MH ballast

[kingfish]

Is there any significant reason to select an electronic ballast over a pulse ballast? What would be a reasonable price for a single 250 W ballast? Im am considering a Blue Wave 1 - 250watt Remote Ballast - Pulse. Any information on this topic would be greatly appreicated.

[davelin315]

Electronic ballasts typically use less energy, run cooler, and can fire up more bulbs than a pulse start ballast. They are also easier on the life of a bulb from what I understand. That said, all ballasts are not created equally so it all depends. I have no experience with the electronic ballasts that you are thinking about but have used some electronic ballasts on some school set ups (I think ARO ballasts) and they are OK. The biggest thing there is that they are cool to the touch as compared to a regular ballast and safety is a big concern in schools for me. I have thought about switching my HQI ballasts over to Galaxy Electronic ballasts but haven't committed to that kind of money switch when there are other technologies on the market now, too.

[Coral Hind]

Most all electronic ballasts will let you fire any lamp in the wattage range it was designed for so it can be used on pulse, probe, or HQI (double ended) lamps. A magnetic pulse start ballast would only be used on a pulse start bulb because of the higher starting voltage.

 

When picking a ballast see what the power factor percentage is, the higher the better as it is a measure of efficiency. A pulse start ballast may be around 85% where an electronic ballast could be >99%.

Studies have shown that magnetic ballasts drive the bulbs slightly harder and produce more output then electronic ballast do. Go to the site below and do the two bulb comparison and use the same bulb with different ballasts, electronic vs magnetic, to see which one drives the bulbs better.

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/lighting

 

A nice handout from GE.

http://www.geappliances.com/email/lighting/specifier/2008_07/downloads/MetalHalide_Probevspulse.pdf

[SeanH]

Is there any significant reason to select an electronic ballast over a pulse ballast? What would be a reasonable price for a single 250 W ballast? Im am considering a Blue Wave 1 - 250watt Remote Ballast - Pulse. Any information on this topic would be greatly appreicated.

 

I've been looking at the ballast issue, too, since I have several hoods that use metal halides (mogul) and need to replace two ballasts that went walk-about. I have Icecap 250W electronic ballasts on one hood and am pretty happy with them, but I am considering getting Lumatek multi-wattage e-ballasts or Galaxy Multi-selects instead of single wattage rated Icecaps. The design of the Lumatek ballasts seemed a bit more advanced than anything else I have looked at and having the option of running lower or higher wattage bulbs depending on what tank the hood is on seemed like a good thing, for me anyway. I'm planning on buying a PAR meter, so I'm going to tune my lighting for the tank - no reason to run 400s when 250s will do and no reason to run 250s when 175s or 150s will do. The Lumateks apparently tune themselves dynamically to the individual characteristics of the bulbs attached and have a HQI mode you can set that improves their output on that type of bulb. Icecaps have a 3 year warranty, Lumateks have a 3 year replacement warranty with and additional 2 years pro-rated warranty. For my money, Lumateks seem the best deal. Galaxy electronic ballasts seem to be pretty decent, also, and have a 5 year warranty (3 year replace/2year pro-rated). The Sun Systems Galaxy series is the only electronic ballast manufacturer that I have seen that offers dual-ballast units. You can get a dual ballast version (250W x2) of the Blue Waves, also, but they only have a 2 year warranty.

 

The Blue Wave ballasts look to be about 2 times the size of the new electronic ballasts and are older magnetic ballast technology. For what they are, they look well designed though. I suspect you would make up the difference in the average cost of a Blue Wave 1 (about $120), an Icecap 250 (about $139), a Lumatek Multi 250 (150/175/250W @ about $140) and a Sun Systems Galaxy Multi-Watt (150-250W $142) pretty quickly in saved electricity. Plus have more room, less heat, less noise and longer life on your bulbs. Magnetic ballasts can have a nice hum to them - I have no experience with the Blue Wave ballasts, but I'm not very happy with the magnetic ballasts in my office lighting, atm, and am replacing them with electronic ballasts as they fail. Less noise is worth money to me. There's a reason Blue Wave ballasts have rubber isolation feet built in to them.

 

I would skip the magnetic ballasts and buy an electronic ballast from one of these manufacturers below. I would let features, warranty and silence rule your decision. My .02 cents.

 

Icecap site:

 

http://www.icecapinc...%20ballasts.htm

 

Lumatek site:

 

http://www.lumatek.co.uk/

 

Sun Systems site:

 

http://sunlightsuppl.../hort/hort.aspx

[kingfish]

Thank for the useful information you all.

[kingfish]

If I came across a Blue Wave 1 - 250watt Remote Ballast - Pulse for $75 new would you all recommend buying the ballast or spend the extra money and get electronic ballast?

[Coral Hind]

I would pay an extra $25 and get this deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/250W-MH-Halide-Digital-Electronic-Ballast-Free-14k-Bulb-/270621346713?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item3f024a0b99

[SeanH]

I would pay an extra $25 and get this deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/250W-MH-Halide-Digital-Electronic-Ballast-Free-14k-Bulb-/270621346713?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item3f024a0b99

 

Bearing in mind, of course, that the vendor is Canadian and shipping will be different. Also, if there is not an American agent for handling warranty, you will need to ship the thing internationally.. Also, a 14k MH bulb included isn't that impressive when you realize you can purchase a Plusrite 14k MH for around $11.

[Coral Hind]

Bearing in mind, of course, that the vendor is Canadian and shipping will be different. Also, if there is not an American agent for handling warranty, you will need to ship the thing internationally.. Also, a 14k MH bulb included isn't that impressive when you realize you can purchase a Plusrite 14k MH for around $11.

 

I'm not sure what your talking about that the shipping is different since the listing says plainly $15 for US postage w/ insurance via UPS. A Plusrite cost is over $15 after S/H, sure not overly impressive but it does help and that brings the price over a $75 Blue Wave to only $10. Instead of paying $75 for a ballast that limits you to only one type of lamp I would pay the extra $10 to get a ballast that is capable of firing several different types of bulbs. In the long run the little extra you pay over the $75 Blue Wave would be recovered in ballast efficiency.

[SeanH]

I'm not sure what your talking about that the shipping is different since the listing says plainly $15 for US postage w/ insurance via UPS. A Plusrite cost is over $15 after S/H, sure not overly impressive but it does help and that brings the price over a $75 Blue Wave to only $10. Instead of paying $75 for a ballast that limits you to only one type of lamp I would pay the extra $10 to get a ballast that is capable of firing several different types of bulbs. In the long run the little extra you pay over the $75 Blue Wave would be recovered in ballast efficiency.

 

I was just checking that what I said was correct, as I was reading it on my phone initially. Yes, I see that the shipping is flat to the lower 48 on a regular screen. Ebay Mobile sucks somewhat. I wasn't advocating getting a Blue Wave, I was just pointing out it might be worth doing business with a vendor based within the US. I don't buy one bulb at a time, I buy case lots, so my cost per unit is less than $15 per bulb on a Plusrite.

Edited November 1, 2010 by SeanH