electronic ballast vs magnetic ballast

I ran Iwasaki 15k bulbs on my magnetic ballast for a long time with no ill effects. they ran just fine. It was a m58 ballast

 

sooooooooooooo can anyone!??! confirm that electronic ballast has no hum sound and magnetic ballast do? hum sound is kinda annoying to me. i rather listen to the overflow sound.

 

I have electronic ballasts and cant hear a damn thing from them. I have 2 - 250w galaxy ballasts.

 

hmmmm maybe i should get some electronic ballast now....

 

With electronic ballasts, there are almost no advantages to using Magnetic. Magnetic ballasts do physical work. Hence they make noise. Electronic ballasts do the same "work," but do it by digital switching. The electronic ballast produces far less heat by comparison, it's a fraction of the weight, and is for the most part, silent.

Magnetic ballasts do make a humming noise. They are transformers; and as such, they are managing a HUGE amount of electromagnetic fields and literally moving power around, although invisible to the eye. A bad analogy is, they're sort of juggling big, heavy lead balls with no hands and no arm movement. While hard to explain, the transformation of AC electricity to higher voltages and currents (the job description of a ballast), is taxing on the parts performing the action. In the case of magnetic ballasts, the parts are coils of wire wrapped around iron cores. The "work" performed by ballasts is hard, and never ending. In the beginning, they may be silent. Over time, the components naturally loosen up, accounting for the eventual hum. After years, they might rattle, vibrate, cause the lighting to flicker, get excessively hot, or just stop working.

Electronic ballasts perform the same job more efficiently, utilizing high speed digital switching to perform the action. It's done without the heat, without the weight; since there's no need for coils of wires or iron cores--and without the hum.

Like many advances nowadays, newer technology rules. Remember the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) of years ago? They were at least the size of a car battery, and heavy as a pig. What once filled a room of a facility, now fills a small box. I've been on jobs where a UPS is replaced. The workers at the facility are always amazed to see us haul out thousands of pounds of equipment--only to replace it with a compact unit, 1/20th the size of the original, that performs the same work more efficiently, with no heat, no noise, and no maintenance. That's exactly how an electronic ballast compares to a magnetic one. They're lighter, create almost no heat, and do the same job using less electricity.

There's almost no comparison b/w the two technologies. Magnetic ballasts are simpler, easier, and cheaper to manufacture--perhaps the only reason they're stil made.

 

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GREAT comparison.... i understand everything clearly now. THANKS

 

okay well since i decided to switch over to electronic ballast any brand that you guys recommend? my bulbs are 20000k @ 150 watt so i need a 150/175 watt ballast right?

how do i know if the ballast connectors are the same as my current fixture connectors? thanks

 

mag ballast are usually longer lived but are not even close to what an electonic ballst can do for MH lamps.

old school tech. but they usually live forever- but are not very efficient in comparrison.

I run mags- because they came with my fixture, but soon, very soon, my LED fixture will be finished- 200 watts of LED vrs 800 watts of MH- I will then buy a PAR meter.

 

if your using PAR as a metric for output then magnetic ballasts aren't really that less efficient. They use more electricity, but also generally put out more PAR. The ratio of watts to PAR remains about the same. You may be over driving the bulb though and this could decrease the lifespan. Unless of course the bulb is spec'd for an electronic ballast. If for example it's spec'd for an HQI M80 ballast, then driving them with anything other than an M80 ballast such as an electronic ballast would be under driving them, which could decrease the lifespan.

As to sound electronic is very quite. I use a Galaxy select-a-watt 250/400. I can run any electronic spec'd 250W bulb, 250W HQI spec'd 250W bulb, 400W bulb or overdrive a 400W with the turn of a knob. And running a HQI for example will be more efficient as it's being run to spec, but on an electronic ballast. So, also very quite and the ballast runs very cool.

 

so what kind of ballast comes with the current sunpod magnetic or electronic???