Sorry if people misunderstood I heard that a ballast by itself uses wattage, like if you are running a 600 W it uses 650 W. I was wondering about that.well if it says 200w ballest then it uses 200w.... if it says 800 then uses 800w ... if it says 1000w then uses 1000w..... are you asking how many kilowatts its ganna use over a period of time to find out the price its ganna cost to run....??
You're right, the ballast does use power, and the rating is only for what the bulb uses. Generally a ballast will use 5-10% of the bulbs power, so a 600 will actually use 630-660w.
Digi ballasts supposedly use less power on the assumption that they run cooler than magnetics, but the ones I have used and seen seem to run just as hot imo, so go figure.
I was wondering how many watts a Digital Electronic ballast used by itself? One like this.