Virulent Amoeba
Well-Known Member
While the bulb may last longer by not turning them off and on, your not about to tell me, much less prove that it costs as much to turn on a HID as it does to run it for 6 hours!yes and also it uses more power to turn a light bulb on then to let it run 24/0
The ballast would have to draw Ungodly amounts of Ampers for the 5 minutes it is warming up.
1000Watts @230VAC = ~4 Ampers(Amps)
6000W = ~24-25A @230VAC
to pull the same amount of electricity durring the 5 minute warm-up would require
6 hours @ 1K watts
12 5 minute periods to an hour
~4Ampers per 1Kw light
6 * 12 * ~4 = 288Ampers
The ballast would have to pull 288Ampers for a full 5 minutes to equal the power consumption used durring the 6 hour off cycle in question. Most houses MAIN breaker isn't big enough to support that!