Heat question..

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Vaorbust

Member
What produces more heat in a HID light.. The buld or ballast?? And can you convert a HID light disighned for industry/parking lots, which contain the balast and light in one heavy duty housing, into a light with a remote ballast?
 
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goofy81

Well-Known Member
I've measured my 600w bulbs to be about 300-400+ Celsius. Ever been burnt by a bulb? They are seriously hot. The ballast, no matter how hot mine get, I can still bear it.

Also, I have my bulb and ballast in a separate room. The light room actually warms up quite a lot when the lights are on. The ballast room, not so much
 
V

Vaorbust

Member
Got it..I grow on a budget and found a source where i can get HPS/MH lights designed for parking lots and such for almost free. I did a closet grow with a 400w HPS with pretty good success, but damn they get hot. Like little heaters. I keep fans blowing directly on them. My room temp stays around 83f. Was just wondering if it would help to re-wire the light and put the ballast elsewhere outside the grow space..
 
V

Vaorbust

Member
bobdagrowah said:
The bulb causes more heat, and you can use the street light as a fixture just put it on a timer, remote though no
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Ok...so I can't re-wire one of these lights so the fixture/buld is in the grow space and the ballast is in another?. I'm not talking far.maybe 10'-20'.. Sorry to sound dumb man. This is why I posted this question in the newbie spot. Is that what a remote ballast is?..a ballast that isnt attached directly to the fixture?
 
bobdagrowah

bobdagrowah

Well-Known Member
You can but ballasts don't give off that much heat the bulb is where the heat comes from, so it'd b pointless just get an a/c for heat problems or an exhaust fan to take the heat out
 
V

Vaorbust

Member
bobdagrowah said:
What are you trying to achieve
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I'm trying
slinkysaurus said:
Some seriously back hills set up by the sounds of things!!! :bigjoint:

Not back hills at all..I can get 400 to 1000w HPS or MH lights for 1/3 the price as any grow light advertised on line...and they produce the EXACT same light. Why wouldnt i take advantage. I'm in the game to get the best smoke and yeilds for the least amount of cash. My original question was about possibly converting one of these lights to a remote ballast and/or if it would bring my temps down in my grow space. Thanks for your insite bobdagrowah
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Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
You would probably have to gut the street light and just reuse the components, rewiring them in a seperate box. We used to build our own back in the day, still have the old widow makers somewhere lol. The street lights are gonna be a bitch to mount properly and will most likely be magnetic as opposed to digital. Free is sometimes not worth it .... Trust me lol.
 
caveman117

caveman117

Well-Known Member
You can definitely separate the bulb/socket from the ballast. I have an old (80's) 250 mh that was all one unit. The ballast put out a lot of heat, not as Mich as the bulb but still quite a bit. Had a buddy come over whos an.electrician to check over what I did and he said its the way he would do it if he were going to.
It looked kinda janky and I was paranoid about it but it ran solid for around 14 months or so before I replaced it. As far as I know it would still run fine of I fired it up. I was only running an 8 foot lenghth from the bulb to outside of the veg area.
 
V

Vaorbust

Member
Budley Doright said:
You would probably have to gut the street light and just reuse the components, rewiring them in a seperate box. We used to build our own back in the day, still have the old widow makers somewhere lol. The street lights are gonna be a bitch to mount properly and will most likely be magnetic as opposed to digital. Free is sometimes not worth it .... Trust me lol.
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Just did a bunch of reading on digital vs magnetic and it turns out that there's still a ton of growers that still use magnetic and actually preferred them..and the reliability of digital ballasts seemed to be a major issue.. And it's so easy to rebuild a magnetic.. I'm definitely still learning, But at this point free seems well worth it.
 
V

Vaorbust

Member
caveman117 said:
You can definitely separate the bulb/socket from the ballast. I have an old (80's) 250 mh that was all one unit. The ballast put out a lot of heat, not as Mich as the bulb but still quite a bit. Had a buddy come over whos an.electrician to check over what I did and he said its the way he would do it if he were going to.
It looked kinda janky and I was paranoid about it but it ran solid for around 14 months or so before I replaced it. As far as I know it would still run fine of I fired it up. I was only running an 8 foot lenghth from the bulb to outside of the veg area.
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Thanks for the info.. Around 8 feet was exactly what I was thinking. I know that digital ballasts are much newer tech and more appealing, but considering the circumstances the goods just don't out way the bads. There's still a lot of people using mag. ballast with good results. And honestly I really like the idea of getting HID light for dirt cheap. And you can rebuild these lights in no time. The only thing I've really grown to dislike is the weight...these bitches are heavy as F.
 
bgmike8

bgmike8

Well-Known Member
Vaorbust said:
Got it..I grow on a budget and found a source where i can get HPS/MH lights designed for parking lots and such for almost free. I did a closet grow with a 400w HPS with pretty good success, but damn they get hot. Like little heaters. I keep fans blowing directly on them. My room temp stays around 83f. Was just wondering if it would help to re-wire the light and put the ballast elsewhere outside the grow space..
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Stealing street lights? Lol
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
Vaorbust said:
Just did a bunch of reading on digital vs magnetic and it turns out that there's still a ton of growers that still use magnetic and actually preferred them..and the reliability of digital ballasts seemed to be a major issue.. And it's so easy to rebuild a magnetic.. I'm definitely still learning, But at this point free seems well worth it.
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Yes it is easy and if your handy then have at'er but you'll probably need a good box (I use large junction box), and probably want new fixtures for the bulb as well as 10-12 gauge wire and box connectors. And yup my magnetic ones still work :). My digital have been running for 5 years now too.
 
Moflow

Moflow

Well-Known Member
goofy81 said:
I've measured my 600w bulbs to be about 300-400+ Celsius. Ever been burnt by a bulb? They are seriously hot. The ballast, no matter how hot mine get, I can still bear it.

Also, I have my bulb and ballast in a separate room. The light room actually warms up quite a lot when the lights are on. The ballast room, not so much
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Yes lol
I burnt my back on a 1000 watter once.... arrrrgh.
I was bent over , watering plants indoors one summer and it was scorcher so I'd my top off. I stepped back and my shoulder blade area came in contact with bulb.
Fecken painful as feck! I ran into toilet, soaked a load of bog roll and slapped it onto burn.
Aching sore lol.
I was sh*ting it, paranoid head on thinking how I would explain this burn at causualty lol lol Self treated it in the end though
 
caveman117

caveman117

Well-Known Member
I'm deffjnitely a fan of mag ballasts. I've had digitals and went back to mags. You may or may not be able to push a little more efficiency with digitals but the reliability of and life of mags makes up for that.

Not to mention the cost and availability.
 
Budley Doright

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I picked up my 1000 magnetic the other day and hurt my back :(. It's not working but at least I can fix it as opposed to my digitalis which are a solid hunk of plastic inside :(.
 
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