Florescent light ballests

[sailblue5]

ok, this is sort of a stupid question but can you plug a 277V .22 amp 2 bulb ballast in to a wall socket. THis wouldn't make sence becuase the wall socket is 120V but then agian, why did they make it 277V? I guess I have seen 120 V ballast out there, they just don't seem to be in obendence at my local hardwear store. any suggestions? Also what is a good price for a florescent 2 bulb 40 watt each ballast?

Also as a side note, what are the advantages to MH lights?

[Rikko]

Originally Posted by sailblue5

ok, this is sort of a stupid question but can you plug a 277V .22 amp 2 bulb ballast in to a wall socket. THis wouldn't make sence becuase the wall socket is 120V but then agian, why did they make it 277V? I guess I have seen 120 V ballast out there, they just don't seem to be in obendence at my local hardwear store. any suggestions? Also what is a good price for a florescent 2 bulb 40 watt each ballast?

Also as a side note, what are the advantages to MH lights?

I've seen these. I also saw 333V ballasts as well, and I'm not 100% sure what's going on there. I *believe* they are intended to take 120V input and then produce the 277V you see (anybody? Maybe a pre-adapter is needed). The intention, or so I was told at Home Depot, is for large-scale lighting applications where you connect multiple bulbs in series. Pretty useless to us, I think, since the surrounding hardware is probably obscure and not easily adapter to our use.

If you want a 2 bulb magnetic ballast that can be had for around 30 dollars Canadian. Electronic costs a bit more, with some around 25% higher in cost. Find a big local lighting supplier and you should be able to get it the cheapest (ie. a retail/wholesale place).

As to MH:
Google it. They're brighter, hotter, and draw the most energy. They're also very expensive to buy and operate.

[sailblue5]

Has anyone ever bought strip lights and taken them apart and rewired them? It seems that buying a strip light might be cheaper than buying the ballasts and endcaps. The problem is the height is a couple extra inches because the ballast is there. I want to move the ballast to under the fish tank on the shelf and jsut screw the endcaps in to my canopy. Has anyone done this? Is it reccomended?

[ninoboy]

Sailblue,

What's your tank's size? Buying an electronic ballast + 2 pair of end caps + 2 daylight bulbs from Home Depot won't cost you over $45. I got Advance 4f32t8 ballast for less than $20. 2 Pair of endcaps won't cost you more than $10. 2 Phillip daylight bulbs will cost you less than $20 (I think).

[louisxyz]

You should go with electronic ballast as stated before, with magnetic ballast, it is not recommended by the manufacturer to put the ballast to far from the connector.

I did a 6 light strip with 2 electronic ballast each under the tank and it work fine.

[sailblue5]

Originally Posted by ninoboy

Sailblue,

What's your tank's size? Buying an electronic ballast + 2 pair of end caps + 2 daylight bulbs from Home Depot won't cost you over $45. I got Advance 4f32t8 ballast for less than $20. 2 Pair of endcaps won't cost you more than $10. 2 Phillip daylight bulbs will cost you less than $20 (I think).

Well I need to have 6 bulbs (40 wats each for a total of 240 watts) fot my 75 gallon. I can get a 2 bulb 48 inch strip light for $14 that is less than the ballast. I feel comfortable with the wiring, just want to make sure it isn't uwise to do such a thing.

Thanks for all your help
Michael

[louisxyz]

What you could do to keep the wiring intct is to remove the ballast from the strip and attach it to the back of your hood, if you leave it inside your hood, you might have too much heat and than too much evaporation, this might lead to problem with rust in your connector.

If you want to keep it as is, than you can add muffin fan to disperse the heat.

[jart]

hi louisxyz, interesting that it is not recommended to mount a magnetic ballast remotely. i have done this before. any ideas as to why this is not recommended?

i have bought 48 inch fixtures before (they tend to be cheaper than shorter fixtures, ime, (supply and demand)), gutted them, and used the empty fixture to house the ballast and wires under the tank in the stand.

[GDominy]

I think (and I stress, "think" because I really don't know for sure) that it has something to do with the substancial ammount of electrical interferance generated by a 60hz power cycle through the lines. When the ballast is close to the sockets you have much less wiring "broadcast" the hum...

I have remote mounted Magnetic Ballasts before as well... but it can cause some pretty annoying reactions with other electrical equipment.

[jart]

Originally Posted by GDominy

I have remote mounted Magnetic Ballasts before as well... but it can cause some pretty annoying reactions with other electrical equipment.

interesting. i assume this would only happen if the other equipment is nearby, gareth? i haven't had this problem before, however my computer and other electronics are on another floor from my main tank.

good to know, though, thanks.

[GDominy]

I have had reactions with equipment up to 30 feet away.. Mostly Audio equipment (used to have a recording studio, we ended up going to incandescent lights to avoid these problems).

I actually still get a hum through my computer speakers with my Workhorse ballasts in another room.... Its very odd... I suspect I have an open ground or a hot neutral in one of my outlets.

[louisxyz]

Originally Posted by GDominy

I have had reactions with equipment up to 30 feet away.. Mostly Audio equipment (used to have a recording studio, we ended up going to incandescent lights to avoid these problems).

I actually still get a hum through my computer speakers with my Workhorse ballasts in another room.... Its very odd... I suspect I have an open ground or a hot neutral in one of my outlets.

Gdominy was perfectly right, my first setting was a electronic ballast for 4 tubes and 1 magnetic ballast for 2 tubes (all 48''), all located under the tank. First problem, my wireless phone (not cellular, reguler wireless phone) loose about half its range, could'nt use it anymore outside. The second problem was the electric garage door, could'nt use the remote anymore unless I used it within 2 feet of the controller.
So I did'nt take chance anymore and I redid my hood and install the ballast in the back side of the hood (outside). Anyway, I did'nt like having the ballast and wiring too close to the canister filter and the water tank (15 gallons rubbermade) use for filling automatically the tank form the evaporation. I always freak a little bit when I was playing under my tank hands and feet wet next to the ballast.

[jart]

off topic, but i'll say it again... louisxyz, make sure you've got your gear plugged into a gfci.

[louisxyz]

Originally Posted by jart

off topic, but i'll say it again... louisxyz, make sure you've got your gear plugged into a gfci.

I do have one now, and no your not off topic, we should repeat this everytime we are talking about electricity around the aquarium.

TKS