Quantum ballast?

iam wondering how much electricity these digi's really save.my bill didnt go down at all.just a thought.iam really not sure if digi's r any better.they say it use's less power but my bill didnt change at all nor did my rates so iam not sure about that.i think they clam its brighter but doesnt seam much brighter then my old school 600w.it is smaller and lighter tho.its great for hobbie style i guess.i dont know anybody around here that uses them for large ops.i wanted to try one out and see if its worth the $ to swap out mine but am gunna stick to mag for the real chunk.

jmo

idk, i remember the day i changed out my mag for a lumatek and omfg!!! it was a hundred times brighter. They really hit that 30%. I have no way to tell power. It is my apt and well I pay too much is all I know.

my buddy had a new but old style hydrofarm coir coil ballast or whatever it was a 1000watt when is FINALLY warmed up and stopped flickering which took about 20min his was quite a bit brighter than mine but honestly we were both growing blueberry and ak47 and his yield and quality of crop wasn't much different. It doesn't save u money maybe a dollar or something cause it cuts the start up power in half but thats it, it still uses 400, 600 whatever. the main thing is its the frequency it operates at which is much higher which means the 400watts is being used more properly or better whatever. if u record a video under old style ballast u'll see alot of lines all over, if u record under digital ballast u wont see any lines at all thats because the power is a steady power of 99% effficiency or higher i'm not sure what old style ballast are. plus all digitals accept mh and hps automatically change from 120-240 volts all that good shit

yeah ok that makes sense.i also like the hps &mh bulb op.i also like i dont have to buy all the differnt bulbs.i also have to say iam shocked that people are running bulbs that dont match there ballest.no disrespect all but thats grow 101. if its a 400ballest run a 400 bulb and so on,dimmable are not.

just a quick update on the quantum. its been running 4weeks at 24/7 and 1week at 12/12 and so far no issues at all. so far I am pretty happy with the all around quality of this item.

I have 3x 600 watt Q's been running them for about 4 months. 2 for flowing 1 for veg. I have not had any probs. with them so far, at all. yes you can hear the fans some..if you dont have any other fans running. I like them ! I plan on adding at least 4 more 1000 watters over the next year. and they look good to !

Just ordered 2 Quantum 600's, but the Lumitek's (more expensive) are now dimmable also... Because the Lumitek's are now dimmable and even have the additional feature of, "Going to 11" (More than 100% Power); the silent Lumitek's probably are the clear winner now.

If I could put money on it though, I'd say the Quantum's are up for revision now also and it's probably only a matter of time... I can't wait to see how these outperform my old setup. I guarantee my pictures will reflect the higher frequency!

I seen that the lumateks are now dimmable but I havent seen them with the 11 option. the quantum made it through the whole grow flawlessly. if I have to purchase another ballast I think I will try the lumatek and compare the two. either way I feel the two would make a good choice for anyone in the market for a ballast. the lumatek doesnt have a fan so I am curious to see what kind of difference in the running temp is.

From what I've read on the Lumatek's... their dimming option doesn't actually utilize less power, which is the case w the Quantums, no? Several posts have stated lower temps when dimming the quantums & pretty sure the company advertises less power use, so...? Also, Lumatek does advertise a "super lumens" switch in their newer models, which is a dial setting above "100%". Now, if this really were true (they were sending say 110% to the bulb, or 1100watts) then it would stand to reason that the bulb would burn out reallllll fast, right? I mean the bulb isn't supposed to be running anything higher than the 1k it's rated/build for...

I have a few 1k's on the quantums up & running now along w some decent c&c ballasts. Have both hortilux & ushio bulbs running in a side by side along with the ballasts. From a par meter, both c&c's & the quantums are very comparable... very comparable. Both ballasts run about the same temps... at the hottest points on the casing that is. Oddly, the quantum fires both the hortilux & ushio in a "more red" spectrum vs the c&c's...? Rep suggested that the quantums are firing the bulb at it's true spectrum, though hadn't heard of this before. Anyone else notice this on a side-by-side? Peace.

if thats the case with the lumateks I think Ill just stick with the quantum. I mean if it dont save any power and your bulb is putting out half what its suppose to I mean wtf? I also agree with you on the overpowering of the bulb. I called quantum and asked them about running a 400w mh in my 600w ballast and the guy said that is a no no even if you put it on the lowest setting which would be 300w. he said by running the wrong size bulb like that you seriously risk damageing your ballast. the guy did say that it will fire the bulb and work but highly recommended not doing it do to possible reprocusions. which I though really kind of sux cause I cant seem to find a 600w mh.

600watt mh bulbs are hard to find. I couldnt find any. I got a 600watt mh conversion bulb for like $55 from htgsupply. It puts out 66k lumens. It seems that digital ballast makers advertise that they can run both mh or hps but they dont tell you that 600watts seems to only come in hps. Oh well, I am still very satisfied with my quantum 600watt ballast and $55 mh conversion lamp. It is super cool with an 8inch vortex fan sucking all the hot air out. BTW I would not want to use a 400watt lamp in a 600watt ballast. That is asking for problems. The mh conversion bulb is just a little more than the 400mh but the safety is priceless and extra lumens are better.

wait...the quantams allow you to run different watt nulbs by dimming it down?.....if i buy a 1000w..... would it be 1000w , 600w, 400w?

steven22 said:

wait...the quantams allow you to run different watt nulbs by dimming it down?.....if i buy a 1000w..... would it be 1000w , 600w, 400w?

Click to expand...

'
The quantum ballast allows you to dim the bulb. You can run it at 3 settings, 100%,75% or 50% a 1k ballast would be 1k at 100% 750watt at 75% and 500watt at 50%. You would still need a compatible lamp at full strength meaning a 1k lamp for a 1k ballast. The dimming feature is good for reducing heat caused by the lamp. A 1k lamp at 50% produces the heat of a 500 watt lamp. It is a nice feature to have if heat is an issue.

yea, but you still suffer the 1000 watt hit

not sure what you mean there loudblunts. when I ran my 600 at 50% for the first couple weeks the bill was half what it was on 100%. actually it went down like this. I ran for two weeks 24hrs a day at 50% than at 75% 24hrs a day for two weeks. the bill was $40 bux for that 1 month. thean when I went to 12/12 and jumped it to 100% my bill was 65 bux.

it was a question

Just had my 400w Lumatek shit the bed this morning...how much does upping to a 600w cost on the electric bill every month? Does a Lumatek dimmable save money when dimmed?

Im not sure on the lumatek but the quantum 600 and my several airpumps and fans ect run me about 70 bux a month. when I had it on the 300 setting it was roughly 50 bux but that was on 24/0. I didnt run it on 600 until I went 12/12.

Got the 600w Lumatek dimmable...we'll see how it works when it shows up..