NorCalHal
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
- Messages
- 2,676
- Reaction score
- 3,280
Well, I have entered the digital age. Kinda forced too.
I have allways ran Analog ballasts fo as long as I have been growing. I just could not justify spending the money on digital ballasts, as they are double, almost triple the cost of analog ballasts.
To make a long story short, I went with a cheap ballast type when I set up my last room. They have ran OK for the last couple of runs, but during the last 4 weeks, I have lost 5 capacitors on them. That is 5 out of 18!
Yesterday, I went to the room and instantly smelled burning. I flew up to the ballasts and sure enough, 1 litterally burst into flames as I looked at it.
I am SUPER lucky. I was able to put it out without any further damage.
PISSED OFF. I had enough of those ballasts. I took the burned one to my hydro guy and lucky for me, and unlucky for him, was the Rep who sells the ballasts.
I let him know my issues and he was very cool about it. He pulled hte ballasts off the shelves from my friends store and gave me back FULL purchase price for the ballasts that I had bought. Mind you, I have 18 ballasts in that particular room, so it was wuite the pretty penny.
So, after much thought, I went with all digital ballasts and the fancy "digital" bulbs. The full retail cost of the digitals were $215 each, but with the credit I had from the bad ballasts, it wasn't too bad.
So, I went back and changed them all. Dang, I'm sore today. I had to drag 18 heavy analog ballasts down a 12 foot ladder. Good times.
I installed all the Digitals, changed all the bulbs and fired up the room.
WOW. crazy bright. You could see the difference in lumans with the naked eye. I took my luman counter and it proved that what I was seeing was true, 30% brighter.
The best thing was no internal ballast change was needed in order to run the ballasts at 208 volt, as the digi's auto correct to the right voltage, whereas with analogs, you must physically change a wire on the transformer.
Plug and Play.
After doing the math, I will also save around 9-10 amps total in the room due to the digi's, as the run about a half of an amp lower then regulay ballasts.
I have seen the light and will be changing my other rooms to digitals asap.
So, moral of the story is, if you can afford it...go Digital.
I have allways ran Analog ballasts fo as long as I have been growing. I just could not justify spending the money on digital ballasts, as they are double, almost triple the cost of analog ballasts.
To make a long story short, I went with a cheap ballast type when I set up my last room. They have ran OK for the last couple of runs, but during the last 4 weeks, I have lost 5 capacitors on them. That is 5 out of 18!
Yesterday, I went to the room and instantly smelled burning. I flew up to the ballasts and sure enough, 1 litterally burst into flames as I looked at it.
I am SUPER lucky. I was able to put it out without any further damage.
PISSED OFF. I had enough of those ballasts. I took the burned one to my hydro guy and lucky for me, and unlucky for him, was the Rep who sells the ballasts.
I let him know my issues and he was very cool about it. He pulled hte ballasts off the shelves from my friends store and gave me back FULL purchase price for the ballasts that I had bought. Mind you, I have 18 ballasts in that particular room, so it was wuite the pretty penny.
So, after much thought, I went with all digital ballasts and the fancy "digital" bulbs. The full retail cost of the digitals were $215 each, but with the credit I had from the bad ballasts, it wasn't too bad.
So, I went back and changed them all. Dang, I'm sore today. I had to drag 18 heavy analog ballasts down a 12 foot ladder. Good times.
I installed all the Digitals, changed all the bulbs and fired up the room.
WOW. crazy bright. You could see the difference in lumans with the naked eye. I took my luman counter and it proved that what I was seeing was true, 30% brighter.
The best thing was no internal ballast change was needed in order to run the ballasts at 208 volt, as the digi's auto correct to the right voltage, whereas with analogs, you must physically change a wire on the transformer.
Plug and Play.
After doing the math, I will also save around 9-10 amps total in the room due to the digi's, as the run about a half of an amp lower then regulay ballasts.
I have seen the light and will be changing my other rooms to digitals asap.
So, moral of the story is, if you can afford it...go Digital.