E-Ballast Anxiety

So Im trying to justify my purchase of digital lighting...so yesterday I made the move and bought a 400W/250W Dimmable lumatek for 120 shipped and a Digilux 400W HPS for 68 shipped. I think these prices are great and I did it to replace a problem I came upon with my lighting.

I have a 430W Magnetic ballast with a 430W EYE Hortilux light. I have had the light for about 7 years but have only used it for 3 grows, 1 grow every other year. A few days ago I bought a Kill-a-Watt power meter and measured the usage on my lighting. I have left it on for a few days now and the ballast and bulb draw a consistent 213W. This did not look good to me at all especially considering that I am in week 2 of flowering currently and I'm thinking I have 430W. Im not sure why the power measurement is so low, is it my bulb? is it my ballast? I dunno. Instead of figuring it out I simply upgraded to the mentioned digital setup.

Initially I like the idea of digital ballasts since they are dimmable, are more efficient, silent, and can strike a HPS and a MH lamp. Also the digital bulbs are like 20-30 bucks cheaper than the Hortilux bulbs, which are great by the way. But after ordering it I read something that really got me thinking if this was the right choice. Mainly the RF interference they create. I have wireless internet in my apartment and the landlord who lives below has a wireless router that gives off my internet. I have read that the interference these lights/ballasts give off can totally knock out your wireless internet.

I feel like I should have played it safe and just gotten a new 430 Hortilux bulb but its to late and the other stuff is on its way now. Can any one give their opinions about if I should be worried about interference or if I should have just stuck with my magnetic ballast and Hortilux lamp? Mind you I am also losing 30 watts of power to my light by goin from 430W to 400W. Did I make a good choice? I will find out when it gets here though. Thx for reading.

i would stick with magnetic, digital ballasts burn through bulbs way faster.

Don't take this as a challenge, cause I don't know anything as true or not - but your statement about digis burning through bulbs quicker, is that confirmed or just heresay? I know that there are bulbs designed specifically for digital ballasts, so could that be the difference? If that's the case, then I would think digital ballasts would be the better choice, right?

my digital ballast doesnt interfere with my wireless set up in my place, weird I would have never thought it even could.

It's possible, but I have 2800w of digital with no cell, tv, or wifi interference

i recently bought a 600w quantum and it runs WAY cooler than my coil ballast. also, there was a significant difference in lux between the two ballasts measured with a good quality lux meter. my 600 pulls 3 amps at 240v. i personally thought coils were a better way to go, but the upside to digital is amazing. that being said, i don't think all digitals are created equal. haven't heard good things about lumatek. as an electrician, any ballast that does super lumens tells me to stay away. i just don't see how you can safely boost lumens in that fashion. the analogy would be adding nitrous to your car. it will go faster but break down quicker because it wasn't designed for that extra power

LVTDY said:

Don't take this as a challenge, cause I don't know anything as true or not - but your statement about digis burning through bulbs quicker, is that confirmed or just heresay? I know that there are bulbs designed specifically for digital ballasts, so could that be the difference? If that's the case, then I would think digital ballasts would be the better choice, right?

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magnetic ballasts and bulbs work at a bout 60hertz, digi at like 20,000 or something like that, i believe that there is 1 company that makes digi bulbs but i wouldn't pay that much for a bulb, i get my 1000 watt mag ballasts(coil, cap, ignitor, the kind you have to wire yourself)) for $85 and 1000 watt hps bulb for $20. i dont see why people think because something costs more its better

some digital ballasts are shielded. the ones that aren't are the ones that cause you grief.

Interference really has to do with the particular ballast design. My HTG Digital ballast give me slight problems but not too bad. I have a 600w Lumatek 10' from my wireless and I have no problems whatsoever.

Lumateks are a great buy - I doubt you will have any trouble with it.

Hey errybody, thanks for your advice. Im really hoping that the bad stories of digital ballasts busting bulbs after 3 months doesn't happen to me or has been fixed with these ballasts. I hear the Lumateks are shielded more than other ballasts, at least they claim that so Im hoping not to have any problems. On paper the details sound legit and if I get just that I think I will be really happy. Once again the reason I upgraded was my watt meter read a low 213 watts. Does the wattage a bulb uses go down as its life goes down? 430 all the way to 213 seems awfully low. Could my ballast be bad? If it wasnt for the meter I wouldnt even know except prolly as my grow went on and I realized that my buds were really small.

Any one have opinions about digital bulbs and how well they flower? Once again thanks for your replies, they have eased my anxiety.

That seems wrong. either buy an easier to read multimeter or however you test it, and reconfirm it by finding an outlet thats not on the same circuit (different room should do it)

If it stays that way I would return it and buy locally if you got it off the net

I've never busted a bulb on any of my digital ballasts. I'm running a Lumatek high PAR bulb atm and it seems to be really kicking ass. Better flowering than the hortilux I was using previously.

I would recommend buying your bulbs from a local store with a return policy. Like I said I've never busted a bulb on my ballasts but it's nice to know that I have a 1 year guarantee on the bulb if I ever did.

I got my digital ballast and digilux bulb set up and everything is great. After reading so many bad reviews about digital ballasts I can say that none of those seem to apply to the new Lumatek ballasts. So far my light had ignited every time and no burned out bulbs (knocks on wood). All anxieties about this technology have been quelled and Im so happy that I went digital. No RF interference and my internet router is one floor below my ballast and perfect signal as usual. The ballast does run hot though, can only keep my hand there for about 3-4 sec max. Checked the wattage using my power meter and it reads 426 on the 400 setting and 446 on the 400 super lumens setting so about a 5% increase instead of the 10% they advertise. The unit is also UL listed so even better. Ability to run Metal halide is like 2 ballasts in 1.

Another great thing that I noticed is that the voltage coming out of the wall varies thought the day and is never a flat 120V unless there is nothing lugged in to there. With all my lights and fans the voltage drops down to 115-117V thought the day and the great thing about the digtal ballast is that its able to detect that voltage and pull the necessary amps to provide consistent wattage to my 400W lamp. Magnetics cant do this so I would be missing out on
Check out my grow below to see how a 400W digilux HPS flowers some Jack Flash #5.

Your ballast controls the wattage going to the bulb, not the otherway around. Where are you seeing this 213 watts? The only issue I have ever heard about electronic ballasts and bulbs is when using the hortilux bulbs. tHey have a very different frequency than most digi balllasts. Some of had problems, other have not. Digital ballasts are the bees knees. They are completely silent , run cooler, supply MORE light, and DON'T WEAR out like mag ballasts.

Cheap mag ballast and $20 bulb.....ummm no thanks.

I have been very happy with my 600w ushio ultra reds or whatever they are called.
Looking at buying new bulbs this month. I have heard good things about the digilux bulbs. Big claims about tons of PAR on the lumatek bulbs but it seems many are unimpressed with results.
I would say digilux or ushio for a digital ballast.

I love my digi! my magneto ballast drew more power and was hot. I got a Galaxy 600 (non dimmable) and it rocks. Heat is low..and it soft starts the bulb so it lasts longer than a magnetic. I have no interference issues either. I think some of the cheaper ballasts may be sketchy...but if you stick with Lumatek or Galaxy you should be ok. Those $200 ebay specials kinda scare me...and so do dimmable ballasts for some reason, id never use that feature anyhow..so it dotn matter to me.

legallyflying said:

Your ballast controls the wattage going to the bulb, not the otherway around. Where are you seeing this 213 watts?

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The 213 watts is the power the ballast is drawing with the 430W hortilux bulb. I measure this with my Kill-a-Watt power meter. I connect it to the outlet then power meter then ballast plug. I didnt know if it was the bulb that was dieing or the ballast and from what you say it looks like the ballast was dieing but then again I didn't try a different bulb so I really don't know. The bulb was old tho.

I have made the choice to go digital and Im so glad I did Im very happy with it and I run my digilux 400HPS on superlumens and it works great. Without the super lumens on regular 400W the Lumatek ballast draws 426W and on the super lumens setting it draws 446, so a 20 watt difference and 5% increase in output. The bulb does get brighter and I'm sure you get more lumens PARS and light output. Since they are digital bulbs I'm sure they can handle the extra 20Watts no problem. Maybe a little more wear than usual but I don't mind.