Your advice is sound my freind........BUT.....I'm pretty handy with electrics and these timers r handling it no probs(all my ballests have their own timer).....my ballests(sunmaster and I Sun pro)r duel fused to give me extra protection and if any probs occurred with the timers I would notice it sharpish(I spend most of my time in my grow room)I would not recommend anything unless I have had first hand experience with it myself.........also I've been using these timers(Asda £5) for 18 months......
Ps...I also run a 1000w magnetic with same timer with no probs......
Mr green
The problem lies within the voltage being carried through the timer for long periods daily.
If you are handy with electrics, it's relatively easy and cheap to set up a contacter which can be sited in a stand alone unit. (£30 ish)
The live terminal from as many socket as you wish to run, goes into the contactor terminals in and out.
The power source for the contactor can be supplied from a 5amp plug, plugged into your timer.
This way, if your wiring is set up properly as a ring main, you could run as many lights as you wish completely safely with no overload on your timer.
Completely safe and as reliable as the timer you choose. ( I would choose plug and grow brand at minimum for is long reliability)
I'm just letting you know a way that is very safe and very economical to set up.
If you are happy growing with your current set up, then great and I hope everything is good and you have many years of successful growing without any issues.
When ever I have set up a grow in The last 13 years, it has always been with a magnetic contactor to carry he heavy electrical loads of ballasts.