check this electronic ballast out

lumatek |

30% more lumens!

is it true?

somebody who knows ballasts please reply!

I can't quote you any statistics, but I have had magnetic ballasts and electronic ballasts, and the plants seem to like the high-frequency light pulsing from bulbs driven by an electronic ballast more than the slow-pulsing light that magnetic ballasts generate. Electronic ballasts also run cooler and quieter, and they're quite a bit smaller and lighter too. I've had one running for three years now with no probs and just replaced my 1000-watt magnetic ballast with two 600-watt electronic (Lumatek) ballasts over the last year, everything's been working just great.

thank man!

so with an electronic ballast running a 250 hps we are closing in on the classic 400 hps (which i use as of now) ..?

thing is: i m gonna have to move my set up to my living room - i love the 400, but i am worried about blowing fuses (tv, pc, xbox, fans, oven, lamps, stereo and a 400 hps ...

so i was thinkin (hard) - that maybe an electronic ballast and a 250 could somehow do the job just as well.... in a medium sized Secret Jardin grow tent...

any comments?

onebyte said:

thing is: i m gonna have to move my set up to my living room - i love the 400, but i am worried about blowing fuses (tv, pc, xbox, fans, oven, lamps, stereo and a 400 hps ...

any comments?

Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread, but I have a contribution. I was worried about tripping fuses in my house, because I have it in my bedroom which is on one circuit with my main bathroom.

Anyways, I wanted to test things out. The circuit is on a 30A fuse, and it did not trip when running all this: 8 x 40w incandescent bulbs, clothes washer, and dryer (they are around 10 years old, so no energy saver models), two laptop computers, two clock radios, 6 strings of faerie lights, 2 - 100w porch lights, everything in my grow closet (two airpumps, 2 normal fans, 2 muffin fans, 1 - 465 cfm duct fan, 400w Magnetic hps ballast, digital ppm/ pH meter. And to top it all off, I plugged in my power drill and gave it a whirl. All that did not trip the breaker.

Also, that one circuit all comes through 12/2 run about 50 ft from the main panel before being broken up into all the fixtures and still does ok.