Your ignorance is showing, be careful.
HPS lights use an ignitor which can only support firing a lamp on a cord within a certain resistance limit, thus limiting cord length. Not only have you exceeded any rational length by an obscene amount, only going one size up on your cord didn't help and adding a plug in the mix made it even worse as well as splices with wire nuts.
You are lucky they are firing up at all, and you might want to keep a lot of spare ballasts around and spare ignitors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a0v-9eNHS0&feature=PlayList&p=4B850A385F08BDD8&playnext=1&index=3
If this were actually a viable way to do things it would already be done and be an option on some ballasts. There is a reason that product does not exist.
Nice opening line Oregon meds,i dont think ive ever gave you cause to speak to me in such a way but i could be wrong,merry xmas to you as well.
I question where you say if it were a "viable way" that it would be available as an option,it is available as a custom option from several manufacturers,there could be a countless number of reasons why manufacturers dont supply longer leads,we cant be sure of the reasons but my bet would be economics,most modern ballasts designed for the grow room ive ran across use either high energy ignitors or smart ignitors,both will negate any ignitor issues associated with long run length,all 3 manufacturers of the ballasts i own have high energy ignitors,including my cheap HTG lights,the only low energy ignitors ive seen in ballasts are the lights designed with a built in ballast such as hi/low bay lighting,security lighting,aquarium lighting & specialty low wattage grow lighting units.
Anyhow all this fire talk is unfounded in my thinking,the only issue that could possible be brought up is a longevity issue,my understanding of an ignitors function is to fire high voltage spikes for very short durrations,just long enough for the gas in the light tube to become electrically charged,after the gas is charged the ignitor is then taken out of the loop & it remains dormant,until next lights on,exactly what seperates a standard magnetic hps ballast from a dual hps/mh ballast,corrrect ? any resistance issues would lead to increased strike time,if any at all because any increased strike time would be dependant on losses being high enough where strike voltage was lowered to levels low enough to cause an increased strike time to start with,correct ?
My further understanding of ignitors is that all low energy ignightors are rated at a specific length,not high energy or smart ignitors,this rating is for loss prevention of strike spike in long runs,the loss prevention of lamp striking spike is supposed to ensure longer lamp life, taking into account any manufacturer wiring issues concerning wire insulation values in lights designed with low energy ignitors.
If the lamp strikes an arc after the run is increased the only possible negative outcome would be shortened lamp life from increased strike time, which should be of very little relevance if bulbs are changed to accomidate the normal loss of lumen output that comes with all hid lights.
I would question where you say i might want to keep alot of spare ballasts around,the caps in a ballast are on the other side of the transformer
from the ignitor,correct ?
