Overdriving Fluorescent Lights

It seems like overdriven T5HO's really have the potential of competing with HID's. Ex: Two 8-lamp T5HO setups (total of 16 bulbs), when overdriven 2x will put out 1.7 times their rated output. In this case that would be 16bulbs X 5000 lumens per bulb = 80,000 lumens. Multiplied by 1.7 (when overdriven by factor of 2) give you 136,000 lumens. That is on par with a 1000w HPS, which get around 140,000 lumens.

Here is the question: Does anyone know how much wattage an overdriven bulb actually consumes?

If you overdrive an 8-bulb sunblaze that normally runs at 432 watts (8x54 watts) 2x by putting on two extra 216w ballasts, so that you have a total of four 216w ballasts, each powering just two bulbs, then the AVAILABLE power from the ballasts would be 128 watts per bulb, or 864 total watts. Now, would power consumption actually be that high? Would that be USING 864 watts of electricity? Do overdriven bulbs draw and consume ALL the wattage made available to them?

yup you basically doubled the electric usage, increased you fire hazard rish, stressed you gear and spent a ton to do so so basically its a lot more money, risk and work for the trade off of less heat but for $40 a cool tube does the same at no risk additive

Overdriving them can kill them.

Example - I simply screwed in 120v into 220v sockets.

They were bright as the sun

.. and burned out in 5 minutes

lol and cost a few bucks to see them burn lol

FilthyFletch said:

I read this but dont you loose light sort of since if you have 2 tube setup and turbo charge it you get 1 light that is only 1.7 times brighter meaning you lost .3 or 30% of the total light you had from 2 tubes plus coverage area is lowered? I guess you could spend 5 times the money to get the same light as half the amount of tubes would provide??

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Old post but going to answer anyways. FF you buy an additional ballast and wire that to the additional bulb, so overall you gain around .7 in lumen output.

FilthyFletch said:

yup you basically doubled the electric usage, increased you fire hazard rish, stressed you gear and spent a ton to do so so basically its a lot more money, risk and work for the trade off of less heat but for $40 a cool tube does the same at no risk additive

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You double the electrical expense of a fluoro. And it is as safe to do as being in your mommas womb. The t-5's I am not certain. I think the ballast in those are already overdriving so to speak. I only have experience with t-8's and t-12's. I know for certain there is no risk in doing this as long as everything is wired properly.

7xstall said:

this reminds me of "bridging out" an amp in a car...very cool idea.

i guess you could just get two cheapo shop lights take the ballast out of one and put in the other so each bulb has it's own?

maybe i missed it, do the ballasts have to be digital for this to work??


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Quoted from article:


I must issue a warning or three. If you don't know much about working with electricity, you should read up on electrical wiring techniques.
Don’t even think about using a magnetic ballast, it won’t work for overdriving fluorescent lights, and you might have a very smelly incident as the internals melt down.
Utilizing ODNO (Overdriven Normal Output) fluorescent lighting technology will likely void your warranty on ballast and/or bulbs. We are not responsible for damage caused by improper use or failures due to overdriving fluorescent lights.
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Use or install a GFCI fixture to plug your fluorescent fixture into after you&#8217;ve rewired it. Use a power strip with a circuit breaker on the strip if you don&#8217;t have a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. This will offer a degree of protection for you, if you&#8217;ve made a mistake in the wiring. Always make sure a ground wire is connected to the fixture! This is for safety and it helps the lamps to start when the metal reflector is grounded.