Power Outage on HID bulb?

So I know that mh / hps bulbs are not to be turned off and on quickly. When you turn it off, you should wait at least 15 minutes before turning it back on, or it may not even ignite.

My question is, let's say it is on, and the power goes out for just a few seconds like in a thunderstorm. The bulb will be attempting to turn back on only a few seconds after turning off. SO is this going to be a problem? Will this damage the bulb or more importantly the ballast?

What happens if the bulb does not ignite, will the ballast fueling an unignited bulb be a problem in the sense of causing damage to the ballast or overheating? Also, if the bulb does not ignite at first, but the ballast continues to be on, will the bulb eventually ignite?

I'm just thinking of this because some thunderstorms came through and I was afraid of all this happening!

You need an off delay timer integrated into your lighting controller on the contactor coil circuit. This can keep lights off for a preset interval starting from the time power goes off.

off delay timer, good idea. is that integratable with a simple 120 volt plug & socket? what's going to happen if I don't and the power goes out as stated, what's the worst possible damage?

i know a lot of ballasts have a built in safety feature and they won't turn back on for 15 minutes after they've been turned off.. i'm not sure if they'll all like that or what the deal is..

Unless you have an ancient ballast it will have a delay built in. Interupting the lights on is never really much of a problem.