wrong. and you should have your extension cord going from the wall to the ballast and give it a few feet or so then use the other part of the cord to use to wire up the lamp.. and here is a pic i found that might help you out..

Click to expand...

you are correct on the calculations. I use an outdoor 13 amp extension cord for my remote ballasted 400w hps.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions. Thanks Keico for the diagram.

I have all the materials here, now it is time to put it all together. The best extension cord I could find was rated for 75 degrees celcius, which should be good enough. I also bought a fire extinguisher just to be safe though, lol.

well im glade this has helped you out.... what i did for my ballast after i took apart a outdoor security light is throw it into a computer power supply... i gutted an old computer power supply and just screwed everything into that... if you have a big enough one u can even put a fan on it or something....

SUCCESS! This thing is so bright I can't even look at it with sunglasses on. Incredible.

Now it is time to get on the whole coolbox and cooltube designs.

A million thanks to everyone.

Here is a photo...the ground wire is just grounded to a piece of scrap casing I had leftover until I build the coolbox.

cool im glad to see you got it working... i cant wait to see the cooltube setup

What do you plan on doing for a cool tube? I've heard you can get a cheap pyrex tube called a bake-a-round that works pretty well

Thanks to everyone for the help on this. Everything has been up and running for a month or so and I want to share the success story.

I made the cooltube using a vase instead of a Pyrex Bake a Round because the Pyrex would have costed $35 shipped, whereas I bought the glass vase for $10. I changed it from a cylinder to a tube by slicing it in hlf with this cool trick, which I showcased on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9etHD9F90E ) . I secured it to the exhaust using a 3'' to 4'' PVC increaser, a hose clamp, and a collar I made using scrap sheet metal. I attached a PC fan on one end (using more scrap sheet metal and a hose clamp) to blow directly over the light and back into the exhaust. The glass stays cool to the touch which is good, since my main reason for wanting the Pyrex was ability to withstand heat. This vase may block more light than a Pyrex, but that's OK since I have 100w more than I need anyway.

The coolbox that houses the ballast, capacitator and ignitor is made from a damper I bought at Home Depot for $6. I bent it into a box, secured all the components inside, and ran extension cord out of either end. It also has a PC fan attached and stays cool to the touch. I have this in my veg layer to increase temps a touch.

Total costs:

Damper for sheet metal: $6
Extension cord: $8
Glass vase: $10
Hose clamps: $6
Hardware: $7
PC fans: $8
PVC increaser: $6
Complete 250 watt HPS: $15

Total costs for 250w HPS w/remote ballast and cooltube completely installed: $64

Thank you to everyone for your help, and please let me know if you have questions. I will check back once in a while.

just a warning to anyone using extension cords to remote the bulb from the ballast.
most cords are rated for 300 volts, the ballast puts out over 600 volts so you are not to code and the cord is also not rated for the heat near the bulb and after a few yrs, the cord may get brittle near the bulb from the heat.
that being said,I have done this for yrs w/out a problem,just check the cord every few months & if brittle,replace and dont handle it when power is on.

Right on!

I love getting this type of good information. That said, this cord is rated for 600v and 75 celcius, and also stays cool to the touch in ambient air. With this advice, I will be replacing it every time it is convenient, or every 1- 2 years depending on condition,

My overall goal with an HID light is to stay safe, and never use my fire extinguisher o renters' insurance.

Good luck, and thanks.

Andy

Also, high temperature wire (which I would have preferred to use) was not available locally and would have had to been ordered online in bulk. After non-extensive testing, I decided to take my chances with the best cord I could find. I could have bought cord rated to 105 celcius and 600v at the gizmo store for less, but opted to try the suggested cord.

Here's to hoping for no shorts.