Magnetic or electronic ballast?

newb19547

newb19547

Well-Known Member
So just wondering how big the differences really are between the two? My breaker trips every so often...would one ballast be safer and withstand the sometimes random outages? Is one a lot cooler? How much electricity do they use, etc.? Thinking of getting a 250 or 400 watt hps, the price is a lot more in my favor with the older magnetic ballasts.
 
Electronic ballasts offer lower temps, better efficiency - resulting in longer bulb life and lower operating costs (sometimes up to 50% less!). They're not amp whores either...a 1k lumatek ballast uses only 4.5 amps.

Plus they look much cooler.
 
Those smaller lights shouldn't trip a breaker no matter which type you get. It means you have too much other stuff on that same breaker and should put the light on another circuit. You can just run a fat extension cord to another circuit if need be, that's perfectly fine.

The difference is around 50w overhead for the mag ballast vs maybe 20 for the electronic ballast. 30watts one way or another is not going to change a thing. If you _can't_ fix the electric issue the electronic ballast may be better to protect your bulbs from premature wear due to powering back up while already hot. You're not supposed to power them back on after a outage you're supposed to give them 10 minutes or so to cool down first or it's hard on the bulb/ignitor. You'd have to check and see if the electronic ballast you are looking at has that protection or not. Mag ballasts don't have protection for this, you should be there to turn them back on manually after you've let them cool down first.
 
Yep Oregon's right. Look at your circuit load if your tripping out all the time. I think the max is like 1800 watts per 15A circuit, but I could be wrong. It's really more about the amps than watts anyway.

I would still recommend a digi ballast though. Especially because they just look cooler. ; )
 
I have the same problem. All my shade tree electricans say to up the circuit breaker by 5 amp. For example I'm on a 15 amp circuit and supposed to could jump it to a 20 real easy. Now for the anal retentive types it would require knowing the gauge of your house wires and calculating whether it could stand a 5 amp increase without burning down your crib. You just take out the old one and take it to Home depot and tell them you want one 5 amps higher. Simple huh?
 
bigwheel said:
I have the same problem. All my shade tree electricans say to up the circuit breaker by 5 amp. For example I'm on a 15 amp circuit and supposed to could jump it to a 20 real easy. Now for the anal retentive types it would require knowing the gauge of your house wires and calculating whether it could stand a 5 amp increase without burning down your crib. You just take out the old one and take it to Home depot and tell them you want one 5 amps higher. Simple huh?
Click to expand...

Well I would not like to die in a blaze of fire.....but is it really that easy? lol. I'm pretty sure my room+closet , a bathroom and 2 other rooms are all on the same circuit. I would love to upgrade if its actually that easy.
 
OregonMeds said:
Those smaller lights shouldn't trip a breaker no matter which type you get. It means you have too much other stuff on that same breaker and should put the light on another circuit. You can just run a fat extension cord to another circuit if need be, that's perfectly fine.
Click to expand...

I actually have 2 extension cords from our downstairs running upstairs to two 1500 watt heaters. Sometimes our power blows without us even turning anything new on for at least an hour....its weird.
 
If you are haveing all those problems maybe you should try floro lights they do not draw muck at all
 
newb19547 said:
I actually have 2 extension cords from our downstairs running upstairs to two 1500 watt heaters. Sometimes our power blows without us even turning anything new on for at least an hour....its weird.
Click to expand...

3kw just for electric heat you say do you? Well you could replace the electric heat with heat from lights and alternate two rooms 12/12 to basically get the exact same efficiency for heating but with free light also.

All lights are as good at creating heat as your electric heaters are.

I don't know how often your heaters have to run this winter to maintain the temp you like but if they run 50% duty on average then you could run two ~1500w rooms. It doesn't mean you have to fill the house with stink either, ducted lights or cooltubed lights will just pass the heat not smell.


All you need to add is fans to circulate the air from the grow into the rest of the upstairs.

Well and I guess you need that much space and then to deal with all that smoke.

But you might want to get an electrician to look at your wiring. Sounds to me like it's illegal if that many things are on the same circuit and maybe your breaker on the line that pops needs replacing.

You could just replace the breaker yourself and see if that does it, they're cheap and they just pop in and out but I would use the same rating. Unfortunately though I bet it's working just like it's supposed to and you need an electrician to break some of those rooms up into more circuits. I bet you're just right on the edge with it and the popping at random is just trying to tell you that.
 
Same rating? I have thought about running the heat from the lights to my room at least...but then i would have to have the door open 24/7 as I can't put holes anywhere cause I'm renting? And I currently use flouros..but wanna step up the lights for a better yield.
 
I leave my door open and live with the stink, running 2k. I suppose I could add carbon filters to filter the whole house, it's not that big.

I thought same rating just in the off chance the breaker itself is malfunctioning. You're already pushing your luck with that wiring it sounds like though if that many rooms are on the same line. Must be an old house not built to handle all of todays electric needs or somebody didn't wire it right. Lots of electricians are finding it hard to find work in this economy and offering deals you could check craigslist in the services section and get a decent deal from a legit company to get someone to look at it.

I know you said rental, but it would be worth it to me to pay for it myself in order to grow more like that... The owner doesn't need to know.
 
slump said:
Electronic ballasts offer lower temps, better efficiency - resulting in longer bulb life and lower operating costs (sometimes up to 50% less!). They're not amp whores either...a 1k lumatek ballast uses only 4.5 amps.

Plus they look much cooler.
Click to expand...

1k lumatek uses 4.5 amps @ 220 v, however it uses 9.0 amps @ 110v. :hump:
 
newb19547 said:
Also...anyone ever used on of these? http://cgi.ebay.com/250W-HPS-Sun-Sy...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1e59258fdd. Its got an awesome 5 year warranty and i wouldn't think heat would be a big problem as its pretty cool in there now (winter) and i have the door open quite a bit. This one has a better looking reflector (a little wider and open): http://cgi.ebay.com/250-WATTS-HPS-M...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2a030a7793. I think they are basically the cheapest 250 watters.
Click to expand...


anyone ever use one of these?
 
Tons of people use the first one, it's just a magnetic ballast inside the hood and only runs hps and is overpriced for what it is but will probably last forever.

The second one I'm not familiar with but is a digital that does both mh/hps and includes a lot more stuff for less money. But it's a noname generic digital.

If I had to choose, I'd choose neither. 250w is just not worth that kind of cash, it's just not. If you can handle a 400 you should buy one, if you can handle more buy more. You can buy a brand name budget 1k new for about that same money.

That 250 could easily be beaten with just $20-30 worth of cfl's from any average department store and they could care less about if your power goes out or if you power them on hot or cold.

I wouldn't normally ever encourage people to buy cfl's, but in your case maybe it's the best bet if you will be staying in that size range.

It doesn't mean you have to cheap out and string 10 little lights, you could, but maybe you should look at the larger cfl's though. They go all the way up to 200 actual watts or more.
 
Yea i thought about getting big CFLs. My main thing is I want a 400 watter....but don't want to have to get an inline fan and ducting, at least not right yet. I may go with a budget 400 watter with a generic hood for now. I actually like some of the open hoods as it looks like it will give better coverage. My closet is actually cold as it is and I do have a window fan I put up in the hole in the closet roof. I have it blowing air out into the attic. Heat shouldn't be in issue really. So i'm shootin for a 400 watter, electronic ballast and whatever reflector really.

ps. was just thinking....if I got an air coolable reflector could I just put a 6" PC fan on each end to at least get the hot air out of the reflector/light?

EDIT: Just found this seller: http://cgi.ebay.com/DIGITAL-OPEN-RE...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cea9ad4c4. He seems to have really good deals actually. The ballasts are UL certified and have a 3 year warranty (illumalights i think is the brand). One of the reflectors just has one vent on the top....that could work out pretty good actually. Seriously though....check out his other deals...really cheap.
 
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