Digital Ballasts

[YYZ Skinhead]

A lot of people on this board use digital ballasts, and I am seeing more and more of them on my growshop sites. I assume the 400w HPS, 430W Agro HPS and 1000w HPS I am currently using have magnetic ballasts since all of them are at least six years old. How do digital ballasts differ from magnetic ballasts, and will it be more efficient to get a digital ballast when I buy a new HID in a few months?

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Digital ballasts are more energy efficient that magnetic ballast. They weigh a fraction of the weight of mags. They can run both HPS and MH bulbs. Many of the newer ones have a dimmable feature on them.

I have never had a bulb break in my grow space.

 

[Locked]

digitals run cooler (dont have to worry about ballast melting something or burning you)

i hear that they wear out bulbs faster and that the bulbs crack whne they burn out spilling chemical onto your plants (hasnt happened to me yet but i never use bulbs till they die)
i guess that can be advoided by getting the newer bulbs designed for digital ballasts. dont know if its all marketing or not but it was in high times a couple months back.

Been digi for quite awhile and never had that happen....never even heard of that until now. Oh and I use nothing but the cheap bulbs from 1000bulbs in my digi and no problems. Jmo

 

[dman1234]

Digi's are also quiet, silent actually, although they can cause interference, but its rare. I have had 3 bulbs do strange things in the last year, i never thought it could be the ballast, blamed it on the bulbs.