No problem. The ballast itself is not drawing 1100W; that's ballast + bulb.

Besides, unless your house has defective wiring. the worst thing that would happen is you'd throw a breaker.

Thanks. My ballast is humming a bit which I think is normal. It also has a bit of an electrical odour when its running but no smoke at all. Should I be concerned with that. Everything seems to running fine...

You're fine.

canukistani,

You said the "voltage on the socket is 1500W pulse". Did you actually mean 1500V (volts) and not 1500W (watts). My guess is VOLTS. All HID lamps use a high voltage pulse to start the electrons flowing through the mixture of gas and metallic salts which are in the quartz tube inside the bulb center. Technically the pulse initiates the ionization of the gas mix and starts the plasma arc, which then heats the metallic salts to thousands of degrees.

The fact that the ballast uses 1100 watts is pefectly normal. All HID ballasts consume 10 to 12 percent extra power above the bulb's rating, as karenrei indicated. That excess wattage is what heats up the ballast. And it will definitely hum!

Zink