CFL With Ballast

Okay, so for the flowering stage of my two plants, I use a 400 Watt HPS. The HPS bulb is screwed into a mogul socket attached underneath a reflector. That then goes via the timer, ballast and a contactor( In the correct order obviously).

Anyway, the real question is that I use a 300 Watt CFL for the vegative phase of growth. When I purchased the bulb it came with a mogul socket and UK 3 Pin Plug. However, when I want to use it I have to take down the whole reflector ect and then hang the bulb, this mean I loose the reflector and I loose a lot of light upwards. So, instead of doing this, I removed the HPS bulb from the mogul socket attached to the reflector and screwed in the CFL bulb, when I Switched it on it worked perfectly. I just want to know if this is dangerous and also, will I still be charged for 400 Watts of electricity since it is running alongside the 400 Watt Ballast?

Thanks!

I dont know but it sounds dangerous putting a cfl bulb in a hps fixture.

what...you got a cfl in a hps mogul and run with the 400 ballast????...should have blown instantly 2 diff wattages even

shut it down right away if thats how its set up dood.

Alright man I have seen that B4 .Using a hps ballast to light an non ballasted cfl . Not sure of the specifics but it just takes a certain amount of voltage to light the bulb is it too much voltage ? could be could not be you would have to know the spec on the lamp and the ballast .Is it dangerous I doubt it if any thing bad was gonna happen it would have been when you first turned it on . The worst that could happen is that u might be shortening the life of the cfl .Electrician here btw .

Oh and no your will draw less power its based on the wattage of the lamp not the ballast .My 250 w hps pills 2.1 amps.

nothing bad...???what...a 400 ballast to a 300 bulb is fire or exploding bulb just waiting tio happen. and its not even a real 300 in cfl..its compared to a incandecent house bulb...not to hid. surrised it didnt blow right away

bad...bad ...bad....shut it off

then why do we have diff ballast if its ok to run any wattage bulb then in them...come on...

Wow typical reaction from someone who knows nothing about electrical theory . Tell u what lets have that guy post the name brand and specs on the ballast and the cfl and I WILL PROVE YOU WRONG BROTHER !

Hey Joshrose post ur brand name and info on your 300w cfl and 400w ballast .

joshrose54 said:

Okay, so for the flowering stage of my two plants, I use a 400 Watt HPS. The HPS bulb is screwed into a mogul socket attached underneath a reflector. That then goes via the timer, ballast and a contactor( In the correct order obviously).

Anyway, the real question is that I use a 300 Watt CFL for the vegative phase of growth. When I purchased the bulb it came with a mogul socket and UK 3 Pin Plug. However, when I want to use it I have to take down the whole reflector ect and then hang the bulb, this mean I loose the reflector and I loose a lot of light upwards. So, instead of doing this, I removed the HPS bulb from the mogul socket attached to the reflector and screwed in the CFL bulb, when I Switched it on it worked perfectly. I just want to know if this is dangerous and also, will I still be charged for 400 Watts of electricity since it is running alongside the 400 Watt Ballast?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Why don t you untie from the ballast the wire that goes to the lamp?take off the wire from the ballast(make it longer if needed) and put a plug instead.(that you simply plug it in

So big business can take your money man ! ITs 90% marketing !

He never said he had 2 seperate ballasts Chupa . THats what i do though I have hp and mh ballasts mounted on my board and just swap over wires when its time to switch .

For starters you are probably using a 300 watt replacement cfl, and it is probably actually closer to 60 watts. I just don't understand why you would even want to take a risk with something like this in the first place. A socket for the cfl will run you basically nothing. Even if you were actually running 300 watts on the cfl you would still be wasting money compared to the hps. The hps puts out nearly twice as many lumens per watt, and the light penetration is much better. I'm not even one of those people that completely bashes on cfl lighting, but what you are talking about just doesn't make any sense to me.

im not really getting the jist of this but you dont need a ballast for them cfls i know they dont fit proper into some reflecters might have to upgrade the reflecter to a bigger size.

WHat a bunch of dopes ! ALL CFLS DONT HAVE THEIR OWN BALLAST BUILT IN.
And he said its a mogul base so it probaly is a 300 w one.

Read the fucking entire post and dont reply if u cant make sense of it just reflects ignorance and confuses the boy !

His reason for the post is he's tired of switching out hoods from his cfl to his hps hood!

guess my company betetr fire me then..i build ballast all day . a watt is a watt...and yes all cfl have the ballast built in...show me one that dont. thats what the big white base is for and is why they go so dam hot
and for those that need to change wires n shit to run mh or hps...just remove the ignitor in the box and now its mh. add it and its a hps. or buy a switchable and save money on 2 ballast

http://lightsofamerica.com/Products/92100B.aspxYeah I guess he better because there are non self ballasted cfl lamps ! And here is the link to school ya ! No offense its just true that they exist ! If that guy installed a 300w self ballast cfl in a 400 w hid fixture it would catch fire ! If you read the post correctly you would know that he said the lamp lights up .You should know this given your are of work. But props for your tip on removing the igniter on hps ballast to run mh.I know i had done it before but couldnt remember how I even posted on it and everybody said it wasnt possiple i knew I have done it b4 in 18 years of electrical work .Btw you must be pretty young because the first true cfl's ever invented had to have a seperate ballast similir to those 55w flat cfls.And that was in the late 80s i believe i didn't look it up.

Click on the link at the top read it and weep especialy at the bottom where it reads
CAUTION:

1) This lamp is a replacement lamp only and does not have a ballast.

draw a diagrame fully labeled so we can see exactly what your doing cause if i understand correcty you should have a fire any minute

Oh yeah and what basis do you have ?