Using a Lumatek digital ballast with Philips Son-T pia Greenpower lamp

Hey guys, I am thinking of getting a new ballast, and I settled for the 400 watt digital ballast from Lumatek. The main reason is that it is dimmable. Would I be correct in assuming that if I would screw in a 400 watt lamp, and dim it down to 50%, it would use up 200 watt instead of 400? Are all HPS lamps compatible with this dimming feature?

I was looking at the 400 watt Philips Son-T pia Greenpower lamp to go with the ballast. Is it compatible with Lumatek ballasts and is it dimmable?

Does anyone have experience with either of these products (or both products) that they could share? I am downgrading from a 600 watt HPS with a magnetic ballast to save on electricity and reduce heat and noise. I plan on compensating for the lost light by using the Super Lumens feature built into the ballast, and sticking the lamp in a vertical cooltube to be able to place the plants closer. Would this make a significant difference to my power consumption?

Thanks for your time,
ddimebag

well a 400 in veg 18/6 costs the same as a 600 in flower 12/12 so use the 400 to veg then the 600 for flower! best of both worlds.

18 x 400 = 7200
12 x 600 = 7200

buy a cfl or t5 for veg then stick with the 600 for flower, i think you will be quite dissapointed going from the 6-4, also yes if you dim the 400 down to 50% then it only uses half the power,

I wont even be able to run the thing for 12/12...costs too much...I'll be supplementing with cfl's when the hps isnt on. The whole reason im going through this whole charade is that i can only use like 7 kW hour per day or so, and most of that is already used up by regular light and kitchen appliances. So it's either a part hps and part cfl grow, or nothing at all...and i need my meds...

Oh, and I already veg with cfls...but I used to have a couple of prized plants that I brought under the hps every time it went on...will be doing something like that again, I suppose...

I personally use the lumatek 600w dimmable, it also has a super lumens switch.

Does your 400w have super lumens switch ? If so this is supposed to be used when your lamp has started to degrade after approx 6months continual use.

I use a 400w FUTURETECH MH for veg 18/6
and a 600w sunmaster dual spectrum lamp for flowering 12/12

I have used the 600w sunmaster at 300w, 400w, 600w and the 300w 400w had lower power consumption when used.

Alot of MH lamps cannot be dimmed however the futuretech MH is capable of being dimmed by no more than 50%.



Hope this helped.





J

ddimebag said:

I wont even be able to run the thing for 12/12...costs too much...I'll be supplementing with cfl's when the hps isnt on. The whole reason im going through this whole charade is that i can only use like 7 kW hour per day or so, and most of that is already used up by regular light and kitchen appliances. So it's either a part hps and part cfl grow, or nothing at all...and i need my meds...

Oh, and I already veg with cfls...but I used to have a couple of prized plants that I brought under the hps every time it went on...will be doing something like that again, I suppose...

Click to expand...

ONLY 7kwh per day?????????

I use around 23kwh per day, before growing it was 13kwh per day. How come so little electric?




J

Thanks for your reply, it was very informative

Yeah, 7kWh per day...I thought it was crazy too...the landlord says thats what the "estimated amount" is for a household like mine...If I go over that (on average, during the course of a year) I have to pay for all the extra juice...a lot...
Im in the process of getting energy-saving lamps for the rest of the house to cut down as much as possible, but I already use so little that I feel like im in the stone age...