Leaving ballast plugged in

Good morning gents im a noob. Howerver today is not a good day as most are. The other evening/early morning (where the problem begins). I was reading here or over on GC, that it is costs less electricity to keep the ballast plugged in as opposed to turning it off. Because all of the energy is generated when the ballast is firing up. I thought it was freaking stupid when I read it, but hey Im all about lowering costs. Anyways, I decide to leave my 600w magnetic ballast on for 1 24-hour span. I unplugged the light cord but left the ballast plugged into the surge protector. Last night I try to plug the lamp back on NO LIGHT. This absolutely sucks, because I am in the flowering cycle, and light outages are no biggie. I know I read this thread somewhere, and of course now I can't find it. Can some1 verify this theory or at least that the thread exists, so I don't go crazy.

On the way to the Hydro store right now to see if its my ballast, I hate reading random info on the internet, was working just fine unplugging it and plugging it back in every 12 hours. But NOOOOOOOOOOO I had to try and go get fu**ing fancy. SIGGGGH.

jesus. could you maybe explain what your asking here?

your paragraph is all over the freaking place.. sheesh.

you say that you have no light, your in the flowering stage, but right after you say that (which I would think is a fairly big problem.. ya dig? I mean shit you gotta have light) you then say "and light outages are no biggie."

That makes absolutely no sense.

maybe there's a reset switch on the ballast box? or perhaps on the surge protector?!?! just a guess.

and as for whatever your talking about reading.. I have no idea what your talking about.

good luck.. maybe someone else around here can help ya. But I can't even understand what your saying.

peace.

Some times it takes ballsests time to reset cool down switch inside the ballest. You should of waited until it becomes cool to the touch. maybe an hour or so. Thats what happend with my 400 watt the lights in this town went out due to bad weather.

Sorry i'm pissed so maybe I was not clear.

1.I have a 600w HPS bulb (1 1/2 months old) Ballast. (couple years old)
2. I read on one of these forums that you should leave your ballast plugged in because it takes more power to start up than to continously run, which I thought was cool, I could save on some power costs, ya dig?
3. I have a mogul socket w/ my 600w hanging over the plants.

New paragraph.

1. I left my ballast plugged in for 24 hours, usually only runs for 12/12, but I wanted to try the continously running idea out,
2. Plug the lamp cord back into ballast after said 24 hours, and the light doesn't come on.

What i am asking is.....
Should I have left my magnetic ballast running for a 24 hour period, or is that bs??? Maybe the thread i read pertains to digital ballasts??? Is it the bulb or the ballast??? Could my ballast have overheated??? Does the ballast need to cool down?? I can answer that one for myself, I unplugged it at 11:00pm tried to run it again at 9:00 am, no light.

However, the ballast does still hum...

At least tell me that somewhere some1 has read "it is cheaper to keep your ballast plugged in, than to unplug it and plug it back in bcuz most of the energy is consumed during the "start up " cycle. I read it over and over. I know because I don't just go around making random adjustments all the time, I thought it was a valid point.

The only thing I know along those lines is that with floro's, it may be better to leave them on instead of on-off-on-off-on-off throughout the day because of the higher startup currents. This is when operating a light with a floro instead of an incandescent. However, floro's are very low wattage, so the startup/operation ratio might warrant leaving them on. Please find out where you read this. I'm curious. If there was something to this all streetlights would be wired to take advantage of this, but they are wired so the primary power is removed via the photo sensor, not the wiring leading to the bulb.

Second, the HPS bulb requires a spike (ignition) voltage to fire so when you plugged the cable in, there was no ignitor voltage. I do not know if this will pop your bulb but I would hold it suspect. Can you run your setup to a hydro store? They can isolate the problem I'm sure. If not the bulb, the ignitor, especially if you hear hummmmmm

No man, I think you got some bad info, and I think dangerous info.

Edit: Is see you are going to the hydro store!! Let us know!!

Its not true about floros Mythbusters busted that myth...is only makes a diff if you leave the room for a matter of seconds then come back without turning off the lights.

turn off your ballast.. it needs the start up cycle to fire your bulb.. hot starts ring a bell? i believe its a kin to why titan sells the 90 ssec delay starts for power flash outs.. turn the ballast off, wait ten min, plug in the bulb, and then restart your ballast. and you might have burnt your bulb by letting it cook on an already charged ballast..

just MHO and it could be totally off base..

khm916 said:

Its not true about floros Mythbusters busted that myth...is only makes a diff if you leave the room for a matter of seconds then come back without turning off the lights.

Click to expand...

I think you are saying the startup energy is only that of a few seconds that the light is on? I have seen some research where if someone was to turn off a BIG bank of floro's, giving time for the gases to cool, than turn on again, the startup currents would exceed the operational energy consumption have they left the floro's on . Maybe I read this from the same place the OP did !!

Thanks for all the help first of all guys. Took it to the hydro store, starter/ignitor on the ballast is bad. Store purchased ballast so they fixed it in about 20 min for free. I usually unplug my ballast every night, but I will look into getting some timers. Thanks for the prompt responses. It sucked bcuz my ladies sat in the close last night with the closet light and bathroom light on and open closet. I know it wasn't sufficient light, but I wanted to get them something. I hope they don't hermie.

Yeah I got some bad info, was a late night. The most frustating thing is I can't find it now.... It's fixed now tho, thanks once again.