My understanding of a true DE ballast and light systems is that they run solely off of 240v supply, and upconvert to supply the bulb at 400v vs other common inferior ballasts that supply at 240v and I belive but I am also unsure that the 400w and 600w possibly supply the lamp at less then 240v, which I don't use in anyway. So I don't know.
But a true 1000w de ballast supplying at 400v converting to 1000w is more efficient the say a "fake" de ballast like a
phantom de, or
hortilux gold for example that only supply the lamp at 240v which is the standard for se bulbs, and even though they will fire up a de bulb you will not get the same amount of umol or par as you would from a 400v system, as efficencey is lost during the larger conversion. In my opinion a de lamp operating at a 240v supply is not much better then a standard se lamp....barely worth the investment in my opinion. The only thing that makes a de bulb on a 240v supply ballast better is the fact that the bulb is attached at both ends closer to the supply vs a se bulb one end is close to the supply while the other end (furthest from the mogul) is fed back to the supply/mogul with the bar you see in the bulb thus losing a little bit odd energy... some manufacturers try to claim that they are so much better because the supply bar can be between the inner bulb and the plant... which can be avoided by looking and turning back a half turn and pointing the bar towards the center of the reflector. If the bulb seems loose in any way then loser the socket and rotate it and attach it back to the reflector... so while there is a little gained running a de on a 240v ballast, this is not what makes the true de set up so great... it is the fact that the 400v set up. I always try to investigate greatly before I spend, and I was misinformed by one of the manufactures of a mentioned ballast company....maybe he didn't understand what he was saying or that he felt the need to hide this information as he didn't want this to get out consequently losing potential customers...after learning the truth I explained how this works to him, and he seemed so great full for the explanation... So I emailed the same guy asking the same question under a diffrent email a month later, and this time was told the same misinformation... so I belive him to be a liar rather then misinformed. Lessons learned..... investigate before you spend and don't belive anything that you hear from one single source.... even here.... please don't belive me.... look into it your self, I belive me.... but maybe I'm misinformed...lol
So all that said another fact I feel should be on the record is that DE bulbs can not be air cooled as they require minium temp to operate properly without losing umol/par. Sure there are excellent hoods like the sunlight ac/de that do not pass the air directly over the bulb but instead it passes air between a gap between the reflector and the hood, thus cooling down the hood and reflector and not the bulb.... does this remove as much of the heat at the other standard air cooled reflectors? Well that's your call.... I didn't believe so and I felt my money is best spent in other areas then a $300++ reflector like this... don't get me wrong there are best if that's what you application needs... say you have a certain equipment that does not allow this or that....once again it's your call how you spend ypu money.....
I like buying things, and testing diffrent ideas I have... I thrive off of it... I am always putting back into my garden... and why shouldn't I, they give me so much....
My favorite set up of the diffrent styles I've tried or currently run is my
nanolux remote DE ballast set up which is a true DE Ballast that runs lamp at 400v at a varying range from 600w thru 1200w. The claim was 2100 umol that I tested and with certain lamps (which I like to test a variety of) I achieved as high as 2170 and I belive even more is possible with the right bulb.
So what I do is I use the
maxpar SE-DE bulb which is basically a 400v DE lamp altered into a se bulb.
Now you might be wondering why I go this direction and not just the standard de bulb.... the reason is that you can not air cool a de bulb... but these you can... best of both applications in my opinion... you can cram these into affordable air cooled reflectors with better results...
This is my opinion that I believe to be true... those that agree great... please confirm.... if I'm wrong in any aspect I would like to know, I am a fan of constructive criticism... it will only make me stronger...
I could talk about growing and equipment to do so for ever, but as this is my first comment ever on a forum I would like to see how this goes....
And No I am not a
nanolux rep...lol
Honestly my only run in what the rep of the New York area... and I kinda of think he is a dink...
I agree with some products of all diffrent makes, and have tried alot. Just feel a responsibility to share knowledge as even though I don't post on forums, I do read them and I feel that too many that have knowledge let it go to there head, and should share more to help lift others up...
First ask yourself a question....then set out to find the answer thru trial, error and experiment.
What I am really excited about what's coming next... just got a bunch of new things to play with recently and I'm just lacking the time to set up.....
So sorry for any typos or bad grammar... I don't have the time to proof read....gf is complaining... I mean calling....lol