I know that this thread is a little old and I am not sure if this one factor was addressed or not.
I noticed a few people state that "a 1000W is a 1000W no mater what." I do believe this may be a bit off. The Ballast doesn't use a 1000W it just puts out 1000W. I have noticed this one factor comparing my 600w to my 1000w, The 600 Electronic ran nice and cool, thus I can tell that less energy is being lost to heat, while the magnetic ballast gets hot enough to light a cigarette, which to me, means that it is running less efficient. Like many things in this world, such as cars, energy can be lost in the form of heat.
I could be wrong, I just believe this to be the case. now for the facts.
My electric bill always seems stable and didn't really change much when I started using the 600W in a small closet grow where I had to run two fans moving 300 CFM just to keep it around 75ish in the tent. Now when I freed up space I was able to run the 1000W without the need of fans. The bill spiked about 79$ at first I thought it was a mistake and maybe I left more lights on around the house. but no mistake, the next mouth showed the same thing. As odd as this sound's it just happens to be an issue that now I have to find a way to deal with. I dropped my bill before by ditching the 20 year old washer and dryer for new ones and saved 100$ a month on my bill!! I switch to CFL's years ago so I don't know how much that has saved me etc...
The main reason I went for the Magnetic ballast was that is was cheaper, and I read multiple post stating how digital burn through bulbs quicker, which is something I personally noticed and tried to rectify by buying Digital bulbs since the older style has a hard time with the higher frequencies from the Digital Ballast. that is according to HTG's website which is where I got the bulb.
I hope someone else reads this post and has some light to shine on this because I am more than ready to spend the extra for the digital ballasts over the magnetic especially if it will help to save me money that I don't have to spend on a overly high bill.
I took a few measures to cut back and save such as running everything at off peak hours, so night time is really day in the tent and day is really night time. I don't know what the savings is going to be like but I will return and post that and hopefully find some info before I go buying equipment with a hidden cost. but from what I can tell its about 70$ more for the digi ballast and that right there is less than what was added to my bill in the first place.
