clyydebarrow
New Member
Well said.
The Truth About Magnetic Ballasts Power Wastage!
- Thread starter OldMedUser
- Start date
Nowirenuts
New Member
Once again you open your big mouth with LIES DXCO. Your controllers are built so cheap and against CEC and NEC compliance. I have two of your controllers you sold on Ebay in a junk pile in my shop. The customers sent them to me after I built them replacement controllers. The timer you use is so cheap, it burned inside, talk about unrelaible. Where do you buy your $5 digital timer, Wallmart.
I have both a magnetic and electronic/digital ballast and the only advantage I noticed that the digital has over the magnetic is this....
I have had my power go out 2x in my cycle and the digital ballast fires up right away when the power is restored, unlike my magnetic which takes a good 15 min cool down before re-igniting...Now this also may be due to me running a MH conversion bulb in my magnetic ballast and a HPS in my digital, but just my observation.
As far as running cooler, my magnetic 400w ballast runs just as cool if not cooler than my 600w lumatek ballast...
Even though not currently using one, I like that my magnetic 400w ballast can run a CMH bulb as well...a plus for magnetic...
I have had my power go out 2x in my cycle and the digital ballast fires up right away when the power is restored, unlike my magnetic which takes a good 15 min cool down before re-igniting...Now this also may be due to me running a MH conversion bulb in my magnetic ballast and a HPS in my digital, but just my observation.
As far as running cooler, my magnetic 400w ballast runs just as cool if not cooler than my 600w lumatek ballast...
Even though not currently using one, I like that my magnetic 400w ballast can run a CMH bulb as well...a plus for magnetic...
Great info... I bought a 400 watt digital in 2009 works fine bought a quantum 1k dimmable few weeks ago it burned up after around a wk they sent a replacement it worked for 30 mn then quit ... Getting money back ....after reading about all the light failers with new digitals considering magnetic
420pharms
New Member
Digital ballast use less amps and produce more light and are very unreliable many retailers in this area have stopped selling the purple ones due to failure rates causing profit and customer loss. I have old purple ones and new purple ones they all have about a 20% failure rate, the green ones I have are same rate of failure and once they fail they can't be fixed I have sent several back and had them fail I have had many premature bulb failures as well. my newest replacement is a Phantom that I picked up at retailer who is sending 3 purple ones back for repair/replacement, one retailer tried to sell me a real pretty red one with barb wire on the label, I don't want to try and go to mars using Estes rockets any more, digital ballast are inline with most nutrient manufacturers suggested usage, great advertised results and trash in reality. They should stop messing with us our hobby is a wonderful thing that promotes science and learning if one can afford it
Are you talking about the Lumateks or the knock-off purples?
If Lumateks... I must have gotten lucky. Mine still works even after I dropped it onto the concrete. I guess being resin-filled helps with sudden shocks (impacts). And no fan to ever wear out or make noise.
xtrchessreal
New Member
Power factor
Watts
Re-ignite time Bulbs
Electronics
Magnetic
Lumens
life span of ballast magnetic versus electronic
Power grid and RFI & EMI
How about some Electrical Engineering information?
Power Factor PF is simply the output energy divided by the input energy. If you remember science Energy must be conserved, its a Physical law of the universe that means, initial energy must equal final energy. In Electricity there is always losses due to heat regardless of temperature of the component. Thus input energy is always higher than output energy and when calculating power factor Output over input (O/I < 1) That is Output divided by Input is less than 1, in every case. It is a fact that can be proven in lab and real life conditions. There is no such thing as 100% efficiency in any thing. You would be lucky to get 95% using the highest quality materials in an extremely well designed circuit.
Watts input versus output, you pay for your input watts not the output for anything that runs on electricity. PF has to do with what you get for the watts you pay for.
Ignite or Re-ignite Time is the time it takes gases designed into the bulb to get to their stable state (which is a never completely stable as the gas begins to break down due to electron losses as soon as it is manufactured) And this is the reason lights have a limited lifetime. Electronic ballasts may re-ignite faster but this is due to an increase in the current allowed for a short period of time to heat the gases to a stable state faster - this costs lifespan losses in the bulb - which may help explain why bulbs go out more often in an electronic ballast circuit. The bulb is designed with its own ignition time natural to the gas used and given the circuitry to make this happen in a natural way - the electronic ballast tries to beat nature - you can't do that without some kind of penalty in the Energy Conservation equation. Always allow a bulb to cool down, cool to the touch, before re-igniting or you may burn out your bulb. The bulb is designed to have a slow start. Its kind of like glow plugs in a diesel first they have to get hot then the fuel can begin to burn and ignite, as it gets warmer the light bulb emits more photons. The difference of it being hot started is the metal wires inside the electrical circuit in the bulb can burn to an open circuit even if the gas inside the arc tube is still good. The gas needs time to heat up and create an arc of gas plasma to complete its stable state circuit - or ping goes the darkness. Exploding bulbs? Maybe you put a 400w into a 1000w magnetic socket or you splashed water on it while it was hot.
Electronics a term used in this post liberally and generally. Generally these are components, capacitors, resistors, inductor coils, transistors, diodes, Op amps, oscillators, flip flops, many others and in many sizes types and uses. All of these have curves and spikes and even clocked timing sequences and many have signals generated that can be tuned into like a radio - also known as RFI radio frequency interference or EMI electromagnetic interference. In reality both of these terms are the same as any electric field comes with a magnetic field. Radio waves are electromagnetic and was invented before any real understanding of light - which is also an electromagnetic wave - so the term stuck around. Simply put, the more electronics you have in a circuit the more complex the design must be to provide all the circuit control and the more EMI you will have. It is also simple to understand that with many electronics in a circuit the over all less efficient it will be when adding the PF of each component together for a circuit of the same power output of the same frequency Hz. If you look up the specs of these electronic ballasts it will show you that a 1000w output requires a 1060w input depending on brand. An Electronic ballast runs at a different frequency than a Magnetic ballast. Therefore you can get some PF losses back by creating a higher frequency for the circuit to run. But from the bulb's perspective it is similar to running at DC or a higher output which can get more lumens from the bulb. Again you have that Energy Conserved law. The Bulb will operate at higher than designed lumen output due to gases being excited at faster than designed rates which reduces the lifespan of the bulb - there is a finite half life of gas molecules bombarding each other causing electron loss and photon output. Dimmer controls on MH or HPS? You cannot dim a MH or HPS this feature is actually a switch so you can run several different wattage rated bulbs. You cannot dim a 1000w HPS to 600w the bulb is not designed that way. These so called dimmers also feature a super light that increases the lumen output by providing more voltage or higher frequency to increase the speed of the gas molecules. Again this reduces the lifespan of the bulb as the gas is used up faster.
Magnetic coils have a natural ability to hold current and actually save it, its a reactive circuit. If the gas in the bulb gets a bit more excited - probability states that at times the molecules will bombard each other more often than stable state and also sometimes less than stable state - the reactive nature of the magnetic coil will inversely react to these natural occurrences. When the bulb wishes to take more energy, due to more excited gas, the coil will hold back current and when the bulb gases take less energy the coil will release more current keeping the bulb at a even output. This is something an average electronic ballast cannot due naturally and it would have to be an extremely sensitive and well designed electronic ballast with expensive quality materials to do it - doubtful for commercial products. Of course magnetic ballasts have considerations of quality of materials. In general the PF of the magnetic ballast should be in the specs however the quality of the bulb or its PF also must be considered. A poor bulb in an excellent ballast or vice versa can make the overall PF lower than spec. Magnetic ballasts can also react with the input energy from the power grid making it another good choice over an electronic ballast. There are switchable magnetic ballasts, I have one that switch from MH 1000w to HPS 1000w the difference in the circuit is an ignitor and cap for the HPS and the MH just uses the Cap - I may have that backwards its late - anyway it is just a bypass of part of the circuit to accommodate the other. The cool thing is I can run 1000w MH for veg and then switch to 1000w HPS for bloom in one lamp/ballast. This brings question to why digital ballasts have a dimmer (really a switch that is just a knob) to a lower wattage bulb but not different type for wavelength changes - no you have buy the upgraded one or two different ballasts at quite a high price.
Lumens per watt and lifespan of bulb. In most cases the more lumens output per watt is the most efficient, not including light spectrum or wavelength as some wavelengths are not in all bulbs and there is a cost for certain hard to get wavelengths. In flourescent, MH, or HPS you get different lumens and wavelengths. In the case of MH and HPS, as stated before running the currents higher or exciting the gases more will reduce bulb life. CFLs have their own electronic ballast built into them and until recently you could not dim them but these use low watts and and a high frequency to excite the mercury which hits the phosphor coated glass. The phosphor is what emits photons.
Lifespan of Ballasts this is simple, electronic digital ballasts will burn out or fail much faster than magnetic ballasts for the simple reason there are more components to cause a cascading failure. Magnetic coils last for ages with negligible losses over time. I know this from education of materials used in manufacturing as well as experience of building guitar tube amplifiers which use transformers - basically Magnetic coils - and inductors which are the same thing as a magnetic ballast - magnetic material with a copper winding wrapped around it. I have tube amps that are forty and fifty years old. If you add lifespan as a part of power factor (since a burnt component can cause the failure of the product)...electronic digital ballasts lose every time.
Power grid the power grid is something I rarely see in these conversations. It is obvious a spike, either over or under is a regular occurrence in the power supplying your grow room. If you put a volt meter to your power socket and watched it at 12 am and then 6 am, 12pm, 5pm etc on a hot day you will see your voltage go from 120VAC to 110VAC. At that point you can see it spike up and down as dinner and air conditioning kicks in from you and your neighbors. You would have to have a large battery bank with power conditioners, rectifiers, inverters and even independent power generators to prepare for a worse case scenario for your grow in bloom stage. Most growers can't afford it and with most growers having some instances of power failures or light leaks etc. with still a nice yield that was not very affected, that conversation becomes moot. However spikes and dips will cause premature failures of components in electronic digital ballasts as well as bulbs where as magnetic ballasts will absorb the spike or dip naturally and react without any harm to the ballast or bulb. Further, loss of ground or a rise in the ground floor from a near miss lightning strike or a ground loop can make electronics fail early. Losing ground lifts the ground to the voltage of the supply which can reverse the direction of current in polarized circuits, burning out or causing a loss and re-ignite of the bulb or even damaged circuits. This can happen with solar flares, or heavy EMI. Magnetic ballasts can be affected by these too, will not fail but, a bulb re-ignite or burnout could happen as the solar flare can cause a current surge in the ballast via induced current from the positive ions from the solar flare even if the breaker or fuse blows out first. A magnetic field moving in an electronic field induces current and the inverse also causes induced current.
Bottom line There is no more efficient, robust, or longer lasting circuit than a magnetic coil. I suspect that electronic digital ballast users are only now beginning to see and understand, metaphorically speaking, what the performers in the audio industry know, nothing beats analog and the sound and robustness of tube amplifiers due to their natural sound in recording and live performance. They are similar in gas tubes in circuits with reactance matched magnetic transformers as are gas bulbs in circuits with reactance matched magnetic ballasts - both are magnetic coils that push and pull, give and take, as the performance of the gas tubes changes as necessary. You just can't get that from digital performance equipment. I have a pile of Digital signal processors DSPs, Computers, Phones, touchpad controlled Dishwashers, DVD players, CD players, iPods that are burnt in some way. And in the other room I have all my tube amps I practice and perform on continually changing only a tube once a year or so. The marketing for the new electronic digital ballasts is bogus and trying to get you to buy things you don't need for twice the price or higher.
The truth about Magnetic Ballasts power wastage is that there is no power wastage. Magnetic ballasts are the most efficient.
Thanks for reading and I hope this helps grow some cannabis.
X
Watts
Re-ignite time Bulbs
Electronics
Magnetic
Lumens
life span of ballast magnetic versus electronic
Power grid and RFI & EMI
How about some Electrical Engineering information?
Power Factor PF is simply the output energy divided by the input energy. If you remember science Energy must be conserved, its a Physical law of the universe that means, initial energy must equal final energy. In Electricity there is always losses due to heat regardless of temperature of the component. Thus input energy is always higher than output energy and when calculating power factor Output over input (O/I < 1) That is Output divided by Input is less than 1, in every case. It is a fact that can be proven in lab and real life conditions. There is no such thing as 100% efficiency in any thing. You would be lucky to get 95% using the highest quality materials in an extremely well designed circuit.
Watts input versus output, you pay for your input watts not the output for anything that runs on electricity. PF has to do with what you get for the watts you pay for.
Ignite or Re-ignite Time is the time it takes gases designed into the bulb to get to their stable state (which is a never completely stable as the gas begins to break down due to electron losses as soon as it is manufactured) And this is the reason lights have a limited lifetime. Electronic ballasts may re-ignite faster but this is due to an increase in the current allowed for a short period of time to heat the gases to a stable state faster - this costs lifespan losses in the bulb - which may help explain why bulbs go out more often in an electronic ballast circuit. The bulb is designed with its own ignition time natural to the gas used and given the circuitry to make this happen in a natural way - the electronic ballast tries to beat nature - you can't do that without some kind of penalty in the Energy Conservation equation. Always allow a bulb to cool down, cool to the touch, before re-igniting or you may burn out your bulb. The bulb is designed to have a slow start. Its kind of like glow plugs in a diesel first they have to get hot then the fuel can begin to burn and ignite, as it gets warmer the light bulb emits more photons. The difference of it being hot started is the metal wires inside the electrical circuit in the bulb can burn to an open circuit even if the gas inside the arc tube is still good. The gas needs time to heat up and create an arc of gas plasma to complete its stable state circuit - or ping goes the darkness. Exploding bulbs? Maybe you put a 400w into a 1000w magnetic socket or you splashed water on it while it was hot.
Electronics a term used in this post liberally and generally. Generally these are components, capacitors, resistors, inductor coils, transistors, diodes, Op amps, oscillators, flip flops, many others and in many sizes types and uses. All of these have curves and spikes and even clocked timing sequences and many have signals generated that can be tuned into like a radio - also known as RFI radio frequency interference or EMI electromagnetic interference. In reality both of these terms are the same as any electric field comes with a magnetic field. Radio waves are electromagnetic and was invented before any real understanding of light - which is also an electromagnetic wave - so the term stuck around. Simply put, the more electronics you have in a circuit the more complex the design must be to provide all the circuit control and the more EMI you will have. It is also simple to understand that with many electronics in a circuit the over all less efficient it will be when adding the PF of each component together for a circuit of the same power output of the same frequency Hz. If you look up the specs of these electronic ballasts it will show you that a 1000w output requires a 1060w input depending on brand. An Electronic ballast runs at a different frequency than a Magnetic ballast. Therefore you can get some PF losses back by creating a higher frequency for the circuit to run. But from the bulb's perspective it is similar to running at DC or a higher output which can get more lumens from the bulb. Again you have that Energy Conserved law. The Bulb will operate at higher than designed lumen output due to gases being excited at faster than designed rates which reduces the lifespan of the bulb - there is a finite half life of gas molecules bombarding each other causing electron loss and photon output. Dimmer controls on MH or HPS? You cannot dim a MH or HPS this feature is actually a switch so you can run several different wattage rated bulbs. You cannot dim a 1000w HPS to 600w the bulb is not designed that way. These so called dimmers also feature a super light that increases the lumen output by providing more voltage or higher frequency to increase the speed of the gas molecules. Again this reduces the lifespan of the bulb as the gas is used up faster.
Magnetic coils have a natural ability to hold current and actually save it, its a reactive circuit. If the gas in the bulb gets a bit more excited - probability states that at times the molecules will bombard each other more often than stable state and also sometimes less than stable state - the reactive nature of the magnetic coil will inversely react to these natural occurrences. When the bulb wishes to take more energy, due to more excited gas, the coil will hold back current and when the bulb gases take less energy the coil will release more current keeping the bulb at a even output. This is something an average electronic ballast cannot due naturally and it would have to be an extremely sensitive and well designed electronic ballast with expensive quality materials to do it - doubtful for commercial products. Of course magnetic ballasts have considerations of quality of materials. In general the PF of the magnetic ballast should be in the specs however the quality of the bulb or its PF also must be considered. A poor bulb in an excellent ballast or vice versa can make the overall PF lower than spec. Magnetic ballasts can also react with the input energy from the power grid making it another good choice over an electronic ballast. There are switchable magnetic ballasts, I have one that switch from MH 1000w to HPS 1000w the difference in the circuit is an ignitor and cap for the HPS and the MH just uses the Cap - I may have that backwards its late - anyway it is just a bypass of part of the circuit to accommodate the other. The cool thing is I can run 1000w MH for veg and then switch to 1000w HPS for bloom in one lamp/ballast. This brings question to why digital ballasts have a dimmer (really a switch that is just a knob) to a lower wattage bulb but not different type for wavelength changes - no you have buy the upgraded one or two different ballasts at quite a high price.
Lumens per watt and lifespan of bulb. In most cases the more lumens output per watt is the most efficient, not including light spectrum or wavelength as some wavelengths are not in all bulbs and there is a cost for certain hard to get wavelengths. In flourescent, MH, or HPS you get different lumens and wavelengths. In the case of MH and HPS, as stated before running the currents higher or exciting the gases more will reduce bulb life. CFLs have their own electronic ballast built into them and until recently you could not dim them but these use low watts and and a high frequency to excite the mercury which hits the phosphor coated glass. The phosphor is what emits photons.
Lifespan of Ballasts this is simple, electronic digital ballasts will burn out or fail much faster than magnetic ballasts for the simple reason there are more components to cause a cascading failure. Magnetic coils last for ages with negligible losses over time. I know this from education of materials used in manufacturing as well as experience of building guitar tube amplifiers which use transformers - basically Magnetic coils - and inductors which are the same thing as a magnetic ballast - magnetic material with a copper winding wrapped around it. I have tube amps that are forty and fifty years old. If you add lifespan as a part of power factor (since a burnt component can cause the failure of the product)...electronic digital ballasts lose every time.
Power grid the power grid is something I rarely see in these conversations. It is obvious a spike, either over or under is a regular occurrence in the power supplying your grow room. If you put a volt meter to your power socket and watched it at 12 am and then 6 am, 12pm, 5pm etc on a hot day you will see your voltage go from 120VAC to 110VAC. At that point you can see it spike up and down as dinner and air conditioning kicks in from you and your neighbors. You would have to have a large battery bank with power conditioners, rectifiers, inverters and even independent power generators to prepare for a worse case scenario for your grow in bloom stage. Most growers can't afford it and with most growers having some instances of power failures or light leaks etc. with still a nice yield that was not very affected, that conversation becomes moot. However spikes and dips will cause premature failures of components in electronic digital ballasts as well as bulbs where as magnetic ballasts will absorb the spike or dip naturally and react without any harm to the ballast or bulb. Further, loss of ground or a rise in the ground floor from a near miss lightning strike or a ground loop can make electronics fail early. Losing ground lifts the ground to the voltage of the supply which can reverse the direction of current in polarized circuits, burning out or causing a loss and re-ignite of the bulb or even damaged circuits. This can happen with solar flares, or heavy EMI. Magnetic ballasts can be affected by these too, will not fail but, a bulb re-ignite or burnout could happen as the solar flare can cause a current surge in the ballast via induced current from the positive ions from the solar flare even if the breaker or fuse blows out first. A magnetic field moving in an electronic field induces current and the inverse also causes induced current.
Bottom line There is no more efficient, robust, or longer lasting circuit than a magnetic coil. I suspect that electronic digital ballast users are only now beginning to see and understand, metaphorically speaking, what the performers in the audio industry know, nothing beats analog and the sound and robustness of tube amplifiers due to their natural sound in recording and live performance. They are similar in gas tubes in circuits with reactance matched magnetic transformers as are gas bulbs in circuits with reactance matched magnetic ballasts - both are magnetic coils that push and pull, give and take, as the performance of the gas tubes changes as necessary. You just can't get that from digital performance equipment. I have a pile of Digital signal processors DSPs, Computers, Phones, touchpad controlled Dishwashers, DVD players, CD players, iPods that are burnt in some way. And in the other room I have all my tube amps I practice and perform on continually changing only a tube once a year or so. The marketing for the new electronic digital ballasts is bogus and trying to get you to buy things you don't need for twice the price or higher.
The truth about Magnetic Ballasts power wastage is that there is no power wastage. Magnetic ballasts are the most efficient.
Thanks for reading and I hope this helps grow some cannabis.
X
xtrchessreal
New Member
That video is funny, should be on Tosh.0 or Worlds dumbest, people doing stupid stuff, always gets a laugh from me.
Like you said, the old cap and coil has not really changed that much, it also lasts forever, is cheaper than digital by far, and the savings you lose to digital purchase in a few years will have to be re-applied when you buy a new one because it got burnt. There are finer points of slight watt savings in some cases but you'll buy more bulbs and digital ballasts which completely negates the point of purchase - Magnetic ballasts rule, it is natural to the earth. Coil winding in motors, starters, electric grid, amplifiers, microwave ovens, etc. never blow out unless you are using them wrong in an overload condition. They give and take with the power supply and the load condition naturally, why do you need to get any more efficiency than that? Only if you are a light manufacturer and realize you aren't selling anymore because they don't break would you design a campaign to demonize magnetic while glorifying digital in order to get new purchases to electronics that will keep you coming back for more forever. Especially in a time when Cannabis is becoming legal more and more and people want to grow - its the new cell phone throw away mentality - and its pure evil. If I had a million bucks I'd buy up the magnetic ballasts and wait. Then I'd sell them when everyone gets tired of replacing bulbs and the digital ballasts all the time.
X
Like you said, the old cap and coil has not really changed that much, it also lasts forever, is cheaper than digital by far, and the savings you lose to digital purchase in a few years will have to be re-applied when you buy a new one because it got burnt. There are finer points of slight watt savings in some cases but you'll buy more bulbs and digital ballasts which completely negates the point of purchase - Magnetic ballasts rule, it is natural to the earth. Coil winding in motors, starters, electric grid, amplifiers, microwave ovens, etc. never blow out unless you are using them wrong in an overload condition. They give and take with the power supply and the load condition naturally, why do you need to get any more efficiency than that? Only if you are a light manufacturer and realize you aren't selling anymore because they don't break would you design a campaign to demonize magnetic while glorifying digital in order to get new purchases to electronics that will keep you coming back for more forever. Especially in a time when Cannabis is becoming legal more and more and people want to grow - its the new cell phone throw away mentality - and its pure evil. If I had a million bucks I'd buy up the magnetic ballasts and wait. Then I'd sell them when everyone gets tired of replacing bulbs and the digital ballasts all the time.
X
Wacky Kush
New Member
"The theoretical lm per watt maximum threashold for LED lighting was surpassed a few years ago by CREE and thier latest R&D has broken their own 264lm/w barrier with 276lm/w on Feb 13th.
I've always said that when you see the streetlights around your town replaced with LED, it's time to start thinking about LED as a viable option for grow room lighting. That time is coming quickly but for now, the cost to performance of HID can't be beat when you take into account the actual cost of ownership and operation over the life of the product..."
Heh... even here in my part of Michigan, many of the street lights- and even on highways now- are being fitted w/ LED systems. Niiiiiice.
Too bad they're still like 10X HPS cost to purchase.
I've always said that when you see the streetlights around your town replaced with LED, it's time to start thinking about LED as a viable option for grow room lighting. That time is coming quickly but for now, the cost to performance of HID can't be beat when you take into account the actual cost of ownership and operation over the life of the product..."
Heh... even here in my part of Michigan, many of the street lights- and even on highways now- are being fitted w/ LED systems. Niiiiiice.
Too bad they're still like 10X HPS cost to purchase.
Calyx Hunter
New Member
Check out the Ballast review that growershouse.com has done. It's very interesting considering the PAR output of these things. The Solis Tek ballast is what I'm going for. We'll see how long it lasts.
1000w Digital Ballast Comparison Review & PAR Test Footprint Results - Lumatek, Solis Tek, Quantum, Phantom, Galaxy, Nano & More / Growers House Hydroponics Blog
1000w Digital Ballast Comparison Review & PAR Test Footprint Results - Lumatek, Solis Tek, Quantum, Phantom, Galaxy, Nano & More / Growers House Hydroponics Blog
xtrchessreal
New Member
Calyx Hunter
New Member
I worked briefly as an Electrician and was a memeber of the local IBEW. I currently am Employed as a Cinema Service Engineer. I've been working with 2000 watt to 6000 watt xenon lamps and lighting up movie screens for over 16 years. This past weekend I had fun mounting my Solis Tek 600W ballast to a plywood board. I used plastic wire anchors to secure my input and output cabling for sturdy solid connections. I'll post pictures when my setup is complete.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the inherent differences in the ballast technologies. The wave form that magnetic versus digital ballasts produce is different. Correct me if I'm wrong but the higher frequency power the lamp is receiving from an e-ballast allows for more uniform light with less flicker. This also allows the lamp to run with greater PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) that the plant can actually use. Now that lamp manufacturers are producing lamps that run at Higher Frequencies doesn't it seem wise to support the technologies that can benefit our lovely green daughters?
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the inherent differences in the ballast technologies. The wave form that magnetic versus digital ballasts produce is different. Correct me if I'm wrong but the higher frequency power the lamp is receiving from an e-ballast allows for more uniform light with less flicker. This also allows the lamp to run with greater PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) that the plant can actually use. Now that lamp manufacturers are producing lamps that run at Higher Frequencies doesn't it seem wise to support the technologies that can benefit our lovely green daughters?
xtrchessreal
New Member
Well on the grounds that I place a moral obligation on myself to spread truth I would like to provide information that fills in some blanks and clarifies the marketing points of Digital Ballasts vs. Magnetic Ballasts, and HID Bulbs. 
First I would like to say I just don't think it is fair to the average consumer that has no idea about the science behind electricity and electromagnetic devices at least enough to make an informed decision, to not provide specifications. Most people's eyes glaze over when you begin to use terms like PAR, Lumens, Wavelength...they see someone using a device that measures PAR and assume it is what they say it is without knowing what it is.
Yes the consumer has an obligation to know what they are purchasing but when it comes to electricity the amount of education needed to make a knowledgeable decision is a very steep hill to climb. And given the latest US Department of Education statistics that only 6.5% of adults in college are getting engineering or physical science degrees, there is a serious shortage of technical knowledge out there. That means most people, not all but, most visiting this site have little scientific knowledge concerning these devices and are hoping for honest knowledgeable opinion to steer them into making the best decisions for growing marijuana. This is my goal, to provide you an honest knowledgeable opinion so you can be better informed when making decisions to purchase growing lights and ballasts.
Abstract Summary
All of my research is biased toward saving money as I don't have any.
Researching 1000W HPS bulbs, digital ballasts, and magnetic ballasts I have concluded that the lifespan of bulbs can be expected to last 20K to 24K hours using a magnetic ballast as the bulb manufacturers suggest. This will save you money for replacement bulbs. All data sheets I have found concerning HPS 1000 watt bulbs states the manufacturer performance test results were all based on using magnetic ballasts. Magnetic ballasts will last for decades. I find it frustrating that many of these digital ballast manufacturers do not publish their electrical specifications or performance data. That should be a red flag for any systems engineer when tasked with putting together a complete lighting system for a specific purpose. If there is a complete system prepared and packaged then there should be performance data that goes with it so you can determine if the system will work for your specific needs. Every room is different in shape, size, electrical supply limits, budgets are different, start up costs of growing all need to be planned to the last detail. RFI output can be a major concern when a large warehouse is relying on other integral systems like controls for hydroponics, HVAC, computer networks, the list could be quite large depending on the detail of automated controls. There is little to no data on performance of digital ballasts from digital ballast manufacturers. Yet I have found data that suggests that digital ballasts fail frequently and HID bulbs used with digital ballasts fail frequently and that costs a lot of money to replace. Are we to gamble a business or tight personal budget away on marketing literature? Digital ballasts produce RFI radio frequency interference and though some have provided shielding to minimize it the RFI still exists. Magnetic ballasts produce a humming noise but this is not RFI it is a 60Hz tone in the audio spectrum you can hear when you are near it. Its the same tone you hear when a fan motor kicks on or if you play guitar near a motor or transformer the electric pickups will receive this tone.
Digital Ballasts
The higher pulse rate of the digital ballast does not represent the light of the sun better than a magnetic ballast. One is just different from the other but neither pulse rate alone fully recreates the sun. In fact I could make the argument that since there are no digital signals in nature, then a magnetic ballast is more natural to us than a digital. We live inside an immensely powerful magnetic field of the earth. Analog sine waves are all around us, the moon orbit, the earth orbit, the spin of the earth, musical tones, bio-rhythms. Many musicians and audiophiles will tell you an analog tube amplifier produces a much more natural sound than does a digital or solid state amplifier. The frame rate of a film produces a smooth movement to the eye and a sample rate of music produces a similarly smooth representation of sound to the ear. Neither come close to actually seeing a play or hearing an orchestra live yet both are forms of discrete or digital representation. Discrete in this context meaning a single frame of a 30 frame per sec movie or a single bit sample of a 320 bit per second musical note. Likewise a single pulse of light from a Bulb being run by a digital ballast at 20,000 pulses a second can be called a discrete pulse. The Hortilux Digital Platinum series ballast boasts a low frequency or pulse 120Hz square wave. The Hortilux Digital Gold series runs an output frequency of 120,000Hz or 120kHz. The Gold has a higher average light-on time per second which provides a higher average intensity light.
If a digital ballast provides a digital voltage and current to the HPS/MH bulb then that means the bulb is seeing a square wave which will cause erosion of materials inside the bulb and failure of the bulb really fast. If you were to be dragged across a floor and you had a choice of being dragged across steel ball bearings or steel cubes which would you choose? Another way to think of it is the car crash dummy, it is smashed against an object or a wall over an over and soon needs replacing. On the other hand if it puts on the breaks and then accelerates over and over it will last much longer, like we do driving a car. In the realm of electrons, protons, and neutrons a square wave of voltage and current is harsh. A nice AC voltage and current is more like the ocean tides rising and then retreating, another example of a sine wave.
I say that the digital ballast creates a higher average of light intensity with a higher PAR value from the bulb but it is at the cost of the bulb life. You will get higher intensity but the gases inside the bulb decay faster as the electrons bombard and release photon energy at a higher than designed rate. By design of the bulb the amalgam of mercury in the arc tube is supposed to only be partially vaporized and stay mostly liquid during operation. The higher frequency pulse from a digital ballast causes the amalgam to vaporize more than it would at low frequency, this is what gives the higher intensity. The bulb that was a 20,000 hour bulb becomes perhaps a 2000 hour or 5000 hour bulb and I haven't seen any HPS bulbs that say they are 50,000 hours or 100,000 hours. A partial final point here is that you might get some initial power savings from using a digital ballast but you lose that savings and actually cost yourself more when you replace the bulb 5 to 10 times faster.
Further on BULBS
Researching for Eye Hortilux Super HPS Enhanced Lamp, the bulb that was used in the "Growers House Review" above. I found that the Eye Hortilux Enhanced designated as LU1000B/HTL/EN is made by Eye Lighting International Inc. of Ohio. I researched their products and found that they only make one HPS 1000W Lamp named Sunlux designated LU1000B/EN. I could not find the HTL anywhere on the Eye Lighting International Inc. website. I don't know why Eye lighting inc. does not publish the Eye Hortilux Enhanced LU1000B/HTL/EN data sheet. You would think they are proud of it. However, perusing their data sheets I found one 1000W bulb that has the product code LU1000B/EN and the data sheet calls for Ansi S52 Ballast which is a magnetic ballast. In fact if you search for Ansi S52 on the internet all you will find is a Magnetic Ballast. No HPS bulb manufacturers are calling for a digital ballast to be used in order to get the maximum lifespan or any of the performance characteristics including PAR and Wavelength spectrum of the bulb. Why?
Researching for data on HPS lamps/bulbs in general I found Lucalux (GE) data sheets specifically calling for lamps to be used with so called "choke (reactor) ballast" in order to get the same results they have in their manufacturing process test results. A choke reactor ballast is a magnetic ballast, it is just another way of saying it. This can be found on their November 2013 Standard data sheet for Lucalux bulbs. That is recent data yet no digital ballast was used in the performance tests. The same Ansi S52 ballast is called out for use with Osram/Sylvania, Philips, Growlite Real Red, Solis-Tek HPS High Frequency and more. Digilux brand is an enigma inside a paradox and shipped as a puzzle. Digilux is branded by a company called C.A.P. Custom Automated Products which exists only as a website corporation they do not manufacture anything, they have no data sheets for any HPS bulbs in existence. Why? And, this is not the only company that buys wholesale from a manufacturer and puts their logo on the box with a bunch of unsubstantiated claims.
I found this on Wikipedia which supports my claim:
"For HID lamps there is no improvement of the lamp efficacy in using higher frequency, but for these lamps the BALLAST losses are lower at higher frequencies and also the light depreciation is lower, meaning the lamp produces more light over its entire lifespan."(from Wikipedia/Electrical Ballast)
Notice that "lifespan" is not defined in that quote but we know they are 20K to 24K hour bulbs. The wiki article is basically saying it burns normally bright without any improvement in efficiency until it burns out. It is also stating that the only improvement in efficiency from using high frequency is to the Digital Ballast. So, are we being demo graphed by digital ballast manufacturers to buy digital ballasts because it helps us grow our marijuana better or does it just help the manufacturer sell fancy boxes and a lot of bulbs? Boxes and bulbs that fail often and need to be replaced a lot. Since we really want to grow marijuana are they preying on our general lack of science knowledge? We're just a bunch of dumb stoners, what are we gonna know...right?
Now I know digital ballast technology are relative infants compared to magnetic ballasts so there is not much actuary data on the lifespan of the digital ballast. I can tell you that there are millions of magnetic ballasts, tube amplifiers, transformers, coils in general that were built 20, 40, 60, 80 years ago and are still operating without needing replacement. Sure a breaker or a fuse and even tubes go out but the coils don't. There is evidence of many digital ballasts having to be replaced in large warehouses within a 2 year period. I found a report on digital ballasts being used in Australia. The report stated that due to electrical properties of the digital ballast itself that when placed in a matrix, as in a warehouse setting, the digital ballasts were interfering with each other such that it caused a failure in the ballast. To be fair Magnetic ballasts can do something similar if placed in a matrix but the magnetic ballast does not need to be replaced. Rather the length of the conductor to the light bulb from the ballast needs to be shortened or the conductor thickness needs to be increased. Further the magnetic ballasts were still operating, the Bulbs would simply cycle and re-strike a lot, fooling a person into believing that it was the bulb at the end of its life. The truth is the matrix circuits in these cases were designed poorly not the bulb or the ballast. The key here is that the Magnetic ballasts were not replaced but in the case of Digital ballasts they did have to be replaced, at a high cost. Once again Magnetic Ballasts are more robust and can take quite a bit of misuse without failing.
Please don't just believe me do some research. Look up GE, Sylvania, Philips, and other bulb manufacturers, look at the data sheets and see if they call for Ansi S52 ballasts or choke reactor ballasts for their performance tests. If you can't find performance data sheets that should raise a flag.
I would like to state I am in no way trying to slam Growers House for their review. I think it is a fair review they did a good job providing good information comparing digital ballasts to other digital ballasts, throwing in a magnetic ballast was fair as well as it does show a different intensity and PAR values. I am trying to provide other information.
As I stated before my statements here are biased toward saving money. If you need a light weight ballast and have money to spend on items that are more luxurious and you are willing to replace it often, then a digital ballast may be a good fit for you. I wish to help those that need low budget advice. I am a green thinking vegan electrical engineer that likes to grow weed. Who couldn't grow good weed before the digital ballast came out? As far as 1000w HPS lamps go, Sodium burns in the same spectrum of light everywhere in the universe. By adding a bit of other trace elements to the bulb we get a very slight difference in the light spectrum but it is still going to be 97% to 99% Sodium light. So, bulb to bulb comparisons are really splitting hairs. Unless you are in a science lab trying to get to that next 0.2% of increased THC due to bulb performance I think you can buy the cheapest HPS bulb and magnetic ballast you can find - it will work.
Thank you for reading.
X
First I would like to say I just don't think it is fair to the average consumer that has no idea about the science behind electricity and electromagnetic devices at least enough to make an informed decision, to not provide specifications. Most people's eyes glaze over when you begin to use terms like PAR, Lumens, Wavelength...they see someone using a device that measures PAR and assume it is what they say it is without knowing what it is.
Yes the consumer has an obligation to know what they are purchasing but when it comes to electricity the amount of education needed to make a knowledgeable decision is a very steep hill to climb. And given the latest US Department of Education statistics that only 6.5% of adults in college are getting engineering or physical science degrees, there is a serious shortage of technical knowledge out there. That means most people, not all but, most visiting this site have little scientific knowledge concerning these devices and are hoping for honest knowledgeable opinion to steer them into making the best decisions for growing marijuana. This is my goal, to provide you an honest knowledgeable opinion so you can be better informed when making decisions to purchase growing lights and ballasts.Abstract Summary
All of my research is biased toward saving money as I don't have any.
Researching 1000W HPS bulbs, digital ballasts, and magnetic ballasts I have concluded that the lifespan of bulbs can be expected to last 20K to 24K hours using a magnetic ballast as the bulb manufacturers suggest. This will save you money for replacement bulbs. All data sheets I have found concerning HPS 1000 watt bulbs states the manufacturer performance test results were all based on using magnetic ballasts. Magnetic ballasts will last for decades. I find it frustrating that many of these digital ballast manufacturers do not publish their electrical specifications or performance data. That should be a red flag for any systems engineer when tasked with putting together a complete lighting system for a specific purpose. If there is a complete system prepared and packaged then there should be performance data that goes with it so you can determine if the system will work for your specific needs. Every room is different in shape, size, electrical supply limits, budgets are different, start up costs of growing all need to be planned to the last detail. RFI output can be a major concern when a large warehouse is relying on other integral systems like controls for hydroponics, HVAC, computer networks, the list could be quite large depending on the detail of automated controls. There is little to no data on performance of digital ballasts from digital ballast manufacturers. Yet I have found data that suggests that digital ballasts fail frequently and HID bulbs used with digital ballasts fail frequently and that costs a lot of money to replace. Are we to gamble a business or tight personal budget away on marketing literature? Digital ballasts produce RFI radio frequency interference and though some have provided shielding to minimize it the RFI still exists. Magnetic ballasts produce a humming noise but this is not RFI it is a 60Hz tone in the audio spectrum you can hear when you are near it. Its the same tone you hear when a fan motor kicks on or if you play guitar near a motor or transformer the electric pickups will receive this tone. Digital Ballasts
The higher pulse rate of the digital ballast does not represent the light of the sun better than a magnetic ballast. One is just different from the other but neither pulse rate alone fully recreates the sun. In fact I could make the argument that since there are no digital signals in nature, then a magnetic ballast is more natural to us than a digital. We live inside an immensely powerful magnetic field of the earth. Analog sine waves are all around us, the moon orbit, the earth orbit, the spin of the earth, musical tones, bio-rhythms. Many musicians and audiophiles will tell you an analog tube amplifier produces a much more natural sound than does a digital or solid state amplifier. The frame rate of a film produces a smooth movement to the eye and a sample rate of music produces a similarly smooth representation of sound to the ear. Neither come close to actually seeing a play or hearing an orchestra live yet both are forms of discrete or digital representation. Discrete in this context meaning a single frame of a 30 frame per sec movie or a single bit sample of a 320 bit per second musical note. Likewise a single pulse of light from a Bulb being run by a digital ballast at 20,000 pulses a second can be called a discrete pulse. The Hortilux Digital Platinum series ballast boasts a low frequency or pulse 120Hz square wave. The Hortilux Digital Gold series runs an output frequency of 120,000Hz or 120kHz. The Gold has a higher average light-on time per second which provides a higher average intensity light.
If a digital ballast provides a digital voltage and current to the HPS/MH bulb then that means the bulb is seeing a square wave which will cause erosion of materials inside the bulb and failure of the bulb really fast. If you were to be dragged across a floor and you had a choice of being dragged across steel ball bearings or steel cubes which would you choose? Another way to think of it is the car crash dummy, it is smashed against an object or a wall over an over and soon needs replacing. On the other hand if it puts on the breaks and then accelerates over and over it will last much longer, like we do driving a car. In the realm of electrons, protons, and neutrons a square wave of voltage and current is harsh. A nice AC voltage and current is more like the ocean tides rising and then retreating, another example of a sine wave.
I say that the digital ballast creates a higher average of light intensity with a higher PAR value from the bulb but it is at the cost of the bulb life. You will get higher intensity but the gases inside the bulb decay faster as the electrons bombard and release photon energy at a higher than designed rate. By design of the bulb the amalgam of mercury in the arc tube is supposed to only be partially vaporized and stay mostly liquid during operation. The higher frequency pulse from a digital ballast causes the amalgam to vaporize more than it would at low frequency, this is what gives the higher intensity. The bulb that was a 20,000 hour bulb becomes perhaps a 2000 hour or 5000 hour bulb and I haven't seen any HPS bulbs that say they are 50,000 hours or 100,000 hours. A partial final point here is that you might get some initial power savings from using a digital ballast but you lose that savings and actually cost yourself more when you replace the bulb 5 to 10 times faster.
Further on BULBS
Researching for Eye Hortilux Super HPS Enhanced Lamp, the bulb that was used in the "Growers House Review" above. I found that the Eye Hortilux Enhanced designated as LU1000B/HTL/EN is made by Eye Lighting International Inc. of Ohio. I researched their products and found that they only make one HPS 1000W Lamp named Sunlux designated LU1000B/EN. I could not find the HTL anywhere on the Eye Lighting International Inc. website. I don't know why Eye lighting inc. does not publish the Eye Hortilux Enhanced LU1000B/HTL/EN data sheet. You would think they are proud of it. However, perusing their data sheets I found one 1000W bulb that has the product code LU1000B/EN and the data sheet calls for Ansi S52 Ballast which is a magnetic ballast. In fact if you search for Ansi S52 on the internet all you will find is a Magnetic Ballast. No HPS bulb manufacturers are calling for a digital ballast to be used in order to get the maximum lifespan or any of the performance characteristics including PAR and Wavelength spectrum of the bulb. Why?
Researching for data on HPS lamps/bulbs in general I found Lucalux (GE) data sheets specifically calling for lamps to be used with so called "choke (reactor) ballast" in order to get the same results they have in their manufacturing process test results. A choke reactor ballast is a magnetic ballast, it is just another way of saying it. This can be found on their November 2013 Standard data sheet for Lucalux bulbs. That is recent data yet no digital ballast was used in the performance tests. The same Ansi S52 ballast is called out for use with Osram/Sylvania, Philips, Growlite Real Red, Solis-Tek HPS High Frequency and more. Digilux brand is an enigma inside a paradox and shipped as a puzzle. Digilux is branded by a company called C.A.P. Custom Automated Products which exists only as a website corporation they do not manufacture anything, they have no data sheets for any HPS bulbs in existence. Why? And, this is not the only company that buys wholesale from a manufacturer and puts their logo on the box with a bunch of unsubstantiated claims.
I found this on Wikipedia which supports my claim:
"For HID lamps there is no improvement of the lamp efficacy in using higher frequency, but for these lamps the BALLAST losses are lower at higher frequencies and also the light depreciation is lower, meaning the lamp produces more light over its entire lifespan."(from Wikipedia/Electrical Ballast)
Notice that "lifespan" is not defined in that quote but we know they are 20K to 24K hour bulbs. The wiki article is basically saying it burns normally bright without any improvement in efficiency until it burns out. It is also stating that the only improvement in efficiency from using high frequency is to the Digital Ballast. So, are we being demo graphed by digital ballast manufacturers to buy digital ballasts because it helps us grow our marijuana better or does it just help the manufacturer sell fancy boxes and a lot of bulbs? Boxes and bulbs that fail often and need to be replaced a lot. Since we really want to grow marijuana are they preying on our general lack of science knowledge? We're just a bunch of dumb stoners, what are we gonna know...right?
Now I know digital ballast technology are relative infants compared to magnetic ballasts so there is not much actuary data on the lifespan of the digital ballast. I can tell you that there are millions of magnetic ballasts, tube amplifiers, transformers, coils in general that were built 20, 40, 60, 80 years ago and are still operating without needing replacement. Sure a breaker or a fuse and even tubes go out but the coils don't. There is evidence of many digital ballasts having to be replaced in large warehouses within a 2 year period. I found a report on digital ballasts being used in Australia. The report stated that due to electrical properties of the digital ballast itself that when placed in a matrix, as in a warehouse setting, the digital ballasts were interfering with each other such that it caused a failure in the ballast. To be fair Magnetic ballasts can do something similar if placed in a matrix but the magnetic ballast does not need to be replaced. Rather the length of the conductor to the light bulb from the ballast needs to be shortened or the conductor thickness needs to be increased. Further the magnetic ballasts were still operating, the Bulbs would simply cycle and re-strike a lot, fooling a person into believing that it was the bulb at the end of its life. The truth is the matrix circuits in these cases were designed poorly not the bulb or the ballast. The key here is that the Magnetic ballasts were not replaced but in the case of Digital ballasts they did have to be replaced, at a high cost. Once again Magnetic Ballasts are more robust and can take quite a bit of misuse without failing.
Please don't just believe me do some research. Look up GE, Sylvania, Philips, and other bulb manufacturers, look at the data sheets and see if they call for Ansi S52 ballasts or choke reactor ballasts for their performance tests. If you can't find performance data sheets that should raise a flag.
I would like to state I am in no way trying to slam Growers House for their review. I think it is a fair review they did a good job providing good information comparing digital ballasts to other digital ballasts, throwing in a magnetic ballast was fair as well as it does show a different intensity and PAR values. I am trying to provide other information.
As I stated before my statements here are biased toward saving money. If you need a light weight ballast and have money to spend on items that are more luxurious and you are willing to replace it often, then a digital ballast may be a good fit for you. I wish to help those that need low budget advice. I am a green thinking vegan electrical engineer that likes to grow weed. Who couldn't grow good weed before the digital ballast came out? As far as 1000w HPS lamps go, Sodium burns in the same spectrum of light everywhere in the universe. By adding a bit of other trace elements to the bulb we get a very slight difference in the light spectrum but it is still going to be 97% to 99% Sodium light. So, bulb to bulb comparisons are really splitting hairs. Unless you are in a science lab trying to get to that next 0.2% of increased THC due to bulb performance I think you can buy the cheapest HPS bulb and magnetic ballast you can find - it will work.
Thank you for reading.
X
Calyx Hunter
New Member
Imagine where our world would be if evryone was close minded and accepted that way things are right now is the best. I'd be interested in hearing from people with open minds and people who don't mind spending a little more money for the best performing products. There are numerous things wrong with xtrchessreal's post. First of all the ANSI code S52 only specifies the output of the ballast. S52 = 1000W, S106 = 600W and so on. It's interesting how numerous times xtrchessreal came to a conclusion simply by not finding any information. They don't say this so it must mean this right? I'm just pointing out that this persons point of view is nearly irrelevant due to his or her stance that cheapest "will work." Most here can agree that Ushio is one of the quality lamp manufacturers. I know from personal experience as I have been replacing their cinema xenon lamps for years and have compared them to other inferiror brands. Here is an interresting quote from Ushio on e-ballast from their HiLux Gro spec sheet: "E-BALLAST FRIENDLY
USHIO has seen the development of electronic ballasts in the lighting industry since its first
introduction into the fluorescent lamp market. Once a new technology for fluorescent lamp is now
a mass produced item that has achieved consistency in its high performance and reliability.
Since then, electronic ballasts continues to evolve in capacity to operate higher pressure lamps up
to 12,000W in high technology industrial markets. (as of 3/2009)
Electronic ballast for HID lamps will become the preferred technology of the future, and it will
become the horticulture industry standard, just like the evolution that happened in the fl uorescent
lamp era. That is why we support the electronic ballast technology in the horticulture market, and
work with various electronic ballast manufacturers in strategic alliance to improve the industry standard."
Every new technology has stumbles along the way. Things still need to improve obviously. If we didn't support the newest best technology and continually look forward to ways in which we can improve our lives then we'd still be lighting our homes with bits of fire dancing on top of a wicked column of wax. I'm excited for new technological advances and I'd say The Future Is Bright!
Power ANSI codes
35 W S76
50 W S68
70 W S62
100 W S54
150 W S55
200 W S66
250 W S50
310 W S67
400 W S51
600 W S106
750 W S111
1000 W S52
USHIO has seen the development of electronic ballasts in the lighting industry since its first
introduction into the fluorescent lamp market. Once a new technology for fluorescent lamp is now
a mass produced item that has achieved consistency in its high performance and reliability.
Since then, electronic ballasts continues to evolve in capacity to operate higher pressure lamps up
to 12,000W in high technology industrial markets. (as of 3/2009)
Electronic ballast for HID lamps will become the preferred technology of the future, and it will
become the horticulture industry standard, just like the evolution that happened in the fl uorescent
lamp era. That is why we support the electronic ballast technology in the horticulture market, and
work with various electronic ballast manufacturers in strategic alliance to improve the industry standard."
Every new technology has stumbles along the way. Things still need to improve obviously. If we didn't support the newest best technology and continually look forward to ways in which we can improve our lives then we'd still be lighting our homes with bits of fire dancing on top of a wicked column of wax. I'm excited for new technological advances and I'd say The Future Is Bright!
Power ANSI codes
35 W S76
50 W S68
70 W S62
100 W S54
150 W S55
200 W S66
250 W S50
310 W S67
400 W S51
600 W S106
750 W S111
1000 W S52
Calyx Hunter
New Member
Can someone that has both a magnetic and digital ballast of the same wattage run a Kill-a-watt on them both and post pics for proof? I'm surprised THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) hasn't been mentioned on this thread about ballast power wastage.
xtrchessreal
New Member
Calyx Hunter, I will let my statements ride. I work for no one and have no agenda. This is a forum. I decided to write about my research as I stated above so that people on this forum can find an honest opinion concerning ballasts and bulbs.
I am not the only entity that feels this way by the way. I do not think I am irrelevant because I choose to save money and use technology that has proven itself for decades.
I found it interesting Advanced Technology Solutions has published similar conclusions to mine. It did not occur to me when I posted the info above but Acoustic Resonance apparently is a well known problem. I was just using my knowledge of physics and electricity to explain in part what is already known. I am going to provide the link so anyone can cut and paste if they decide to investigate my points.
Advanced Technology Solutions, LLC Electronic & Digital Ballast Fact Page
ANSI accredits standards that are developed by representatives of other standards organizations, government agencies, consumer groups, companies, and others. These standards ensure that the characteristics and performance of products are consistent, that people use the same definitions and terms, and that products are tested the same way. ANSI also accredits organizations that carry out product or personnel certification in accordance with requirements defined in international standards.(wiki/ANSI)
Simply put I am saying most digital ballast manufacturers do not meet ANSI requirements, there may be a few but I have not found one in a web search.
X
I am not the only entity that feels this way by the way. I do not think I am irrelevant because I choose to save money and use technology that has proven itself for decades.
I found it interesting Advanced Technology Solutions has published similar conclusions to mine. It did not occur to me when I posted the info above but Acoustic Resonance apparently is a well known problem. I was just using my knowledge of physics and electricity to explain in part what is already known. I am going to provide the link so anyone can cut and paste if they decide to investigate my points.
Advanced Technology Solutions, LLC Electronic & Digital Ballast Fact Page
ANSI accredits standards that are developed by representatives of other standards organizations, government agencies, consumer groups, companies, and others. These standards ensure that the characteristics and performance of products are consistent, that people use the same definitions and terms, and that products are tested the same way. ANSI also accredits organizations that carry out product or personnel certification in accordance with requirements defined in international standards.(wiki/ANSI)
Simply put I am saying most digital ballast manufacturers do not meet ANSI requirements, there may be a few but I have not found one in a web search.
X