OK, I know how to grow weed etc, but I don't know shit about being an electrician and all that. These answers are probably pretty easy to answer but I think asking them could be cool to read regardless when the answers get thrown out there. Questions: What are the new benefits of a digital ballast compared to the old coil ballasts I formerly used. Do they use less watts? What is the power rating of the different ballasts. Can a 1000W ballast have the same voltage rating and use the same amount of power as a 400W ballast? What is the unit of measurement that the power meter measures when the ballast is on? For example: if I am using a 600W ballast and it's using 120volts, is it reading 120 volts? or the 600W? What is the all-time best light to use with a grow tent and size? Obviously I am going to go the bubble bucket route for optimum grow time, but from what I can see, you can really only grow two massive plants with 400W. You'd need to go to the 600W - 1000W range to really get more than a QP every 2 months? What size of digital ballast /w dual MH/HPS light would I want with a grow tent that is 4 x 4 x 7 ft 48"x48"x78" Reflective Mylar Hydroponics Grow Tent Room - eBay (item 330522127030 end time Feb-20-11 14:51:54 PST) Does anyone have any experience with these grow tents? Can you fit 6 bubblebuckets in there or is that pushing it? Unrelated to ballasts: would this be worth the purchase or would it be smarter to make your own? Deluxe Hydroponic DWC Bubble Bucket Grow System 6+1 - eBay (item 270656576359 end time Feb-26-11 21:13:24 PST) merry toking
Hey man! To asnwer the last Q first, no, you would be better off making them yourself. There's a great DIY here: http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/121335-lets-build-bubble-bucket-*step-step*.html The 600w is the most efficient light in lm/w. I think it's called Son-T Agro plus or something. I have a chart I could send you... you could get 1/4 pound every 2 months with a 400w HPS, a 600w would get you there faster. You should easily be able to fit 6 buckets in a tent that size. I have a tad bit smaller tent, and I can get 5 BIG 7 gallon buckets in there. Analog ballasts take a little bit longer to warm up, Digitals are quicker. They're also supposed to last longer, and yes, they should be more efficient. I'm no electrician, so I can't answer all of these Qs.
Digital ballasts produce more lumens them magnetic ballsts (something 20-30%), so they are more efficient than magnetic ballasts; using fewer W per Lumen. The 600W produces more lumens per watt than the 400W or 1000W. In a 4x4x7 tent I think 600W would be ideal ( I grow in a similar size area with a 400W and I'm upgrading to a 600W NextGen ballast) All of the digital ballasts that I looked at automatically switch between MH and HPS and will drive both types of bulbs. Different wattage ballasts use the same voltage (120 V) but different wattages. Like two different blow dryers one rated for 1000 W and one rated for 1500W, they both use 120V but one consumes more watts and blows hotter. Digital ballasts run cooler and quieter than magnetic ballasts, and start faster hot or cold than mag ballasts. Really, digital ballasts are pretty neat.
So the 600W can use the same volts as 400W? I'm still confused about the energy consumption rate here.
Total power consumption is around 50w higher for electronic ballasts..... so the 400w uses 450w of power, 600 around 650w depending on the brand of ballast. Voltage is irrelavant in this case since wattage itself is the power rating.
Digital ballasts are more efficient on electricity then the older style magnetic ballasts. A 600 watt ballast is the most efficient for the number of lumens generated per watt of electricity used when compared to a 400 watt or 1000 watt ballast. I think you confused volts with watts of light. Some digital ballasts can come in either 120 volt or 240 volt, 120 volt is your standard wall socket plug in a 240 volt ballast requires a 240 volt plug in like what your washing machine uses. Most people buy 120 volt because its more comvenient.
^ You guys over there run 120 and 240v circuits in houses? Or do you run a voltage stepup transformer when 240v is needed?
You run a separate circuit to use 240v, using a step up transformer would be pointless from an efficiency standpoint, you'd have a lot more loss. 240V is more efficient, but only if you run it from the breaker (2 poles).
Yes. The hosehold electrical circuits (the wall outlets and light circuits) are all 120V in the US. The oven/stove, water heater, dryer and HVAC have 240V circuits. My NextGen digital ballast runs off of either voltage. Pretty cool, huh? Plus it runs MH and HPS bulbs and switches automatically between the two types of bulbs. Man, technology is awesome........
Okay, a few electricity basics...I'll try to keep it simple Voltage (ie 120V) is a measure of electric "potential", much like water pressure. Watts (600W) is a measure of power, 746W = 1 horsepower Amps is a measure of the current or "amount" of electricity, like the amount of water coming out of a hose. You can buy ballasts designed for different voltages and different power. Let's stick with 120V as that's probably what you're looking at. No ballast is 100% efficient, but let's just pretend for explanation sake that they are... Assuming 100% efficiency, a 400W ballast running at 120V would consume 3.33 amps, a 600W ballast running at 120V would consume 5 amps, and a 1000W ballast running at 120V would consume 8.33 amps. When your power company looks at your power, they are effectively looking at how many amps you consume. Hope this helps explain part of it... In Canada, they only run 240V into households through 2 poles. 120V is then produced by running one of the poles to ground (or a neutral if you prefer, but that neutral is locally run to a ground rod from each service). If you want 120V you run from 1 live pole to neutral, if you want 240V you run from 1 pole to the other. No transformers are used in this combination...
electrical basics 240v is just 2x120v stacked on top of each other think of volts as how hard you push the electricity. and the Amps are how much got pushed based on the work to be done . Watts are an expression of how much power was consumed. and for the purpose of this thread it is a constant volts X amps = watts so 120 volts X 5 amps = 600 watts or 240 volts x 2.5 amp = 600 watts due to inefficiencies what you really get is less than 120 volts. its like 110v-117v depending on you distance to the transformer that serves you location the watts stay the same. so assume 115 volts @ 600 watts = 5.22 amps For efficiencies it is better to have low amps. the higher the amps the more heat created in the wire. as the heat in the wire goes up so does the resistance of that wire. wasting more energy. not sure this answers anything but hope it will help you with understanding electric devises.
There's also digital ballasts out there now with multiple wattage settings. I think you'd be interested in the 600/400. That way if you find the 600 is too hot you can switch it down to 400 no problem. 600W Lumatek Digital Ballast - 240V | Neat huh?
Yeah cool. 120V 600W HPS/MH Ballast in 1 small grow tent. Now all I need to do is figure out how to make DIY bubble buckets. Fffuuuuu, been struggling with this for years. Need to find an e-book on the subject.
For making a bubble bucket start here. http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/121335-lets-build-bubble-bucket-*step-step*.html
yeah i've seen all of those. I want a freakishly in depth e-book lol... logical solution: write down supplies, go to store, buy them all, and then proceed with the experimentation.