need some opinions on hps ballast setup

[rockerguy86]

i have a small 3'x1 1/2' grow cabinet intended for a scrog grow. i was wondering if u purchased a 400w hps ballast could that be rigged safely to power two 150w hps lamps. the reason i want to do this is so i can have a better distribution of my lighting instead of most of the intensity being in the middle. i already have a 150 hps in there, and was planning on havin three if this is possible? any advice?

 

[Smokey Mcpotster]

Rocker
all the reading I have done states you must match the bulb with the ballast. running higher or lower throws off the balance of the ballast/bulb. The ballast is needed to jump start the bulb if I understand it properly. Having two bulbs off of one ballast would throw off that balance. They are made for each other. Basically you cant put a ford engine in a chevy. I'm a noob to this, someone may know how to make it work. You're working with electricity tho. Do you really want to have to worry about a fire? 150w HPS lights are pretty cheap. You would be better off buying a couple of household 150s and taking them apart, putting the ballasts outside the box. I like the idea of 3 bulbs tho. How is the temp inside with the single light? do you have the ballast on the exterior of the box?

 

[thc is good for me]

You need to match your bulb with your ballast. You wont be able to hook up two different bulbs to your ballast. You need to find a 400 watt hps bulb that is made for your ballast.

 

[BBFan]

:yeahthat:

 

[blancolighter]

A HPS ballast in laymen terms is kinda like an off of switch. The sodium in the bulb doesn't need a constant supply of electricity to illuminate, rather it takes in all the electricity electricity it needs to put out light/energy and then some more on top of that. It will keep soaking up electricity untill the bulbsd structure can't handle all the energy. This is where the ballast steps in. It lets electricity flow to the blulb and the bulb takes what it needs to light up, and then some. Now the ballast turns the electricity off before the "and then some" becomes a little too much for the bulb to handle, then the bulb spends that remaining energy, and the ballast once again lets electricity flow to the bulb keeping the little cycle going. Each ballast is made to the timing needed to regulate their corresponding bulbs. If you put a bulb of less wattage in a high watt ballast, it will let too much electricity flow to the bulb before the ballast switches off and things will blow up. if you are gonna mismatch bulbs and ballasts, in theory the thing would be to put in higher wattage bulbs into lower wattage ballasts, as the high wattage bulbs should be able to handle the lower wattage ballasts "timing" without getting too much of an electrical buildup. As for wiring those 150W bulbs up, there is no way you could put them in parallel or series or any other which way that would make em work with a 400, sorry man...

 

[rockerguy86]

thanks for the info. it was just a thought but i like to try n think safety first. i guess ill just buy two more 150's. the cheapest ive found them for so far is $50 each. the one i already have is a outdoor security light that i just added some heavy duty extension cord to separate the bulb from the casing which holds my ballast using wire nuts and electrical tape. the bulb doesnt really put out any heat at all, and the ballast stays very cool. especially cause its placed outside the box near my exhaust fan which keeps it cold. i was just trying to figure a way with minimal wiring and to not have three ballast sitting out. but as long as i do the wiring right and keep them cool it should be ok. plus having three 150's will let me put them closer to my scrog and give me roughly 12000 lumens per sqft evenly which should give me some pretty nice nugs.

 

[ShecallshimThor]

my idea would be to build little box for the ballasts and have a little computer fan to cool the box