New Ballasts cheaper to run?

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

I was just at the hydro shop (a new one I have just found). I still use my old magnetic ballasts, and he told me the new ballasts, whch apparently simpy interchange MH and HPS (not that I use MH), use 25% less power!

 

Can this be true?

 

cheers

rob

[bufo marinus]

Wow thats quite a drop in power useage, I expect they are making this claim as the newer ballast would have negligble losses from not having any transformer windings?

I'd like to have a read on the specs etc, got any links Robbie?

Easy way to Myth Bust this would be to clamp an amp metre on the active and see how much current it draws then do the same with the old one.

[Indycar]

Bloody oath, it would definitely be good to learn more about these new ballasts.

 

Especially if there's no noticeable drop in lumens per square foot.

 

[Pure]

The man with the info on these new ballasts to my knowledge is Luke Skywalker

 

I have looked at getting a few myself they are not cheap but with the savings in electricity and with the extra lumenens i think it's well worth it and in a grow or two that extra money would have paid for itself through benefits of running with the new lights , not to mention the savings from there on out

[Ozzy420]

If u have a look through pet supplys on ebay they have some 150w and 250w but are MH and have to get from china.

 

They have 400watters at time but havent seen any HPS as yet...

[Pure]

The lights I believe he is referring to actually do both MH and HPS which is one of the huge advantages for people who have run conversion bulbs or changed over ballasts from veg to flower

 

In the hydro shops I have seen them in 400watt , 600watt and 1000watt the stick out like dogs balls because the company that did the ones hydro stores seem to be getting in have decided to put the guts into a anodized metallic blue casing to make it all PERDY so they look very very different to your standard white ballast. To my knowledge there is no performance advantage to the new case designs however they are certainly much lighter and I guess they did it in a metalic blue because allot of the time when people pay that little bit more they expect something that looks a little sleaker . personally looks ain't much to me when it comes to my ballasts but the rest of the advantages are all a thumbs up as far as I'm concerned

 

can't wait to get me a few

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Yeah that's them Pure, pretty chrome colour, only the guy who told me about them orders them in on request, and so I only saw a print out on the subject.

he reckoned they work different, instead of a pulsing light, it's constant, no fliskering at start up etc.. but fairdinkum I have no idea what's what.

 

It's just that I gave my nephew my lights when the cops became interested in me, for his pet snake collection, until he could get some new lights himself. the bugger got new ligths alright, and gave my 600 watters away..

 

I saw thise shop today had a few second hand lights, and I got chattting. I still have a single 400 watt light, but when we got to the idea of 25% reeuction of cost, I figured I would wait to find out if it were true, save and buy one,. I mean run say 2 600 watt light at 25 % discount over a few years, and it's gonna be a bigger saving than cost I reckon.

 

The prices he quoted me today were

400 watt-$375

600 watt-$486 (lloks like that anyway, a bit scrawled writing to read)

1000 watt-$641

 

I gather they're called "Future Brite"

 

My son just called me and I'm off to pick him up, but I did a real quick search and here's the fellows here Electronic Ballasts. Be interesting what luke says about them.

 

cheers

rob

[Ozzy420]

I just did an ebay on these e-ballasts and there was 2 a 400w and 600w.

 

$265 for the 400w.

$320 for the 600w.

 

Ebay E-Ballast

[Luke Skywalker]

You can get a much better price than that Robbie, send me a PM and I'll point you in the right direction.

 

But yeah, they look pretty groovy. It's a little hard to get concrete start up and running current figures, (after much discussion and emailing I've managed to get some... would still like a watt meter to test directly though) but they appear to at the very least be constant wattage ballasts which by itself gives a significant saving in elec costs over time.

 

They're not necessarily going to produce more lumens directly, but the lumen maintenance is a lot better. @ 8000 hrs of use they claim a 600w lamp is producing @ 64% initial lumens when run on a conventional mag ballast, but with the electronic ballast it would be producing 84% of initial lumens. Which is quite a jump in lamp life....

 

As they're electronic they can produce a more stable light to, the flickering you can sometimes see when you have a lamp running for a while is gone, with a steady light consistently produced. I have no idea if that's significant to a large degree with plant growth, but they seem to think it's a good thing.

 

btw, the 1000w ballasts can't run a MH, they only make HPS for them but the 400w and 600w versions can run HPS or MH lamps comfortably....

 

Another advantage is heat, they generate a heck of a lot less ballast heat loss than magnetics, which can be felt by running both types and then holding your hand above each. The Future Brites have an inbuilt exhaust fan so this may be the major factor, but the electrical losses are supposed to be minimised too.

 

For instance, a 600w JB magnetic ballast says it uses 3.75 amps (900w) at start up, and then this drops over a short period to running current of 3.1 amps (744w). The Future Brites claim to start @ 0.8 amps for a 600w (192w) and then come up fairly quickly to running current of 2.55 amps (612w) So you can already see a significant saving in running currents, let alone start up.

 

So yeah, whilst expensive in comparison to Magnetics, the cost of the initial outlay is more than offset by savings in electricity and globe changes over a couple of years... IMO, I haven't done the hard maths on that though....

 

Check out antz.com.au, they have a bit of info on them there... @ the moment they would appear to be the only electronic ballasts for sale in Aus, but there are others available O/Seas. Of course, it's a matter of time really before things get better in volume and therefore price, but hopefully the price difference will be reduced over time so that the avg grower will seriously consider an electronic ballast as a practical thing to go for, whilst at the moment most would baulk at the initial outlay, even if it does save $ over time....

 

So yeah Rob, they do look good, and from what I can tell and have heard from those who've used em, they've worked very well too... pm me and I'll point you to someone who can get those for you at a much, much better price than you've been quoted.

[Ozzy420]

Hey there young jedi master, i would like to get your feed back on these as i am thinking of getting one to have mother's under.

 

He sells the 150 and the 75 for the same price.

 

E-Ballast 75/150w Mh.