Virulent Amoeba
Well-Known Member
yes and also it uses more power to turn a light bulb on then to let it run 24/0
While the bulb may last longer by not turning them off and on, your not about to tell me, much less prove that it costs as much to turn on a HID as it does to run it for 6 hours!
The ballast would have to draw Ungodly amounts of Ampers for the 5 minutes it is warming up.
1000Watts @230VAC = ~4 Ampers(Amps)
6000W = ~24-25A @230VAC
to pull the same amount of electricity durring the 5 minute warm-up would require
6 hours @ 1K watts
12 5 minute periods to an hour
~4Ampers per 1Kw light
6 * 12 * ~4 = 288Ampers
The ballast would have to pull 288Ampers for a full 5 minutes to equal the power consumption used durring the 6 hour off cycle in question. Most houses MAIN breaker isn't big enough to support that!