Do Ballasts Use a Lot of Electricity?

M

Masna

Member
Sorry for the seriously noob question but I'm brand new and I want know what to expect going in to this. Will there be a significantly noticeable spike in my electricity usage if I start leaving a 400W HPS bulb on for 18 hours a day?
 
riddleme

riddleme

Well-Known Member
Masna said:
Sorry for the seriously noob question but I'm brand new and I want know what to expect going in to this. Will there be a significantly noticeable spike in my electricity usage if I start leaving a 400W HPS bulb on for 18 hours a day?
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No different than having 4 lights on at 100 watts each

400 watt light is about the same as leaving your TV on

approx 3.5 amps
 
J

JoeCa1i

Well-Known Member
i think its like 15$ more maybe 20 for a 400.But it depends on how much you pay,different states have different prices.
 
tom__420

tom__420

Well-Known Member
I think the highest I have seen is $0.09 per kwh
So if your 400w light is on for 2.5 hours it would cost $0.09
So if you were running 12/12 it would cost like $0.43 a day or $12.96 a month
Most people don't pay $0.09 per kwh, I pay $0.06 per kwh :-P
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
SickSadLittleWorld said:
Noticable? Yeah.
Significant? Probably not.

The ballast only assists in firing the bulb, the power is used by the bulb itself.
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not quite.
the ballast, prevents the lamp from consuming all the power it wants, and turning into a small grenade. ever hear of an exploding lamp? ballast failure.
the igniter, is what fires the lamp. a MH requires just a capacitor to ignite, a HPS requires both a capacitor and an igniter, for the lamp to ignite. the reason being is that a cold HID lamp has an extremely high resistance to the flow of electricity. the capacitor/igniter boosts the voltage to establish an electric arc inside the lamp. this arc, heats up the gaseous element inside the lamp untill it is superheated to an almost plasma state, at this point, the gaseous element becomes superconductive and because electricity seeks the path of least resistance, the current ceases to flow through the capacitor/igniter and instead flows through the ballast. this is also when the lamp begins to get its intensity. if you had a welders hood, you could see the arc inside the lamp, this is the 'glow' of the lamp when you first turn it on. if the ballast was not there, the lamp would draw an infinite amount of power untill there was a catastrophic component failure.

thats an hid lamp.....lol
 
S

SickSadLittleWorld

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
not quite.
the ballast, prevents the lamp from consuming all the power it wants, and turning into a small grenade. ever hear of an exploding lamp? ballast failure.
the igniter, is what fires the lamp. a MH requires just a capacitor to ignite, a HPS requires both a capacitor and an igniter, for the lamp to ignite. the reason being is that a cold HID lamp has an extremely high resistance to the flow of electricity. the capacitor/igniter boosts the voltage to establish an electric arc inside the lamp. this arc, heats up the gaseous element inside the lamp untill it is superheated to an almost plasma state, at this point, the gaseous element becomes superconductive and because electricity seeks the path of least resistance, the current ceases to flow through the capacitor/igniter and instead flows through the ballast. if the ballast was not there, the lamp would draw an infinite amount of power untill there was a catastrophic component failure.

thats an hid lamp.....lol
Click to expand...
Good to know. Didn't know that. I always thought exploding lamps were just mechanically defective.

My statement on power consumption is still correct even if it didn't come out 100% correct.
 
M

Masna

Member
Thanks a lot for the information. So the Ballast and 400W HPS Light combination won't really drive costs up all that much?
 
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