Digital ballasts pop Hortilux light bulbs. You have to use a standard HPS or Agro bulb. If you want to burn sweet Horti's you have to go old school and get the TRIED and TRUE magnetic...
Please refer below, as I will do my best to explain how horribly inefficient magnetic ballasts are.
Yes, U are not dimming the pwr to the ballast U are only dimming the bulb (just a bulb dimmer) 600watt ballast set at 400 U will still pull 600watts in pwr- Fact ! (probably 660watts) E-ballast never advertise in that U will save in pwr cumsumptions with this feature, it utliized pwr better, selecting lower wattage does not mean U are saving pwr being used.
Sorry to tell U that, but I also misread when they 1st came out, 1st time I plugged it in and went through it s setting, that when I realized Iam not saving money on the lower setting, its just a bulb dimmer, sorry!!
Still E-Ballast are great, money well invasted, dimm or no dimm.
Peace
U have a set ampe draw, depending on which voltage U are running 120/240 volts it does not give variable draw (ampes)for each setting, constantly same draw, hope that helps
This is literally to each their own. How a company designs the ballast and how the dim feature works is going to be there own build. I will lightly cover this below with a formula. It doesn't mean that a particular ballast does it that way.
I thought I would bring this up while thinking of it, when I was looking into e-ballast I noticed that NexGen ballast uses a CPU as to Lumatek some others a Micro Processor. My understanding the nexgen cpu constanly is monitioring the condition of the bulb and makes any adjustments to give constant highest output possable. Lumateks new generation micro Processor vs the older ones, basically suppose to do the same as a cpu.I think the cpu-ed ballast would be alittle better. It was a big tose up between Lumatek or Nexgen, reason I settlled for lumatek, I new hydro store open, I was thier 1st cumstomer so they gave me a pkg deal with a Ushio opt red bulb and threw in the Hydofarm light cord adapter, and of course I liked the dimming option (I didn't read it throughly as I should have) and no fans like nexgen, although the fan it looks pretty simple to replace if U had too. Iam happy with my lumatek. I thought I would pass this by to U-folks. If these issues are important to U,its certainly worth checking them out.
Peace
Theres an article in the new hightimes i think(new) and another mag i cant remember the name of that has an article that says Sunpulse lamps are the only bulbs that are truly compatible with digi/electro ballast.The hightimes article even states that hortilux themselves tested and found their own bulbs among others to be incompatible with the high frequency of digi/electro ballast.They admit that in this test the Sunpulse was the only bulb to be compatible.this is why bulbs have such a short lifespan when compared to mag ballast.Also they state that HPS is altogether not compatible with these new ballast especially.Theres an article also in the October 2008 issue of Maximum Yields mag.I havnt read it(max yields article) myself but the HT article references it.
It is not the ballast that has changed, it is the bulb. My guess in an effort to make a brighter bulb they changed the voltage required to fire up. You can't make a new product that isn't compatible with others and claim it is.
Don't think for a second Hortilux didn't know what they were doing when they sold a bulb for $100+ to retailers that cost them $5 to purchase by the 10's of thousands and didn't warn the industry likewise.
The difference between Magnetic Ballasts and Digital Ballasts is rather simple.
Magnetic Ballast cycle the bulb on 50-60 times a second.
Digital Ballast cycle the bulb on 40,000 times a second.
Good that you like em and they work for you, but they really suck bad compared to Quantums IMHO. I can get a 1000 Quantum for 285 locally, so I guess that beats out the Lumatek that is inferior, yet more expensive. What a paradox!
This is very subjective. There are pro's and con's either way.
It sounds like the Quantum's are a really nice ballast based on comments from people. It is important to remember that most of the recent ballast issues are not the fault of the ballast manufacturers, but rather
Hortilux not staying within in standard manufacturing practices. Now you see why it is important for an industry to be standardized in its applications.
I have a friend who runs 12,000 watts with Lumatek (Digital) and has no problems at all with them. They do get hot (to touch) but that is by design. One of the main reasons I didn't go with them. I am not a fan of the "heatsink" design. If you look at the "Amp" industry for car audio, you will see a lot of these designs too. It makes them large and bulky and inefficient from a cooling stand point. I prefer a cooling fan on any electronics that has a constant heat load.
I posted this in another post, so I will repost it here:
Some basic stuff:
AC power fluctuates and is short for alternating current. A magnetic ballast is only as effect as the current that is applied to it.
(Power = Voltage X Current)
A magnetic ballast is a linear device, if the power changes so does the output of the ballast. Since power constantly fluctuates you have a constant uneven powerband effecting the ballast, power typically fluctuates 10% on local grids throughout the day, with many other factors that can effect that further, i.e. neighborhood power draw, business power draw, peak power, weather, quality, age of the: wires, building, home; just to name a few.
For example, say the 240v line fluctuates (208v/240v) and drops just 20v to 220v, the ballast has just lost 20% of its effective power output, if it drops to 210v, that is a 30% drop, thus "dimming" the light. Everyone has probably experienced extreme versions of this during storms or windy days, when the lights in your home suddenly dim. Recently in the summers, a lot more people will run A/C and voltage can drop to 180v!
This is where the claim that certain brands of digital ballasts are 20%-30% brighter than magnetic ballast.
With a Digital Ballast, you do not have these fluctuations. It is a constant 1000w of output at all times. The ballast acts as a voltage regulator. Digital Ballast are so efficient they even require a lot less power to operate.
Digital Ballasts are capable of a powerfactor of 99.9%. What does that mean? The ballast itself only requires 1% to power itself. VERY EFFICIENT. The Quantum 1000w Ballast only uses 10w to power itself and my NextGen only requires 30w.
The
powerfactor in a
magnetic ballast this will be
much lower, most cases it will be 70-85%. Meaning it will take 150w-300w just to power a 1000w ballast! $50/m just to power 4kw ballasts at 8 cents per kw/h at 18 hours a day. If you are at commercial application of 30k watts, thats $400/m!
The same with digital ballasts? $5/m to power 4kw. Commercial 30kw? $39/m.
Now multiply that by 4 months, because the rest of the year will be on a 12 hour cycle, not 18. To get an idea of per year expenses.
I purchased (4) NextGen Digital Ballast, the reasons I went with them was that they have a built in fan for cooling, they are about 1/3 the size of a lumatek/quantum, LED's, cool start, CPU, 13 universal lamp receptacle, up to 65' bulb cable and they have a powerfactor of 97%. Among many other features that were important to me. I paid $280 shipped each off ebay.
