the same old question

Okay, I know that this same question has been asked a million times but i just cant seem to find an answer that im entirely happy with. I have a 400w metal halide fitting, today i bought a 400w hps bulb, i asked the guy at the shop if it would be okay to using with my ballast, he said if the hps bulb didnt fire up then it wouldnt work but if it did it would be fine to use with the mh ballast. I think its a pulse start ballast, if that changes anything. Another thing i wouldnt mind knowing just to kill my curiousity, doesnt a hsp ballast have an extra part that it allows the hp bulb to fire up, if so how does the bulb i bought work, because when i turned it on it worked just fine, had it on for about 4 hours and didnt have a problem with it. Am I right in thinking that if it fired up and works fine and the ballast and the bulb are both 400w then i should be pretty safe?

if you want to use the same ballast for both bulbs, you should get should get a digital ballast. i think you will shorten the life of your bulb and ballast at this rate. is this the same response you have been getting?

also cmh works in hps ballast

just get a interchangable bulb

I live in a place where if you had to ask the guy behind the counter for a conversion bulb he'd look at you as if you were an alien just crash landed and needed a new part for your space ship. And also getting a ballast, just a plain set up ballasts is a bit of a hack also aaround these parts. I know that its not the best idea in the world to use a hps bulb in a mh ballast but it works, its been on for the whole day and its all good. All i want to know is am i going to kill myself by using this bulb in this lamp, surely if theyre both 400w and it works then it cant be such a bad thing to combine the 2. I dont know how true this is but the guy in the shop told me that the new ballast are being made to run both types of globes?

You can use a MH bulb in a HPS ballast but you will need to wire in an ignitor.

Its a hps bulb in a mh ballast. its going well to be honest, think i might just ride this one out and see what happens. Whats the worst that can happen, well i suppose your house could burn down but at least you would have learned a very well taught lesson about life. Shit can happen and dont fuck around.