Analog Vs Digital Ballasts

[thatoneartist]

I can get a package with an analog mh hps ballast, with bulbs, hood, timer, hangers, ect for $350.

 

Or a digital ballast for $319 and still have to pay for the hood, timer, ect. separate.

 

Are digital ballasts really more energy efficient? Worth that extra money at first to save on my electric bill, and be more effective?

[boroboro]

What size light? Even if it's a 1000W light it will take a while to pay off the cost difference with energy savings. Unless my memory is way off (entirely possible), good quality old-style ballasts waste maybe 10% of the rated bulb wattage. I.E. a 1000 watt ballast might waste 100 watts. So, at $0.10 / KW-hr, that's a waste of about $0.01 / hour, so it would take 30,000 hours to make up an extra $300 expense for the digital ballast. That's about 3.5 years at 24 hours a day, or 7 years at 12/12.

 

I would stick with the old-style ballasts, unless you have a non-financial reason for using the digitals. I'm not expert in the digital ballasts, so I don't know what that reason would be.

 

I did look up the specs for one 1000W HPS old-school ballast, it lists 1065 watts as the input wattage. Doesn't sound like a lot of savings are possible by going to a digital ballast. What am I missing? Is there that much benefit in digital ballasts offering 'greater brightness' or 'longer bulb life'?

 

 

$350 sounds like a pretty good deal for ballast, reflector, and bulb. I built my own ballast, then found a deal on a bulb and reflector, and still ended up spending around $250.

[Tyler Durden]

the industry needs to devlope a better bulb to utilize digtal tech.

old style bulb = old style ballast

there is a more effeciant bulb and ballast they are called pulse rated. but they havent hit grow rooms yet.

[THC-Farmer]

If you choose to use a digital ballast, I recommend taking a look at this company when choosing your lamp to match the digital ballast.

 

http://www.sunpulselamps.com/

[Krazyiefosho]

Check this out you really cant beat the price and its changeable also u can upgrade the reflector.

 

http://www.htgsupply.com/growlights.asp?categoryID=1&subcategoryID=101&typeID=58

 

the fan on this ballest keeps it really cool they ran out of the light i orderd for mine and sent me a upgraded version great company A+.

[perpetualcare420]

A few points not brought up.. Heat , and heat ... Old style = high heat in grow room.. digital style = low to no heat in grow room ... Oh and did i mention heat?

[Boaterman]

You can use a MH or HPS bulb with the Digital ballasts. Seems a big advantage to me.

[dman1970]

Digital Ballast's do NOT save ANY money on your elecric bill!!! What they do is provide more of the available wattage to the bulb allowing atouch more light, but what is really important to many is how cool that the digital ballsts stay, this can save you money in your A/C cost.... A 1000 watt digital ballast set up on 220 uses 4.5 amps & so does the Magnetic, so there is no difference in cost to run.

 

Good luck!

 

Dman

[boroboro]

Thanks dman1970.  I had heard of digital ballasts producing more light, but hadn't quite believed it at first.  I just searched around for a minute and found this

 

http://www.uplux.com...chureScreen.pdf

 

There is a chart there that shows that the light benefit is really when comparing an aged bulb run by magnetic vs. digital ballast.  Pretty convincing curve in that chart, if it's real.  Hopefully we've all heard that bulbs need to be replaced every year or so (5000 hours of 12/12).  With a 5000 hour old bulb, the chart linked to above shows about a 25% reduction in light output for the magnetic ballast, 0% reduction for the digital ballast.

 

So, if you were to replace the bulb every year with either system, this chart says you'll have an average of 10-15% more light with the digital ballast.  Or, you might also be able to reduce costs and replace bulbs less frequently with the digital ballast.  Is anybody doing that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

edit:  While shopping for new supplies I came across this brightness vs. age curve for an EYE Hortilux 1000W HPS.  Shows 90% of light still available at 12,000 hours.  That would make the curves linked to above inaccurate and reduce the difference between digital and magnetic ballast performance with old bulbs.  Just more food for thought, in case things were getting to easy to understand here...

 

 

http://www.1000bulbs.com/images/PDF/EYE-66785-Specsheet.pdf

 

 

[Krazyiefosho]

so u say it does not save any money then u say it saves money on a/c so it does save money? also u can use 2 diff bulbs on 1 ballast so if you are not large scale would save the extra cost of a light?

[Krazyiefosho]

Im not gonna get into numbers cus u will prob own my donkey but im just saying u can keep a digi in the grow room it stays cool it gives more light u can use 2 diff bulbs im looking forward to these new mh-mh bulbs they do look intresting but i would never end up buying any cuz i have so many lights runing anyways.

[boroboro]

[Off-topic]

 

For cheap and low heat bulbs, I'm a big fan of CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide).  Only supplied in low wattages, 400W max, but they run cooler for the light produced, and output a nice spectrum.

 

http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmed18.htm

 

[/Off-topic]