Urgent!! Don't want to burn down my house!!!

Ok so I just finished vegging my 24 clones for 2 wks with 2x 400 watt MH in my 4x4 grow tent and flood table. I wired the hps bulbs/ballasts up to my 240 circuit and fired up along with my MH for optimum growth. It got to 100 degrees instantly!! Here is my question:

I have hard wired my ballasts to my power source, so they are all hot with 240 volts of power.I disconnected the bulbs from the ballast while I work on the heat issue.... Will the ballast still draw 600 watts even if there is no bulb connected? I here it buzzing loud.... And I would love to not burn my house down. Anny help would be appreciated

If its on then my guess it using that power even if the bulb is not in.Be careful.

refiGuy said:

It got to 100 degrees instantly!!

Click to expand...

What did?? The bulb, the ballast, the room????

if its hard wired...it is hot

yes the ballast is live if power is still to it bulb or not. Need something as a fail safe between power source and ballast. Just what if lightning strike, power surge you risk losing it all. Better to lose a surge protector or what not. They have one that you can wire into the system. Circuit breakers can only do so much. How are you timing the lights?

It was the room that shot up to 100 degrees

I'm wired in this high voltage timer we had laying around

How did the room get that hot that quick where did the heat come from? What were the temps before? For that massive of an increase that quickly something is not right!!! I assume you've been lower than 80 normally. How close to the ballast is the therm or other heat source? Are the ballast in the room? If your question has been answered then cool, but these are things you have too think about. Still might some sort of power cut off. Is there even a circuit breaker inline or anything other than timer?

turn the circuit breaker off if your going to pull a bulb