This is my first 1000w grow, and i didn't take any shortcuts with this setup, so I'm pretty comfortable with the safety of everything except my ballast. I bought it on Craigslist along with the hood and bulb, everything works great, but the ballast is getting really hot and its only been on for 4 hrs as I type this. I sat a big fan next to it and sat it on top of a wooden spool because i was worried about my carpet going up in flames, but this is a very temporary solution. Anyone have anyway they cool theirs off more effeciently than a big box fan? I'm kind of worried about leaving the house as of right now.
My ballast was getting warm. I just moved the ballast over the extract grill so any air coming out of room/tent passes over the ballast and cools it down a lot.
They shouldn't get crazy hot, does that ballast have a CSA certification or any info on it? I keep mine on the cold concrete floor and its never an issue.
A 1000 watt ballast is going to get hot. Depending on what kind of space you're growing in (the tightness of it), the heat created by the bulb probably isn't helping the situation any. But, if you've bought a quality piece of equipment, it should easily be able to handle the heat it puts off. We put ours up high on the wall on small shelves to get the heat up as high as we could and to get the ballast off the floor. I don't really know of much else you can do other than what you're doing at the moment with the added air from the fan. Since I'm not there and have no idea of what "hot" is to you, it's hard to say. But my guess is that it's just the normal temp for the ballast. We run 4 and they all get nice and toasty hot but work great and we've never had an issue with any of them. TWW
I have a sun system 1k watt with XXXL hood. The fan has managed to keep it nice and cool, however I'm not sure if its natural heat dissipation is normal or if was overworking itself for some reason. Unfortunately it's not dimmable so im stuck at 100%
that look like a magnetic ballast, I use to run those before I switch to digital. The magnet one dose get kinda hot nothing you can do about it
Try to fashion a computer fan or two into it to exhaust more directly. But if that big fan is any good and still isnt helping then that's cause for alarm.
No the big fan works great, but im on a 15A circuit and dont wanna push it too much, given that I'm at 10.5A with light and exhaust fan, plus 2 clip fans on the inside im close to 11A. Trying to fing something low power consumption
Well 15 Amps at 120v is gonna give you about 1700 watts. You got about 1100 going with that 1000w light and ballast. Plus the fan probly about 75-150 at full power depending on how strong it is. Plus the other fans and stuff. You will be fine being near max recommended Amps. They are designed to be safe at that output, they can go higher but at that point it becomes unpredictable. What else can you do? Nothing I can think of. You should be fine.