so my 600 watt HPS bulb blew. i have no back up. so i stuck a 400 watt HPS bulb in there. what i am wondering. if it will damage my ballast? i have the ballast turned down to 75% power. but the bulb will take a 100% just dont know for how long. does the ballast adjust for the wattage of the bulb?
600w Digital Ballast 400w Bulb?
- Thread starter BULLDOGG
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polyarcturus
Well-Known Member
hmmm. i dont know, i know lot about mag. ballasts and the rules that you can bend there but with digital its a completely different ball game.
but here is what i can tell you for sure,
no the ballast does not adjust for the wattage of the bulb, they could make ballasts tha do that, but they offer full control of it to user via a switch.
if you run 100% power the bulb will receive 100% of that power so 600w on a 400w bulb, now not all bulbs are made to be able to run at higher and lower wattage's they have a tolerance limit, but note this affects several things, spectrum, bulb life, and additional heat produced, both by bulb and ballast.
so if i where you i would keep it dimmed and run the bulb as close to proper wattage as possible.
but here is what i can tell you for sure,
no the ballast does not adjust for the wattage of the bulb, they could make ballasts tha do that, but they offer full control of it to user via a switch.
if you run 100% power the bulb will receive 100% of that power so 600w on a 400w bulb, now not all bulbs are made to be able to run at higher and lower wattage's they have a tolerance limit, but note this affects several things, spectrum, bulb life, and additional heat produced, both by bulb and ballast.
so if i where you i would keep it dimmed and run the bulb as close to proper wattage as possible.
209 Cali closet grower
Well-Known Member
bro, your going to burn the house down doing that, or the bulb will blow, and cause a fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!REAL TALK!.
LOL. THAT'S WHAT I WAS TOLD. lmfao! you will be okay. Best to get the right bulb as soon as you can though. To get the most from your ballast.
No the ballast won't adjust to your bulb. your ballast will start at 600w and adjust down or up to what you want.
LOL. THAT'S WHAT I WAS TOLD. lmfao! you will be okay. Best to get the right bulb as soon as you can though. To get the most from your ballast.
No the ballast won't adjust to your bulb. your ballast will start at 600w and adjust down or up to what you want.
legallyflying
Well-Known Member
Dude, I run 400 bulbs at 600 watts with my digital ballasts all day long and have been for the past 3 years. I would not do it if they are not AC however. The 400's get really hot when juicing them to 600.
Cheers
Cheers
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
I'm wondering the reason why you run 400's long term instead of 600's?
legallyflying
Well-Known Member
Because I can run a $17 dollar sun master 400 MH and completely cook it in 3 cycles and just toss it, instead of buying $70 piece of utter shit digilux that will last 5 runs.
I have tried many of the reasonably priced MH bulbs, even the digilux, and could not tell the difference. If you have 1 or 2 bulbs, sure by an eye blue. But when your adding bulbs to your online shopping cart and you type in the number 18, you start to look for better deals.
Besides, the best damn 600 HPS I have ever run is also one of the cheapest! GE lucalux PSO
I have tried many of the reasonably priced MH bulbs, even the digilux, and could not tell the difference. If you have 1 or 2 bulbs, sure by an eye blue. But when your adding bulbs to your online shopping cart and you type in the number 18, you start to look for better deals.
Besides, the best damn 600 HPS I have ever run is also one of the cheapest! GE lucalux PSO
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
Gotcha. I bought a Digilux HPS 600 once. Looked good the first day, and it seemed to get steadily dimmer over the course of the next 6 months. I run a $60 ushio now.
I'm curious if you've done any light meter readings to compare a 400 lamp vs 600. Also, I'm curious how many amps the ballast actually pulls with the different lamps being burned. I could easily compare the lumens myself with my meter, which I plan to do sometime soon, but I wish I also had a par meter and an amp meter or kill-a-watt. I really want the multi-dimensional big picture info on this. I guess we would need a temp gun as well and throw those numbers into the mix too..
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
No. It's PJ Diaz.
tooteefrootee
Well-Known Member
eye hortilux are awesome bulbs, i use them too. the 1000 blues are expensive, i went to sunmaster cool deluxes and they are nice and blue at a third of the cost
