I am looking to lighting my 50 gal tank. And I was going to get an power compact ballast to light up 2x55 w bulbs.
I've talked today to one of the reps at the local electric supply store and he suggested to use 4x40 w T8 ballast, to overdrive 2 55w power compact bulbs.
There are a lot of posting on overdriving T12/T8, but I could not find anything about power compacts. Anything ever done this? It sounds like it should work, since power compacts are basically 2 t5 put together.
The electronic ballast for 2x55 w power compacts is $80 CDN.
the electronic ballast for 4x40 w T8 is $25 CDN, that's quite a difference.
Accroding to the electrician that I've talked too, yes it will work.
After reading the ODNO sticky, it looks like the ballast does not care if it is T5, T8 or PC, it is the output power that matters.
My concern in the above setup is the resulting heat.
Yeah, they are good ballasts, the same ones AH supply uses in their kits. I found the wiring pretty easy. I have 2 of them and plan on getting a third soon.
Just to let everybody know, instead of bying fulham ballast,
I've bought a regular "no-name" 4x32 T8 electronic ballast.
And it works fine with 2x55 power compacts bulbs.
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