amps of 600 and 1000's

[mull]

 

 

The equation I remembered was W = V*I and the alternates I = W/V and V=W/I

With W being watts V being voltage and I being current in Amps.

I guess the only true measure in Amps would have to be done with a tong test on your 600 and 1000W ballasts individually tho really keepleft mate

 

Some other jizz to read if ya get bored dude

 

http://www.wisegeek.com

 

Ohm's law

 

"Ohm's Law, the equation which yields the measurement bearing his name, is a rather simple one. It is written as V/I = R, where V is the voltage of a device, I is the current, and R is the resulting resistance. It should be noted that the resistance of a real-world device is never exactly true to this law, as impurities in the conductor and the actual behavior of electrons affect the resistance. In practice, however, such discrepancies are negligible enough to be ignored, and Ohm's Law may be treated as true."

 

Light ballasts

 

"A lighting ballast is a piece of equipment required to control the starting and operating voltages of electrical gas discharge lights. Examples of gas discharge light sources include fluorescent and neon lights and high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps. The term lighting ballast can refer to any component of the circuit intended to limit the flow of current through the light, from a single resistor to more complex devices.

 

A lighting ballast is necessary to operate discharge lights because they have negative resistance, meaning they are unable to regulate the amount of current that passes through them. A lighting ballast must be used to control current flow; otherwise the light could fail. Small light sources can use passive components, which require no additional power to operate, as ballasts. An example would be a series resistor that limits the flow of current across its terminals. For high-powered lights, however, a resistor would waste a large amount of electricity, so a more complex lighting ballast is required.

 

An electromagnetic lighting ballast uses electromagnetic induction to provide the starting and operating voltages of a gas discharge light. Inside each is a coil of wire and an electromagnetic field that together transform voltage. Some also include an igniter for high-power applications.

 

Electromagnetic ballasts limit the flow of current to the light but do not change the frequency of the input power. The lamp then illuminates on each half-cycle of the power source. This is why many fluorescent and neon lights visibly flicker. Since the light illuminates on half-cycles, the rate of flicker is twice the frequency of the power source, meaning the light will flicker at 100Hz or 120Hz. A lead-lag lighting ballast can minimize flicker when connected to two lamps by alternating the flow of current to them: one leading the frequency of the input power and the other lagging behind it.

 

A more modern type of lighting ballast is electronic instead of electromagnetic. An electronic lighting ballast uses solid state circuitry to transform voltage, but unlike electromagnetic ballasts, can also alter the frequency of power. This means that an electronic lighting ballast can greatly reduce or eliminate any flicker in the lamps. Because it uses solid-state circuitry instead of magnetic coils, it is also more efficient and therefore runs cooler.

 

Because of their greater efficiency and ability to reduce flicker, electronic ballasts are more popular than electromagnetic ballasts, and are often used to replace them. A few applications, however, require an electromagnetic lighting ballast, such as ballasts that must preheat or ballasts for extremely high output lamps"

[Taipan]

When looking at the equations for power consumption you have to take into account that a 600W light emits 600W's of light, but also gives off over 100W of heat, this also takes power to generate. And there are also other losses within the ballast components. So a 600W light will always draw more than 600W of power, it gives off 600W of light, hence the name. As far as starting current and run current, reactor ignitor ballasts will draw more current when they start up and less current when they run. Constant Wattage ballasts are the other way around and will draw less current at startup and build to the run current. Most 600W gear is reactor ignitor and they average at 3.5-4 amp start current down to around 2.8-3.2amp run current. You get different ratings from different companies, even when they have the same components in them.

 

You have to be careful when buying 1000W HPS lights. The Euro 1000W HPS is also a reactor ignitor ballast. The Euro 1000W HPS ballasts are cheap, hence you can usually a light kit up cheap with one of these, but the replacement lamps are more expensive than the constant wattage equivalent. The Euro 1000W HPS also has a high start and run current, they start around 6 amps and run around 5.4 amps so running 2 from a 10A supply will overload it. The constant wattage 1000W HPS often called the American or US version has a start current under 4 amps with a run current around 4.6A. So you can run 2 of these from a 10A supply. The constant wattage 1000W HPS ballast is a lot more expensive than a Euro, but the lamps are a lot cheaper and when you

add up the power savings are a much better buy.

 

PS: What Gazza2001au said in his first post is 100% correct.

Edited December 22, 2006 by Taipan