do digital ballasts really save compared to magnetic?

some digital ballast makers and sellers claim they save money compared to magnetic ballasts of the same wattage. is this true? and if so to how much extent. im currently using a 2, 400 watt magnetic ballast from htg supply. one is an agro max, the other is a generic htg supply. they both work great as far as what i need it for. if i upgrade to a digital ballast, will it save me some money on my electric bill?

Yes they do save a little electricity (shitty ones not included) but the difference is negligible. A 400 watt lamp still needs 400 watts of electricity. You have to be using a number of lights for digitals to make a noticeable impact on energy costs. There are more than a few other benefits making quality digi's worth the investment.

thanks, i reped you. how is digital green house or lumatek as far as quality? htg supply sells both and they are known to be great, especialy from my experiences with them. my local green house also has digital green house. just want to see what everyone says before i make any purchases. i'd rather buy something known to work rather than plug and pray. btw, nice pic lol

skiweeds said:

thanks, i reped you. how is digital green house or lumatek as far as quality? htg supply sells both and they are known to be great, especialy from my experiences with them. my local green house also has digital green house. just want to see what everyone says before i make any purchases. i'd rather buy something known to work rather than plug and pray. btw, nice pic lol

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If you want something that will work and is cheap, just go magnetic, because your current and wattage draw will be just about the same between the two. I use two magnetic 1000-watters and I have no problems.

Whoop for Marquette! She's my favorite mountain in Michigan and having a friend that goes to Northern makes it real convenient.

~ooli~

hey u just got a digital dimmable 4oo pretty killer since i like to fuck with shit i usually keep it on 100% but think i may try it out low and steadily build it up next time check out ebay it was onlyh 160 for the whole set up

the thing i just dont exactly understand is both use 400 watts. how is digital saving money? 400 watts is 400 watts. both my 400 watt magnets give me great results. but if everyone is telling me to go digital including the guy at my local hydro shop, i want to find out exactly why. they say it saves money in start up costs but the start up is only seconds anyway so that is such a small difference. i just dont get how it can actually cut my power usage in half.

haha my brother actually goes to northern. im not in marquette as much as i used to be. i used to drive up there all the time a few years ago just to go to apple bees with a couple friends and get drunk lol.

i dont really want a dimmable cause i would rather just run on full power. for newer plants i just move them further away. thanks though.

Put a power usage meter on them and see what they are actually pulling, probably closer to 440w, 400w for your light 40w for your (magnetic) ballast. A digital/electronic ballast doesn't use as much energy on the ballast, in theory. The down fall is the bulb, good old bulbs we have been using for decades have been know to burn out much faster on digital/electronic ballasts do to different wave lengths. There are now digital compatible bulbs available at a premium.

The reasons to get a digital are it's features. They can be dimmed down watts (not good for older type bulbs as Trueno said before). Some have a "super lumen" feature that ups the amount of light (more watts, not a money saver). Most of the time they are HPS/MH switchable. They run cooler. I personally went with a magnetic ballast because I couldn't justify the price for those features. The extra 65 watts from a 1k watt magnetic ballast is pretty negligible.

Summing it up, digitals aren't cool because they save you money, the money is pretty negligible, it's cool because of the features. If you're willing to pay the extra bucks for those features, go for it.

thanks +reps to all. think im gonna go digital. why not give it a try. its not a whole lot of extra money and i can afford it. plus if anything goes wrong i'll be able to exchange it no problem. think im gonna go with digital greenhouse

A old tech 400w magnetic will pull about 500 watts to power that 400 bulb. They are pretty inefficient. Keep in mind magnetic ballasts are designed to output their power at a very low frequency, and most bulbs designed today are still designed for a low frequency arc. Digital ballasts send out a high frequency. This can cause faster degregation of bulbs and some bulbs fail rather quickly. There is talk about the light a bulb puts out when powered by a digi ballast, though so much success around it seems silly to question.

An has a new(ish) digital ballast that powers and fires low frequency.

karr said:

A old tech 400w magnetic will pull about 500 watts to power that 400 bulb. They are pretty inefficient. Keep in mind magnetic ballasts are designed to output their power at a very low frequency, and most bulbs designed today are still designed for a low frequency arc. Digital ballasts send out a high frequency. This can cause faster degregation of bulbs and some bulbs fail rather quickly. There is talk about the light a bulb puts out when powered by a digi ballast, though so much success around it seems silly to question.

An has a new(ish) digital ballast that powers and fires low frequency.

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i thought all HID ballasts converted to a very high frequency, in fact i read it's 20,000 hertz. standard appliances run on 60 hertz.

almost all digis do. the An Baddass ballast is a low freq digital. Magnetic ballasts are all (to my knowledge all) low frequency.

and ps, your sig. I just looked at some different purchases from a dispencary. Know what i found? all clear as glass trichs, maybe one or two cloudy, and a lot of broken and undeveloped trichs. Its real surprising how poor these caregivers grow.

i think the reference you just read was in reference to electronic(digital) ballasts. perhaps wikipedia?

"Electronic ballasts alter the flow of electricity in the light bulb by using a series of induction coils that are separated from one another. In contrast, magnetic ballast uses 1 induction coil and not a series.

Another difference is that electronic ballasts change the frequency of the electrical current without changing the voltage. While magnetic ballasts in fluorescent lamps work at a frequency of 60 hertz, electronic ballasts greatly increase that frequency to 20,000 hertz." - http://www.doityourself.com/stry/whats-the-difference-between-an-electronic-ballast-and-a-magnetic-ballast

This is refrencing fluorescent lighting, but same concept holds true to High Intensity Discharge lighting

skiweeds said:

the thing i just dont exactly understand is both use 400 watts. how is digital saving money? 400 watts is 400 watts.

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Heat energy. While both ballasts have the same or very similar outputs, a digital will draw less current because less is transformed into heat energy, or less should be.

skiweeds said:

the thing i just dont exactly understand is both use 400 watts. how is digital saving money? 400 watts is 400 watts. both my 400 watt magnets give me great results. but if everyone is telling me to go digital including the guy at my local hydro shop, i want to find out exactly why. they say it saves money in start up costs but the start up is only seconds anyway so that is such a small difference. i just dont get how it can actually cut my power usage in half.

haha my brother actually goes to northern. im not in marquette as much as i used to be. i used to drive up there all the time a few years ago just to go to apple bees with a couple friends and get drunk lol.

i dont really want a dimmable cause i would rather just run on full power. for newer plants i just move them further away. thanks though.

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The ballasts themselves take a bit of power to turn on that 400w bulb. Some of the older magnetic ones are less energy efficient than the new ones. Also, the heat buildup is worse off magnetic than digital.

TruenoAE86coupe said:

Put a power usage meter on them and see what they are actually pulling, probably closer to 440w, 400w for your light 40w for your (magnetic) ballast. A digital/electronic ballast doesn't use as much energy on the ballast, in theory. The down fall is the bulb, good old bulbs we have been using for decades have been know to burn out much faster on digital/electronic ballasts do to different wave lengths. There are now digital compatible bulbs available at a premium.

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One thing too add. The new Lumatek dimmables with soft start will safetly fire HPS bulbs that would otherwise possibly fail prematurely in older technology. Plus you get the most of what the bulb has to offer. Digital is a very constant and even flow of power. Mags fluxuate a bit. Top of the line magnetics do compare in firing efficiency but cost about as much...

karr said:

and ps, your sig. I just looked at some different purchases from a dispencary. Know what i found? all clear as glass trichs, maybe one or two cloudy, and a lot of broken and undeveloped trichs. Its real surprising how poor these caregivers grow.

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thanks a lot for the info! i'd rep again if i could.

its even worse where i live. everyone seems to have buds that are leafy as shit and the small leaf they trim off the put in the bag to add weight. nothing but greedy money hungry people. then they want outrages prices like $50 for 1/8 ounce. i guess at least they dont add the fan leaves lol. things are sure changing though. i been doing it for almost a year now for patients completely free of charge. only downside is (hardly a downside) each harvest the patient has to split everything evenly with myself and my other patients. im the legal caregiver and take care of all equipment costs, all they do is possess a medical card, help harvest(if they want), smoke, and enjoy. my patients all also even have serious medical conditions, not just asthma or back pain. because of medical bills and such, none of them have much money to spend on weed and when they do, they can't buy the things they want. so far no trouble from local law enforcement.