Adjustable Ballast

Indoor Growing Lighting
1

I have 2 adjustable ballasts. Both have 400-600-1000-Super lumens settings. Both have 1000w hps bulbs. I had one for grow room one for flowering. I have another now and want to use the two together in the flowering room. Can I set the ballasts to 600w and keep the 1000w bulbs in to save electricity? So I would have 2 600w hps.

2

Yes you can… but you must understand that they aren’t really working efficiently… running the bulbs at a lower wattage will save you $ but the bulbs aren’t burning the way they were meant too… hard to say how well it will work…
If you want to run 600 watters , then I would buy 600 watters… then you know the light is working the way it was meant too… :wink:
By the way , I’m oldschool magnetic ballists… I think the new electronic ballists are junk… just my opinion tho…
:v::sunglasses:

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@dbrn32 may have an interest in this

1 Like
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I agree with peachfuzz. Nothing wrong with dimming them as long as proper bulb is in the fixture. They don’t dim the same way our modern led drivers do though. We usually get more efficient when dimming them. And there is slight shift in emitted light. But they will work.

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Thanks. There sure is a lot of misinformation out there when googling this question. I have the new dimmable 1000w ballasts. From what I have found I can dim to 600w setting as long as I am using the 1000w bulb as designed for the balLast. But it would not work the same if I put in a 600w bulb and set to 600w setting.

So I am going to get them both set up and run the 2 1000w bulbs dimmed to 600w settings. It should give me plenty of light , one for each plant,and placed end to end over the SCROG.

The directions from the ballast say

“always use a bulb centric to the highest output of the ballast(e.g. 1000w bulb/1000w ballast, 600w bulb/600w ballast).”

“Remember to set the wattage knob to 100% before starting the ballast. It takes approx 6 seconds to warm up to full intensity. Once lamp is ready you can dim the ballast as desired. However, allow the bulb to to adjust after each turn during dimmer. Adjusting too fast may prevent full lamp and ballast efficiency.”

Thanks RAP

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That is correct, don’t run 600 watt bulb on 1000 watt ballast regardless of setting.