HID bulbs without ballast?

Doctor Cannabis

Well-Known Member
I'm not an electrician. I only have the usual high school physics knowledge.

My question is, can you simply screw in a HID bulb in a normal fixture and plug that thing directly to the outlet? Is the ballast really necessary?

I do use a ballast, but the curiosity got the better of me, yet I don't wanna burn/destroy my bulb by simply using it without a ballast in order to find out. I prefer to wait for an answer.

Would, if it does work, the lumen output of the bulb suffer from using it without a ballast? I can suppose that the life of the bulb will be decreased.
 
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