T5 ballast, electrical advise needed.

Hello

I have recently purchased an 8 bulb T5 lighting system. I worry about electrical costs which are quite high here unfortunately, so I have conjured up some thought on removing some bulbs to save electricity on the first few weeks of growth. So my question is, if I remove 6 of the 8 bulbs for the first week, and 4 after that until the plants big enough that it makes sense to use all of the bulbs, would the ballast still use the same amount of electricity? or does it only use the amount it takes to ignite the bulbs which are plugged in? I'd really appreciate a good answer as I don't want to plug the bulbs out and waste electricity needlessly if my idea isn't sensible.

Thank you for any answers in advance.

If youre that worried you should just get a normal desk lamp and single 35w bulb,that way youll know for sure youre not wasting electric.Youd get away with using that for the first couple of weeks at least.Also,it does seem a waste to have those long tubes burning for one plant.
What I do is always grow one extra plant,then when you harvest you can sell that just to cover your electric

lol it only uses what it can. if it took all the juice for 8 bulbs n sent em to just 2 how long you think those bulbs would last? furthermore if you look at the wiring, the bulbs arent hooked together in succession (like christmass lights) they each have their own power cords coming from the little ballast.

dont go buring down your house lol! WHAT IS the wattage on that like 40, 80 watts? cheap dont grow good bud

Every T-5 fixture for more than 4 tubes I have seen have more than 1 on/off switch for controlling the amount of light and the number of tubes in use. My 6-tube fixture has 2 switches. One controls 2 tubes and the second one controls the other 4 tubes. Yours must be a cheap one if all tubes turn on or off with one switch.

As these guys say...average T5 is 54 watts (4ft) from memory, that means the tube is burning 54 watts per hour, but too start that tube the initial charge on the ballast may be as high as 250 watts plusgoogle for the actual charge rate) to explode the Phosphor then settles down to consume 54 watts per hour, many many ways to squeeze out even more lumens, like paint the top most side of the tube in flat white paint to reflect light down, doubling up on ballasts to use 2x 53 watt ballasts on 1x tube, but yeah save money and use just one CFL at the start!

ProPheT 216 said:

dont go buring down your house lol! WHAT IS the wattage on that like 40, 80 watts? cheap dont grow good bud

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432 watts to be exact, 4ft, 8 tube. And it wasn't cheap, as you stated in one of your comments, it was more expensive than the HPS with digital ballast and reflector that I purchased for the flowering stage. Apparently they're pretty good for vegetative growth, HPS not being so good for veg... I'm just trying to save a little money when possible, by not wasting electricity needlessness, it's only logical.

snoyl said:

If youre that worried you should just get a normal desk lamp and single 35w bulb,that way youll know for sure youre not wasting electric.Youd get away with using that for the first couple of weeks at least.Also,it does seem a waste to have those long tubes burning for one plant.
What I do is always grow one extra plant,then when you harvest you can sell that just to cover your electric

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One plant? I don't think I specified how many plants I was planning on growing before.

I planned on setting the plants in one horizontal line with just 2 bulbs on for the first while, and gradually space them out and put more bulbs in. I don't know... just seemed kind of logical rather than using the full power and wasting electricity fro the get-go.

mtgeezer said:

Every T-5 fixture for more than 4 tubes I have seen have more than 1 on/off switch for controlling the amount of light and the number of tubes in use. My 6-tube fixture has 2 switches. One controls 2 tubes and the second one controls the other 4 tubes. Yours must be a cheap one if all tubes turn on or off with one switch.

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I haven't received it yet, only purchased it recently, in images it has two switches, but the site claims it has the capability to run 4 or 8 bulbs.

Not sure about the 8 tube fixture but my 4 tube has 2 ballast (1 for 2 tubes). If i pull a tube from one ballast the other tube shuts down. I could if wanted run two tubes. How many ballasts? You could add a toggle switch to turn off a ballast or two.or just pull tubes. The others wont blow up lol.

Opps didnt see your last post! Just pull a tube and see if only two light up, like I said it wont blow up. That would be kinda dangerous if a tube quit lol.

Wow, really it is not that hard. Don't use an 8tube if you want to save money and you are only growing one plant, and eight tube will get me 8 plants into 3 ft monsters in 4 weeks. If you want to save money look at some of the newest digitals. They put out twice the lumens at less power or amp draw. That 8 tube is 5.5 or higher amp draw. My 4 tube draws 2.75 running, firing even higher and it gives me 6 3x3 monsters every 4-6 weeks. A 400 watt digital turned down to 200 with a 400 watt bulb will give around 20000 lumens, now compare that to the T5. Look at amp draw and lumens and you will get the knowledge you need to make the best choice. I am switching to 600 or 400 watt digi to get growth speed rolling. I got my 4 lamp dirt cheap so I couldn't pass it up and it came with bulbs for 40.00. It was a demo and it fucking works, it has the vents, and a reflector that is as efficient as Mylar. Other wise I would have bought a lamp and ballast. There is a new digital 400 that I can't remember the name of that is supposed to run lower than 4 amps any how that will blast my monsters in out in half the time because of the massive amount of lumens for the same amp draw I have now. Using 250 watt bulb and turning the ballast down to 200 or using the 400 watt bulb I win either way. The initial expense is the bitch. I need a hood and ballast. The hood I found used for 60.00 so with the ballast I spend about 260.00 and get twice the light for the same price of power I am using now. All I need for air movement is a booster fan that I already have that eats 1 amp on low speed with a controller. And by the way those T5's put out the heat! mine is used for heat in the winter. My grow area is well insulated so I use the lamp heat to my advantage. That T5 makes my swamp cooler run a little longer to get the heat out. Before that lamp-heater my thermostat would kick the cooler off in five minutes, now 8. More heat and it is costing me time. Just some stuff to get your thoughts going. L8R

I used to pull those bulbs out , I decided to just sell those units and buy a bunch or 2 bulb fixtures. who knows if those ballasts are pulling juice im sure they are pulling some , check this web site out electric costs . http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/electricity-calculator.htm and if your stressed about a 40 to 60 dollar extra a month you should not grow indoors lol .

newbieIRISH said:

Hello

I have recently purchased an 8 bulb T5 lighting system. I worry about electrical costs which are quite high here unfortunately, so I have conjured up some thought on removing some bulbs to save electricity on the first few weeks of growth. So my question is, if I remove 6 of the 8 bulbs for the first week, and 4 after that until the plants big enough that it makes sense to use all of the bulbs, would the ballast still use the same amount of electricity? or does it only use the amount it takes to ignite the bulbs which are plugged in? I'd really appreciate a good answer as I don't want to plug the bulbs out and waste electricity needlessly if my idea isn't sensible.

Thank you for any answers in advance.

Click to expand...

Hi! Yes, just disconect the tubes you dont need at any given time, thats how I run my T5 lights. Ive made 156W a lighting system with two ecg ballast each runing two 39W HO tubes. I intially made it for propagating seedlings and clones for my guerilla gardens, but use it during the ofseason time for entire grows (flowering and all) in my micro closet setup, as ive discovered that the results are far from bad.

So in the inital stages, when the plants are smaller I run just two tubes, havent built a switch in there jet so I just turn the other two tubes in their fixtures so they loose contact and shut off, I dont even remove them. The ballast doesent get hot so its safe to say it isnt consuming power. When I need to I just trun the tubes back so that they have contact and then the whole system is running.

So yeah, you got the right idea. Cheers.