What the F happened to my light? Blown ballast or breaker?

I am running 2 1000 watt Cali ballasts on opposite 12 hour cycles in a bedroom, one is inside a tent one is outside. Their running times never overlap and the only other electronics in the room are a couple of fans and a dehumidifier. I woke up this morning to find the breaker for the circuit that runs that room and a few other outlets tripped, so i unplugged a few things and flipped the breaker back. When i plugged my ballast back in I heard and odd pop/crack come from near where the ballast hangs on the wall but thats also next to where the hood hangs. I have an extra ballast of the same model from the last time one blew and I had to wait for repair/replacement so I plugged it in and the bulb flickered, looked like shit, and went dark. I'm pretty positive the bulb is toast but my question is whether the ballast could be frying the bulbs, the bulb blowing is damaging the ballast or tripping the breaker, or if thats what bulbs do when their life expectancy runs out because this one is about a year old now I think. Another possibility is the circuit being overloaded because of something outside the room but on the circuit being plugged in without me knowing about it. Could that potentially damage a bulb or ballast? Hah this shit only happens on sunday mornings when all the grow shops are closed for the next 36 hours. Any insight would be appreciated.
 

Junebud!

Well-Known Member
Should be a fuse in the ballast, I'd say it's around where the plug goes into the ballast, next thing I would do is get a amp meter and when your back up and running check how many amps your pulling on each breaker, if there 20 amp breakers don't go over 16 amps.
 
Thanks for the reply!!! You are correct, I tried changing the fuse in the ballast both times they stopped working but that didn't do the trick. I think my next step is determining whether its the bulb, ballast, or both that took the hit. 8:30 tonight is when the other light will go off so i'm going to either take the bulb out of that hood and try it with the other two ballasts or try hooking the two questionable ballasts up to the hood with the working bulb, whatever requires less hassle. just afraid of blowing both bulbs but its running right now on the same circuit with the same load which is under 16 amps on a 20 amp circuit. Do you think its more likely that the breaker tripped due to overload (always possible that im missing something) and damaged the bulb/ballast or that the bulb burnt out/blew and tripped the breaker? again thank you very much for taking the time to reply!

Getting an amp meter too, doesn't sound like a bad idea to rule that/fire out
 
Top