120v vs. 240v??

so as you all know a ballast usually has a plug option of 120v or 240v. and i know the 240v option is so you are using less power or amps(i think)? anyway if that is the case then why wouldnt it just have the 240v option if it uses less amps. what is the need for both, i guess is my question...

Watts= volts x amps I believe. Whether or not you change to the 240 it uses the same ammount of power. The 240v just has a larger capacity to flow amps through it or something.

Why have both? because some people might have a 240v in their garage for things like electric water heaters and other large appliances.

its uses half the amps on 240v. like 2.5 instead of 5 for 1000w ballast. it is ideal, but not a big deal.

c5rftw said:

its uses half the amps on 240v. like 2.5 instead of 5 for 1000w ballast. it is ideal, but not a big deal.

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thats so u can run a few more things on that circuit right?

240v is a 'higher need' line than 120v, yes.

spenceg said:

so as you all know a ballast usually has a plug option of 120v or 240v. and i know the 240v option is so you are using less power or amps(i think)? anyway if that is the case then why wouldnt it just have the 240v option if it uses less amps. what is the need for both, i guess is my question...

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The difference between 120 and 240 is 240 runs a 2nd hot wire.

If you were to open up a 120 plug in there would be 3 wires: hot, neutral, and ground

open a 240 box and there would be: hot, hot, neutral, ground.

basically when you use 240 instead of 120 you are splitting the "load" across 2 wires instead of one, ie, if a 1k watt light runs at 10 amps on 120 it all goes across 1 line, on 240 it's split so its 5 amps on each hot wire.

You can run more amps per circut on 240 but it also depends on wire gauge. but given the same gauge wires you can run more on 240. if you are wired at 14ga on 120 you can run 15 amps, 12ga on 120 is 20 amps. I'm not sure what it would be on 240 but its more, not sure if its double but you get the idea

240v is just two 120v leads, a neutral(common), and a ground wire. i have run plenty of these.. the problem is gotta have the heavy duty connectors and the 240v volt wire and things start to get really expensive compared to 120v.

i have asked really old electricians and pot growers alike what the difference is. its true that you need to run 1/2 the amps at 2 times the voltage, which will still equal the same. what matters is that you can run a bunch of lights and other things more easily off of a 240. they say that a 240 will use slightly less power, but that it is almost immeasurable. so thwe biggest difference is lifespan of the ballast. its harder for the ballast to jump from 110 so it wont last as long. there is an option for 110 or 220 because a 110 is more like homegrow size and 220 (240) is for hooking up more stuff at once. 120 stuff is cheaper to buy, but 220 lwill let you do more bigger stuff in the future

So if i were to run 2 1000's a 280 watt fan and hydro pumps and stuff i should go with the 240? Im not familiar to wiring shit AT ALL, lol

lazypothead420 said:

So if i were to run 2 1000's a 280 watt fan and hydro pumps and stuff i should go with the 240? Im not familiar to wiring shit AT ALL, lol

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just for that reason i would stay at 120v. 120 hurts. 240 kills

agreed. stay with 120. 240 would be more like if you were gonna do a warehouse and you had all the money beforehand, in which case you would have a competent electrician doing the wiring.

Lumatek Got some nice ballast that handle both MH/HPS and 120/240! Got myself 4x 600 of those and 1x 400