Is this guy full of shit or am I retarded

I have a couple of seedlings that just sprouted and they're just under walmart cfls so I need to get some real lights soon. I was looking at this sun blaze 8 lamp 54 watt t5 4 foot flourescent and the guy selling it on ebay said it uses 1/4 the power of a 400 watt hps. I thought with 8 54w lamps it would use 434 watts (34 more than a 400w hps) so I emailed him and hes said it uses 1/4 of the energy without really responding to what I said. Then I emailed him again explaining what I thought and asking if he was saying that it only uses 100 watts of power and he responded by saying it uses 254 watts of electricity and that a 400 watt hps uses 1200-1500 watts depending on the ballast. Is this true? Because if so I didn't have a clue.

a watt is a watt end of story.

i'd write him a message back calling him a liar and report him for misrepresnting his products. The only way it would be possible is if there was some sort of amplifer built in and thats is probably not so. And for the record a 400 watter pulls 400 watts of current. Hence the name 400 watt grow light
and your correct about it using 434 watts

you got a link to the item

Woomeister said:

a watt is a watt end of story.

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well yes and no.

My lumatek 600 watt electronic ballast uses 620 watts to provide 600 watts to the bulb. (some power is lost due to the way electricity works) However as far as the question at hand. The guy on EBAY is A FUCKING MORON! That fixture uses roughly the same as a 400 watt HID. actually it uses more..about 20 watts more...Keep in mind that for reference i am using my electronic ballast. magnetic ballasts are more inefficient that the electronic ones!

If heat is not an issue use the HPS if heat is a concern use the T5's

r u just talkin about energy comsumption or the lummious light that is emmited from the fixures?????

growin4myhead said:

well yes and no.

My lumatek 600 watt electronic ballast uses 620 watts to provide 600 watts to the bulb. (some power is lost due to the way electricity works) However as far as the question at hand. The guy on EBAY is A FUCKING MORON! That fixture uses roughly the same as a 400 watt HID. actually it uses more..about 20 watts more...Keep in mind that for reference i am using my electronic ballast. magnetic ballasts are more inefficient that the electronic ones!

If heat is not an issue use the HPS if heat is a concern use the T5's

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well no, it is yes and yes. Your ballast is using 20 watts to supply the bulb, if you had a powerful enough direct source to your 600watt bulb it would take and use 600watts...

Woomeister said:

well no, it is yes and yes. Your ballast is using 20 watts to supply the bulb, if you had a powerful enough direct source to your 600watt bulb it would take and use 600watts...

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Correct, I wasn't arguing with you just stating the facts. All lights use more power than what the bulbs are rated for, Well ill clarify, the bulbs use what they are rated for but the ballast uses some energy to convert your house current into the high voltage needed to supply the bulbs! Even LED lights use more power than what the label says because the house current has to go through rectifier banks to convert the AC to the DC that the LED's use. either way you have to convert the power into usable power for the bulbs and that takes energy. Now A regular incandescent household bulb, if that says 100 watts that's what you are using. Unless of course you factor in resistance in the wiring and such but lets not get into that.