Emergency help please11

I bought a 600watt cooltube and ballast today. the bulb i bought doesnt work, but the 400 bulb i have does, after a lot of trial and error i found that this was the problem and not any of the equipment. my question is, hhow long can i run the 400w bulb in a 600w ballast for if i ran the ballast on 50%

im thinking i shouldnt do it, but does anyone know if its safe for 10 hours till i can go back to the store?

No worries as it is done all the time by my good friends and myself in the summer time . We run almost all of our lights like this due to high heat and Michigan humidity .. Once summer is over the 400s are packed away for one more summer run if used one season ..

lesser watt bulb in higher ballast works.

BarnBuster said:

lesser watt bulb in higher ballast works.

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That's cool. I didn't know that.

i appreciate the quick response everyone!
i dont know why i didnt think of it before, but i decided to just hook up the 400w ballast since the 400w bulb was already in there lol. tomorrow ill stop by the hydro shop, switch the bulb and change the ballast after all is said and done. right now with the new venting and the 400w running, temps arent even hitting 70 lol. its only 32 cubic feet so temps werent my friend for a while. now that ive got a stronger fan pulling air out and pushing air in, temps arent an issue. all this started cause i could smell these girls so much i needed a filter. once i knew i needed a filter i knew i would obviously need venting and a fan. to make everything easier i figured i may as well get a cooltube and have everything inline. when i knew that, i figured i may as well get a stronger light.. $1,000 and 2 frustrating hours of problems later, i wish id have just done all this from the start or left things as they were lol

Blowin' Smoke said:

That's cool. I didn't know that.

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Yeah. I believe it even works the other way. Couple of posts in RIU about folks using higher W bulbs in lower W ballasts and not having any problems but it's anecdotal IMO.

Never overdrive your bulbs (think glass grenade)!!! underdriving them is way safer, but will decrease bulb life........only works with hps though, mh won't fire.

Always match the same bulb/ballast for worry free growing.....not worth it