Heat From Cmh Ballasts

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JMcG

JMcG

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Heat from cmh ballasts
Heat from cmh ballasts 2
Heat from cmh ballasts 3
So .....
Check this out.
I have replaced half of my 600w HPS lights with 315w CMH over the last month. ( Loving it.... better spectrum, gooey buds)
I'm pretty impatient so I ordered the ballast / bulb conversion kits as I could afford them which meant I ordered three different times and bought three different brands, usually going for the best deal at the time. I can ended up with two of each :
Illuminati
Prism science
Galaxy

Upon firing them up they all seem fine. However, after a few days of running a them I decided to hit them with an IR temp gun and here is what I saw...

Illuminati 116degrees
Prism Science 127 degrees
Galaxy 90 degrees

Quite a difference in heat output! No a really alarming discovery, but one to consider when placing ballasts inside or outside your grow room.
Need heat? A wall of prisms would do it I suspect!
Wanna keep it cool? Then Galaxy FTW.

Plus the Galaxy is dimmable too !
Just my .02
Cheers
 
DemonTrich

DemonTrich

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Shit, I have 7x prism ballasts and I can rest the palm of my hand on any one of them and it's warm. Not hot enough to pull my hand away. I also have my ballasts raised on their mounting boards, so this may help dissipate the heat more.

20161127 233724
 
StandingRock

StandingRock

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I just switched over to CMH this month! I'm looking forward to the results. Hey @DemonTrich where is your grow diary with cmh? I couldn't find it when I searched.
 
JMcG

JMcG

517
93
DemonTrich said:
Shit, I have 7x prism ballasts and I can rest the palm of my hand on any one of them and it's warm. Not hot enough to pull my hand away. I also have my ballasts raised on their mounting boards, so this may help dissipate the heat more.

View attachment 696640
Click to expand...
Interesting... I hope they are the same, mine are black . And they are pretty hot, not burn your skin hot, but 127 degrees is ... well... hot. When did you purchase yours? I know we got them from the same place.
 
JMcG

JMcG

517
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Ha!
Yeah, I just kicked out my ancient 400w MH out of my veg room and replaced it with one of the 315s. Two actually. A bit of shock , I should've hung them higher!
Those prism ballasts are in there, they are not over heating it yet but it is still cold here.
I can't keep my hand on those suckers for more than ten seconds!
 
JMcG

JMcG

517
93
Yeah, I'll probably stick with my plan and move them out of the room, at least during the summer months. Right now they are keeping the room around 78 * so no big deal... yet.
Interested in your temps DT...
 
DemonTrich

DemonTrich

6,394
313
It will be around 9pm until I can post my readings. I do have my room exhaust that blows across the ballast mounting board. So that alone will drops temps drastically. My 3x315 I use for veg won't be on for about 1 more week. I don't have any fans or exhaust blowing on those ballasts. So those numbers would be more real world. I'll snap a pic of how I have those mounted.
 
MidwestToker

MidwestToker

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DemonTrich said:
What's the operating temp say in the specs? 132* seems pretty damn hot.
Click to expand...
No specs for those ballast as I have around 30 old highbays in a combo of MH and HPS that I use for my CMHs . Along with 2 of the Sun Systems 1,s at 430 watts and a dozen or so electronics ballast from 400 to 1,00 watts. A couple of 1,000 watt MV lamps and ballast also.
I'm going to hit my Gavita DE ballast tonight and see what it reads.
I've grown since 1971, mainly outdoors through the 70s' but went indoors in the 80s' and back then there were not a lot of commercial fixtures available to us . So we used what we could find. Mainly old 400 HPS parking lot lights back then. I can totally rebuild those magnetic ballast for $40-$60.
 
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