Can't see your image or video.

What type of light? What type of ballast?

Is it something on your end because i can see it when i open the thread? it's a 1000 watt sunmaster but it has a very large ballast.

Dale

"This image or video has been moved or deleted" "Photobucket"

You're probably seeing it because you have it cached.

A Sunmaster what? MH? HPS? Both are good, although what's best depends on what you want to grow.

Why are you concerned with ballast size? The real thing you should care about is magnetic vs. electronic.

I'm guessing I want electronic?

Dale

Electronic ballasts use less power, increase bulb life, and a bunch of other nice effects. The only real downside is that they cost more upfront.

karenrei,

You are definitely right about the electronic vs. magnetic. However, a lot of folks here try to make do with secondhand systems or other "used lighting" sources. I would love to own a few electronic ballasts myself, but over the years I have inherited, or scrounged, a multitude of HID parts from which I have built a variety of ballasts - wattages from 150 to 1000. Some of the more impromtu freebies are from downed streetlights, which I know are going to be tossed (my tax money). Having tools in your car for those occasions is a plus. The nicest finds (not usually in streetlights) are the "F-can ballast" style, which are easy to customize. Sometimes that is all a person can afford.

Someday I will go "pulse", and digital electronic. The benefits are absolutely there.

Zink

If electricity was free, I would agree with you 100%. But sadly, it isn't. I used to have the same sort of approach with the incandescent bulbs in my house. I used to run them until they burned out, then would switch them to CFLs. But then I started doing the math and realized... running them until they burned out was just a complete waste, no matter how you looked at it -- price, environmental consequences, etc. It was far better in all respects just to throw them in the trash and immediately install CFLs than to use up the incandescents.

It feels bad to waste things, I know. But some times wasting one thing means a lot less waste of something else. Whether that will be the case here, well, that depends obviously on how much use this ballast is going to get. :)

Regardless of the absolute truth of that initial statement, it is still a good thing to give helpful advice and/or knowledge or sources to the enthused hobbyist who wants to play around with equipment they already have access to. That is personally one of my greatest joys - to figure out how to make some item I have do something more interesting. For several years previous in this forum, I had been giving people advice on how to use electronic ballasts to overdrive fluorescent lights and attain more light. Overdriving is also is a bit less efficient, but from a hobbyist standpoint it was a blast to have different options with a brighter light that THEY customized. Most serious aquarists do the exact same with their lighting systems. The instructions in that thread were even copied, in parts, and printed in several orchid and bonsai grower publications.

By the way, you might consider saving your incandescent lights for use in areas where you find yourself constantly turning the lights on and off. Even though CFLs are more efficient, fluorescent lamp life is rated with the consideration that you will leave the light on for 4 hours each time. Constantly turning any fluorescent light on and off will make it die fast. It also shortens a fluorescent lamp's life if it is left on for less than 15 minutes. CFLs are great. I have back porch night lights that are still coming on after 5 years plus.

Unfortunately, the necessary funding to buy mself into more efficiency is not in my near future. Right after my wife lost her job to take care of unexpected health problems, I ended up with cancer (which I apparently have beaten), and right now we keep the phone ringer off because of the creditors calling. Weirdly enough, our cars ALL died in that period, including a used one that lasted 27 days. My current car was given to me. If it weren't for hobbies (like playing jazz mandolin) and my ability to contemplate possibilities of this universe, I would be depressed and going nuts. Getting to learn a lot about the physics of lighting has always been one of the reliable uplifts in my life.

Zink

Yeah, I left incandescents in the garage and in the closets for that reason. All of the "normal" lighting got switched, though. Even the ones on dimmer switches; I just bought dimmer-capable CFLs.

Sorry to hear about your losses, but that's wonderful to hear about you beating cancer. My cousin recently did the same with a particularly aggressive form of leukemia; she barely made it. While she was battling it, I wrote this article to help cheer her up. I hope you stay in remission and that things turn around for you financially!