Black Lab
- 286
- 93
I noticed a ballast was running a little hot. It's a 1000 watt Phantom dimmable digital ballast. I couldn't hold my hand against the side of the ballast and the electric cord plug at the ballast end was too hot to hold. I checked at the other end where cord is plugged into wall receptacle and it was cool to the touch. I could smell a little of the burnt acrid smell of electric running too hot at the ballast. I turned ballast down to 600 watt and that seemed to cool it down. I put it back up to 1000 watts after it cooled. This morning I came down to check garden and light was out. The electric cord at the ballast melted and shorted out. Ballast is about 4-5 years old. It's a 20 amp circuit with a 1000 watt light and three 6" can fans running off that circuit. I don't want to burn the place down. Any ideas about what happened to cause cord to burn out?