Is Dimming Electronic Ballast a Good Idea?

[Seaweed11]

I have a 1k Hps hooked up to a 1k lumatek electronic ballast. It has setting where I can dim the bulb. I don't want to use 1k worth of energy, and want to know if it would be efficient to dim the light to 60%.
I want to know if there are any negative effects of dimming the bulb.
Is the same color spectrum maintained?
Is it bad for the bulb or the ballast?
If you use the ballast at 60%, does that mean the light is producing what a 600w light would produce and using 600w of energy?
Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[guitarzan420]

I had hell with my dimmables and went back to mag switchable ballasts. i had 6 of them and every one of them failed. Good luck man.

 

[Seaweed11]

I had hell with my dimmables and went back to mag switchable ballasts. i had 6 of them and every one of them failed. Good luck man.

Were you running them at 100% or trying to run them at a fraction of that?

Anyone know what kind of power these guys use when they are dimmed?

 

[Seaweed11]

I really want to know because I am debating selling my 1k ballast and bulb and buying a 600w ballast and bulb, or if I would be fine just dimming my 1k.

 

[jawbrodt]

I wonder if it would be better to run it at 60% with a 600 watt bulb? I have no experience with that type of ballast, so i can't help. That was something that just popped into my head.LOL

 

[Seaweed11]

I wonder if it would be better to run it at 60% with a 600 watt bulb? I have no experience with that type of ballast, so i can't help. That was something that just popped into my head.LOL

You are a genius, thats exactly what Lumatek said.

So for anyone who has this same question, this is what lumatek said.
The 1000 w dimmable ballast is great because it can use 1000,750 and 600 watt bulbs.
The settings on the side are 100%, 70% and 60% and run respectively 1000w, 750w, and 600w bulbs. You can run any bulb in in one setting above or below ie. the 1000W can be ran at 100% or 70%, 750w at 100%, 70% or 60% and the 600w at 60% or 70%.
The color spectrum does not change when you switch bulbs or run the bulbs at a different watt setting.
The lumatek guys were great to talk to and said they will be updating all this information on their website soon.