Electricians advice needed ASAP

S. African grower

S. African grower

Well-Known Member
Do you need a voltage regulator to run a 1000w ballast safely?.. The ballast in question is a 1000w electrical, dimmable with a external breaker to prevent against power surges
 
Stiickygreen

Stiickygreen

Well-Known Member
Pretty sure...if it's the same as over here....the ballast does all the regulating/etc.... you should be able to just plug and play. Should draw about 9 amps of the 20 available.
 
Stiickygreen

Stiickygreen

Well-Known Member
Saw your other post as well. Clarify a few things if you will.

Digital or analog ballast? Digitals will usually fire both hps and MH....but analogs are specific to the lamp.

What kinda lamp is that? I once f'd up and fired a MH on a combo analog ballast set to "hps". (that type of ballast can burn either lamp with the flip of a switch) 5 minutes or so after firing it up i heard a loud POP....and then found glass shards blown all over the garden. Fortunately...it was only lettuce....but it was still a huge, nasty mess.

Digital ballasts also usually have inline fuses....often...right below the plug in a slide out drawer kinda thing. Might be a spare fuse in there as well.

hope you figure it out...
 
W

waktoo

Well-Known Member
Voltage out of any wall socket varies slightly dependent on how much power is being drawn from the "grid" at any point in time.

If the plug connected to the ballast fits into the wall socket, you're good to go. To my understanding, most countries outside the USA operate on 240 volt systems. Based upon your ballast rating, your 20A circuit needs to be 240V, not 120V.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
if it's a 110-120 circuit, you can run 1 1k light on it, and a few smaller things like fans, if it's a 220-240 circuit, you can run several 1k lights on it, like 6 or 7 with no problem, but either way, you shouldn't need any kind of outside regulator, should all be built in
 
Xcoregamerskillz

Xcoregamerskillz

Well-Known Member
1 get a meter and test your voltage. 240v is your nominal voltage. It's probably fine, but any sparky worth their salt will tell you to check voltage anyway. Next, verify you're within ±10/15VAC of that voltage. Ohms law states W=V*A, so a 1kw light will pull 4.16666A on 240 (1,000÷250).

ALSO, MAKE SURE you're using something for your rated frequency. AFIAK parts of Europe is 50hz, and I have no clue what South Africa uses. A quick internet search should tell you what you're using, as I don't think any cheap testing equipment will give you that info.

Hope that helps. PM me if you have any other questions.
 
S. African grower

S. African grower

Well-Known Member
Xcoregamerskillz said:
1 get a meter and test your voltage. 240v is your nominal voltage. It's probably fine, but any sparky worth their salt will tell you to check voltage anyway. Next, verify you're within ±10/15VAC of that voltage. Ohms law states W=V*A, so a 1kw light will pull 4.16666A on 240 (1,000÷250).

ALSO, MAKE SURE you're using something for your rated frequency. AFIAK parts of Europe is 50hz, and I have no clue what South Africa uses. A quick internet search should tell you what you're using, as I don't think any cheap testing equipment will give you that info.

Hope that helps. PM me if you have any other questions.
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I will message you when I get some free time.i hate that I cannot give this my full attention atm.. I will test the power tomorrow and get back to you guys.. Thanks for the help so far
 
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