stoneric

I'm going to upgrade from a 400w to 600w hps for flowering. Looking at an air cooled system that comes with options. Since I'm electronically ignorant, I was wondering about the advantages of an eletronic ballast compared to magnetic. They claim to save 27% in energy costs comparably. It's an extra $100 but I can afford it. Also the options for lamps include an Agrosun Red which claims enhanced flowering although I don't know if they're talking about pot, obviously. Any help would be appreciated

farmergiles

Digital ballasts are a little more efficient, I think 27% is a bit optimistic.

It depends on a few things.

If your mains power voltage supply is higher or lower than it should be then a magnetic ballast will give a correspondingly out of whack voltage to the bulb. This will result in the bulb tending to giving out light in the wrong spectrum for the plants (ie the ratio of PAR to non PAR goes down) resulting in less growth.
A digital ballast is a voltage regulator, so it should give the correct voltage to the bulb even if the mains supply voltage is wrong.

If you have a good stable mains input then the benefits are not quite so pronounced-
Digital ballasts run a little bit cooler. They use a little less electricity when striking up. But I think the energy saved will be less than 5% so whether or not it is worth paying the initial outlay is debatable.

Manufacturers of digi ballasts claim longer bulb life but I've never heard any independent verification of this.

Digital ballasts can cause radio interference if not properly shielded. As far as I'm aware the better quality 400 and 600w ones are sorted for RF shielding nowadays, I don't think anyone is producing a reliable 1000w digital ballast yet.

I've heard a lot of reports about digital ballasts not being able to strike certain bulbs.

Digital ballasts should work fine with both sodium and MH bulbs.

I've used a lumatek 600w for a while now with sylvania grolux bulbs and it's been absolutely fine, runs about as hot as a magnetic 400w, no radio interference that I can detect. Was it worth the extra money? Maybe .

The newest lumateks have a dimmer knob- I'm not too sure this is a great idea as (like I mentioned above) the bulbs work less efficiently and the PAR tends to fall off if the voltage is varied.


The agrosun red bulb- I think they give more red and less blue light than a normal sodium bulb- this might cause a bit of stretch when flowering is induced but might fatten up the buds a little more in the long run. I don't think you'd see massive gains as even a regular sodium doesn't have much blue.

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stoneric

Thank you man.

Yeah, the 27% did sound like a fairy tale but 5% should pay off the extra $100 in cost. Although doing the math, it'll take a while.

sirsmokalot989

I have a 600 digi it definitely runs cooler but I don't think 27% is anywere near actuality... Maybe like 5-10% tops... I have high output plugs and i love my setup... I remember reading somewhere that with a dig ballast you can take a pic of the plants without the lines running through it
I've been using my digital ballast for a couple years and am definitely happy with it's cooler performance and overal ease
But would not recommend purely for it's energy saving
I use mh/hps bulbs and have never had a problem with it not striking

farmergiles

What brand is it SSAL?

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sirsmokalot989

It's a lumatek
I bought it from an online hydro store... Actually I bought the whole light system and the bulb didn't work so they sent a new bulb for free