Tell me about MH ballasts

[snowmansnow]

Particularly dimable ones... Good bad ugly?
Why have an E -ballast over a pulse start or ?

Thanks
B


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[camellia]

Got them in case I wanted to go bigger.
That's it!

 

[grouper therapy]

The biggest decision is which bulb you are going to use and buy ballast accordingly.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

I've never seen a "dimmable" MH ballast. What I have seen is one that is selectable to run up to 3 different wattage bulbs and sometimes has a "boost" setting. Don't confuse that with dimmable. I don't believe that if you select 250 watts that it will fire a 400 watt bulb. As Grouper said, you have to also know what bulb you intend to fire. Not all ballasts will fire all bulbs.

Now you have to decide whether to run a magnetic ballast (large, bulky, heavy, hot and does make a humming noise) versus an electronic ballast. Electronic ballasts are supposedly more economical, not as hot and don't make any noise when fired however, I've heard that magnetic ballasts bring out the full color spectrum of the bulb being used.

 

[grouper therapy]

barry_keith;1064155 wrote: my coralvue 250w ballast are dimmable

Like Jeff said they call them dimmable but that is debatable. I don't consider under driving or over driving dimmable with MH. First they shift colors which affects the spectrum.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

grouper therapy;1064157 wrote: Like Jeff said they call them dimmable but that is debatable. I don't consider under driving or over driving dimmable with MH. First they shift colors which affects the spectrum.

Yep!!

 

[grouper therapy]

barry_keith;1064181 wrote: I'm not talking about "select a watt", like Jeff speaks of. Cleary that's not dimmable...

my ballast have dimmers on them, I will post pictures when I have time

I remember some out there that were " Dimmable" and was labeled 50%.75%,100% and was the exact same thing as the selector watt just conveyed differently.
Cool I'd like to look into them. I didn't know the technology was out there. That would be a game changer for me.

 

[grouper therapy]

barry_keith;1064181 wrote: I'm not talking about "select a watt", like Jeff speaks of. Cleary that's not dimmable...

my ballast have dimmers on them, I will post pictures when I have time

Do you have a model number?