Not that much more for what you get. Here is a 400W Lumatek for $133. Less heat, less noise, less electricity, and more light. MARYLAND HYDROPONICS Shopping Cart ItemOptionsUnit PriceQty.Cost Lumatek System [remove] Wattage : 400/120 (+133) Reflector : NO (+0) Tempered Safety Lens Daystar/Radiant : NO (+0) Bulb : NO (+0) SunSystem Adapter : NO (+0) Light Hanger YOYO : NO (+0) Warranty : 5 YEAR PCO Fogger : NO(+0) Rush Item : NO BOX OPTIONS : Recycled Hydro Box Timer 1200 Watt : NO Subtotal: $133.01 Total: $133.01 <LI class=ys_first>Keep Shopping
The 400 and 600 digi's are great !!! ..... but I'd be careful with the 750 and 1000's. My understanding is that the Lumatec 750's were originaly designed as 1000's, but had so many problems they lowered the wattage and sell them as 750's. I bought and installed 6 - 1000w Lumatec second generation (the blue case). They looked beautiful and sparked the bulbs immediately ..... but they also produced a massive amount of RF interference. When my lights clicked on it knocked out all AM and most FM stations for about 75' !!! Living in an urban area I considered this an un-acceptable situation. How long before tweakers and LEO's figure out that a $20 radio can act as a locator for every 1000w Digi in town? The local grow shop has some new 1000w Digi's that supposedly have no RF problems. I figure I'll buy one and give it a shot .... a few seconds of burn time will tell me all I need to know.
whoa crazy i had no idea the ballasts put out so much interference but i guess that makes a lot of sense. hrm interesting. shouldn't be a problem for me, but i just never thought about that.
My understanding is that with the 1000's it not actually the ballast producing the RF. It is coming from the bulb filament vibrating extremely fast. The exact thing that makes the digi's great may also be their partial downfall. If it was just the ballast you could build a shield to contain it. But there's no way to shield the bulb without loosing the light .... unless you lined your room in copper mesh !!
I called Lumatek. They said this issue is fixed. http://www.lumatek.co.uk/generalproductinfo.htm R.F emissions Lumatek ballasts are now internally RF shielded and can be used with standard System Cord sets as available in each country worldwide. Our ballasts produce the least amount of EMI (electro- magnetic interference) of any electronic ballast and conform to all international Electro-magnetic emission standards. This applies to all blue and purple models of the Lumatek. The older silver models which employed earlier technology (at the time industry leading) can be upgraded for current models (and the highest EMI standards) at reduced purchase costs; for details please contact us by e-mail or if you are in the USA or Canada tel U.S
Mine were second generation and supposedly were RF shielded as well. A buddy put in 3 new Lumatec 1000's last year and all of his produce RF, but he's in a rural area and considers it a non risk.
yes digital ballast use less energy, vs a magnetic ballast. a magnetic ballast adds about 15% more to the energy consumption, & a digital is around 7% more. eg: 400w magnetic setup is not 400w, its 400w + 15%, & a digital is 400w + 7%
I hear a lot of conflicting stuff on the bigger digitals - the 750's and 1000's. Some companies have said before that they fixed the RF problem and we found out that they were fibbing. Is there anyone out there we can trust?
my 600 died last week it was only 4 months old. but they have a 2 year warrenty but it still cost me 28 bucks at the store for them to ship it.