How and where to house a ballast??!!

Ok this is for those people who are good with electrical stuff. I am not so I need some help so I dont burn my house down. I purchased a 400 watt hps ballast with reflector and liight for 75 bucks. It runs and fires up fine however it doenst have a housing. I dont know where to get one or really know what to do with it when i do get one. Do i just put all the pieces in there and call it a night or what? I was also unsure of how to ground it to the housing once i get it. THe light runs and works fine but im sure it isnt the safest to run without the housing. Any help would be awesome. Ill post some pics when i get home of what im working with. I just couldnt pass up a ballast light and reflector for 75 bucks! Thanks Funky

set it about 2' away from anything combustible, and place it on a ceramic plate or tile. no worries

the major issue with a ballast going bad is lots of smoke, not a lot of flame. other than the initial ballast heat, you should never have much of a problem.

I set up a 400 watt ballast housed in a metal mailbox. I wired it and it turned on fine with a very quiet hum. Once i rigged everything up in my box and tried firing it up it just hummed and didnt fire the bulb, weird thing is that when i unplug it the bulb lights up for a second. any idea? Thanks

FunKyGonZ said:

I set up a 400 watt ballast housed in a metal mailbox. I wired it and it turned on fine with a very quiet hum. Once i rigged everything up in my box and tried firing it up it just hummed and didnt fire the bulb, weird thing is that when i unplug it the bulb lights up for a second. any idea? Thanks

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mh?

sometimes it takes a minute. plug it in, wait for a minute or two, and see if it sparks. i have a mh that takes about 45 seconds to fire, but always does. my other mh is instantaneous.

No its a hps. It fired right away before.

FunKyGonZ said:

No its a hps. It fired right away before.

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go through and disconnect all wire nuts (one at a time) and check each connection. then plug it in. a hps should fire immediately unless the bulb is hot or the ignitor is blown.

or, if you have a lamp cord longer than 15' (for most ballasts). how long is the cord from the ballast to the lamp hood?

here is a link for wiring, just in case you have an accident and forget what goes where (which i've done before).

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu6nqOSdKLDQBCABXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByamlqaW9mBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkAw--/SIG=122on6vpm/EXP=1244171114/**http://www.onlinepot.org/grow/wiringlights.htm

OK so i get it to fire up, but now the ballast is smoking one half of it i think its the core.

any ideas why the ballast would smoke?

any idea why it would be smoking?

FunKyGonZ said:

any idea why it would be smoking?

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is there anything on it that burns? ie, oil, insulation etc.

if not, the ballast is bad (i'm assuming old) and needs to be replaced. when one dies, they go up in a big stinking poof of smoke.