nangonug
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Well one can test by measuring resistance through the transformer or measuring light loss over time. The fix is to replace the ballast or use modern tecnology that is more efficent and dose not degrade over time. At the heart of that ballast is a coper wound transformer. First off this was more then likely wound by a worker in some dark factory in China or the like. The initial problem is that one may have 2500 wrap's. the next one may have 2463, The next one 2599 and so on. These may all fall with in what's acceptable but will cause a slightly different voltage from each one. Second as the copper wire heats and cools with each start and stop the wire will over time break down and resistance will increae through the circut causing a drop in output over time. This is a well known fact about transformers. There is the inductive load problem as well. Any fan motor or coper wound transformer cause an inductive load. The more inductive load on a curcut the higher the difference between actual and apparent power. This is measured as a power factor. If your running a few then no big deal but start to add many and it will cause you to have a higher power bill. Many power meters read this load as an increase in power use and you will be paying for apparent power use not actual power used. If the diffenence is to much you can put a large capacitor in line and help with the correction. This is a simple explination but hopefully you get the idea. I spent years in college learning all about these things and even got a pretty thing to hang on the wall to prove it. Anyway , This is why magnetic ballests loose efficency over time. So the first time you plug a magnetic ballest into the wall it most likely at the brightest is will ever be, the best you can get for output. You can measure this by measuring the light output from the ballast and then mesuring this same ballast with the same lamp ( you would have to take a control lamp out of rotation and follow standard startup time and warm up period as well) several years later. You will have a measurable decrease in your light (lumans/lux) . You will not have this light loss over time with a digital ballast. And the digital ballast should not cause much of a difference between actual and apparent power. There's other factors to consider but from my experience the newer gerneration of digitals are sound. With the warrenties being offered with them you can't really go wrong with any of them. I tryed and was frustrated with many of the older one, especially the lumatek's but they have improved over time. Just be sure and do your home work. Most shops around me are still trying to get 350 plus for a thousand. Deffenetly sould be able to find them in the mid 250 275 range if your good at shopping. If you are planing to go horizantal open lamp I would seriously consider the new gavita 1000 watt pro. I will be trying a few out if I can ever catch them while there in stock. There digital, adjustible voltage,ballast that use a 400v philips lamp that has only 5% (claimed not tested by me yet) loss of lumins over a year. This is a big advantage in and of it's self. If your using the current lamps we lose that much and more after the first month of use. That's a big diffence if that's actually true! Thats like putting new lamps in once a month. I got to admit those solis-tec matrix ballast's look very interesting as well. Soft start so no power spike on a comercial meter can be a HUGE difference for the big warehouse guy's. Don't know how much it would help a small med grower like me though. I'm very happy with the lumatek's and know several big time guys that use them too. Now if those plasma lights would get down to an affordable price. I sure would like to try a few out for veg. Around a thousand bucks to replace a 10 to 12 bank t'5 light set up. Getting close, but still a bit to steep for me. It's hard to believe anything thats put out and advertised about most things related. Untill I've actually seen and or saw them in use and working as discribed, I remain optimisticly skeptical. I hate to say it but I have fallen prey to the latest and greatest a couple times . Maybe this one will be the one that measures up. Hope this began to answer your question about how a magnetic ballest will degrade over time. It's never easy to make decisions and it gets even harder when we are constently bombarded with hype. Digitals have come of age and I would hope will only continue to evolve for the better. Peace
