ballast question...

first off wanted to say hi to all you ladies and gents, ive been here a few times, stealing info, and now i have a couple questions you guys may be able to help me with...

So ive stumbled upon 2 "free" 400w metal halide ballasts, made by hi tek(lithonia) m59...
now i know not all ballast fire all kelvin ratings, but i dont know untill i fire them, unless any of you have any personal expierence...

Also second question, anyone here have expierence with 12000k sunburst 400w bulbs??

i know these are pretty specific questions, and prbrably noone here has answers, but any input, or a steer in the right direction would be apreciated..

HAPPPY HALOWEEN!!

 

WOW!
I wish I could stumble onto a couple of 400 watt. halide ballests! Good find, you should be able to keep anything under them with some actinics help. I don't have any answers for you but I'm very envyious of your great find!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!
( p.s. better warn the power company!) lol

 

Good score!

This is just 'hearsay' and ~not my opinion~ but I have read a few stories on the net about the irony of the bulb name. Some people apparently have had problems with them 'exploding!'

 

yea i have also read about them exploding, but people a lot of times are more inclined to write about something when there is a problem, as opposed to not, was hoping maybe someone here has had a stab at them..

and as for my first question i ddint really word it well, i was wondering if these ballasts, which seem to be your standard 400w ballasts that usually run like the normal huge arse white halide bubls, is if they would fire specialty bulbs, like 10000k's or 6500k's or something of that nature, when they are prmariliy used for probrably between 3000-5000k bulbs

 

Good question!

Here is some light reading that will help answer that! ;D

Spectral Analysis of MH Lamps - Do ballasts make a difference

 

wow, taht was perfect matt!! thx bro that site aswered EXACTLY what i was asking!

cheers.

 

No problem! [smiley=smug2.gif]

I forgot what the article said, what did you learn? ;D

 

well first off it explain the diffrent type of lightbulbs possible for each ballast to fire... the ones i have are the standard magnetic ones, and they basically fire every bulb. the downside is that they take more energy(electric bill) and that the par/power isnt quite as high with the magnetic, but none the less very efficeint. basically it told me what bulbs i can use, and everything about them, so kudos to you..

now i can get my 2 10,000k ushios..

another question tho, i know that 10k ushios will easliy have enough intensity and blue spectrum for what ever i want..and here is the thing, the look of just those are a little too white for my taste, and i have 2  48 inch flurescent tubes at 35 watts each, with actinic blue bulbs. all that will do really is change the color of the tank right? no ill efffects or anything...i dont wanna spend anymore money on like, vho's for instance.

i have a diy hood i made from sheet metal, i had a metal working guy make it for me, mounted brackets on the inside for the bulbs, cut wholes in top for 3 cpu fans, 1 large and 2 smaller ones, all blowing air up outa the hood. there is plenty of room for some tubes in there and wanted to mount them.

but i also bought one of those 4x96 watt pc hoods, 2actinic blue and 2 white. i would love to put atleast two of the blues in there, but not sure how i could do that. the inside works like two seperate tubes basically, only there are four(because there are two compacts per side) each has a seperate plug for it( so a total of two plugs/on off switches), but im not sure if i can take them out, splice and lengthen the wire, mount them inside and store the rest of the pc hood somewhere safe and outa the way, or just remove them all together, i thought that pc's need some sort of ballast to fire them right?

LOL sorry im just babbling on..i think when i started this i took on more then i was expecting.

 

Based on the data presented it seems that the ballasts do make a difference, but it depends on the lamp being used. Based on versatility and performance the magnetic (Magnetek, Advance, PFO) and Blueline ballasts are the best choices since they run all the lamps.(The Blueline ballast is not recommend for the new Sunburst 12000K lamps). The Blueline electronic ballasts are attractive since they performs quite well is most situations and are far more versatile ballast than the IceCap, since they do not require retuning for specific lamps. Based on economics the PFO dual magnetic ballast is an outstanding value

i thought it to be a nice quote

 

Now I'm starting to remember... thanks.. but did you mean at the beginning of reply #7 that you have the standard ~tar~ ballasts? Or did you really mean magnetic?

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