Metal halide made easy??????????

Ok, so today Im tinkering in the garage and I started looking at one of my shop lights. It a portable 500w metal halide and probably only cost about 25$ at pep-boys. So I came in the house and did some quick searches for some lower wattage MH bulbs. I found some 150w 20000k for really cheap. I went back out and read the directions on my light and it said I could anything from 500w to 150w double end bulbs. So gang, will this work? Please help CAUSE I AINT RICH!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the input!
Jake

 

well first of all will the ballast take that? normally what the ballast is is what you want to use so if its 250W u use a 250W bulb and as far as if that works then yes its worth a shot i would take it into a local LFS that has those bulbs and ask to try the bulb to see if it works if its works then you have a cheap metal halide fixture YAY. now if the ballast says 500w and u use anything else you have a risk of blowing that bulb up on your tank which is not good!

 

Are you sure this is a metal halide and not a quartz style fixture?
I have yet to see a metal halide ballast that will do multiple wattage bulbs unless it was the 150 or 175 watt.

Jim

 

I believe what he is talking about is the Halogen work lights, the bulbs do look the same but do not put out as much right lighting. Although they get as hot if not hotter then MH setup do. I run these lights in the winter when i am in my garage working on my truck just to keep me warm.

 

yes, it is one of those work lights that keep you nice and warm. I took this light apart and found no electronics. The instructions stated I could use 3 differant size bulbs. The wires just went from plug to the post on each side of the bulb. Seemed kinda scary but hey, we're talkin hundreds of dollars here.

 

These are Halogen's which can have lower watts but not higher than what they are rated at.

We are getting Halogen confused with Metal Halide here. These will not work! Different K rating.