A grower emailed us and asked, "So what's the deal with
ballasts?" Though it sounded a little bit like the beginning of a bad Seinfeld joke, it's actually a pretty important question to ask. With indoor growing booming all over the place these days we think it's important to head back to the basics and go over what a
grow room ballast are is what it actually does.
What Ballasts Do to Make Light
Most people know that without a ballast a light won't fire, but they're not exactly sure what that means. To understand what a ballast does, it's important to know how a bulb works. (Photo: Pinterest)
Grow light bulbs use essentially two components to give you light: an
electrical arc and
gas (usually in a solid state like sodium). The bulb gets enough voltage to start that electrical arc in order to melt the solid into a gas. However, once that solid turns to gas the bulb doesn't need as much electricity to keep itself lit. In that case, you need to back off the electricity that the bulb's getting- that's what your ballast does.
Ballasts are what help regulate the electrical arc in a bulb so that it doesn't blow. A ballast regulates how much electricity your bulb gets so that it can operate the way it needs to. If you didn't have a ballast you'd either give your bulb too much electricity and blow it, or it wouldn't be strong enough to turn that solid material into gas that'll give you light. What sets one ballast apart from another is its ability to provide and regulate the electricity your bulbs need, so be sure to look into reviews to make sure you can give your bulbs the power they need to run the way you need them.
How Ballasts Get Energy to Your Bulb
There are basically two types of ballasts:
magnetic ballasts and
electronic ballasts. As we mentioned before, ballasts help give and regulate the voltage needed for the electrical arc that makes your bulbs shine. However, these two types of ballasts achieve this very differently:
Magnetic Ballasts- The problem with
magnetic ballasts- and a huge reason they’re being phased out- is because of the heat they generate. Magnetic ballasts are made up of a series of copper coils wrapped around iron (or other metal-based) connectors. When it’s plugged in, the ballast will send energy through those coils to give you the electricity your bulb needs. All of those components will heat up, and they need lots of constant
cooling to keep your
lights, plants, and grow room safe from heat and fire damage. That’s where electronic ballasts come in.
Electronic (Digital) Ballasts- Instead of coils and metal bases,
electronic (aka digital) ballasts use a series of microchips, semiconductors, and electronic components to create and regulate that voltage. These components get hot, too, but because of their small size and design, most- if not all- electronic ballasts have internal fans to keep them cool when operating (just like a computer).
"Can I use my regular ballast with a ceramic-based bulb?"
Joshua Tinkham asked us, “will the new CHPS from
Hortilux... run on my digital ballast or a cheap magnetic hps?” This is a great question because lots of growers ask whether one type of light- say, a
CMH or CHPS light- will work with another type of ballast- say, a ballast used with
standard HID or
double ended HID's. The short answer:
yes you can, but here's the thing about ceramic bulbs: The
ceramic-based lights we've seen are either
315w, 630w, and 945w's, which are tricky to pair up with a ballast that's not made specifically for one of those wattages.
Ceramic lights sit right outside standard grow light wattages, which makes finding a ballast a little hard. Give that bulb too much power and it'll blow, don't give it enough and it may not fire- see how a 400w ballast may not be compatible w/ a
315w bulb, or how a 600w ballast may not give a 630w bulb all it needs? That said if the ceramic HPS bulb you're interested matches the wattage of the ballast you're using there shouldn't be a problem. For example, if you have a 600w electronic ballast (dimmable or otherwise), you shouldn't have a problem using it with your CHPS bulb. However, if you have a
630w CHPS/CMH bulb and a 600w ballast there's a good chance that the bulb will either not work or it will perform poorly. As long as you're not over- or under-powering your bulb you'll be fine. We would, however, suggest going with a digital ballast over a magnetic ballast for that CHPS bulb.
A grower emailed us and asked, "So what's the deal with ballasts?" Though it sounded a little bit like the beginning of a bad Seinfeld joke, it's a pretty important question to ask. With indoor growing booming all over the place these days we think it's important to head back to the basics and go over what a grow room ballast are is what it does.
What Ballasts Do to Make Light
Most people know that without a ballast a light won't fire, but they're not exactly sure what that means. To understand what a ballast does, it's important to know how a bulb works. (Photo: Pinterest) Grow light bulbs use essentially two components to give you light: an electrical arc and gas (usually in a solid state like sodium). The bulb gets enough voltage to start that electrical arc to melt the solid into a gas. However, once that solid turns to gas the bulb doesn't need as much electricity to keep itself lit. In that case, you need to back off the electricity that the bulb's getting- that's what your ballast does.
Ballasts are what help regulate the electrical arc in a bulb so that it doesn't blow. A ballast regulates how much electricity your bulb gets so that it can operate the way it needs to. If you didn't have a ballast you'd either give your bulb too much electricity and blow it, or it wouldn't be strong enough to turn that solid material into gas that'll give you light. What sets one ballast apart from another is its ability to provide and regulate the electricity your bulbs need, so be sure to look into reviews to make sure you can give your bulbs the power they need to run the way you need them.
How Ballasts Get Energy to Your Bulb
There are two types of ballasts: magnetic ballasts and electronic ballasts. As we mentioned before, ballasts help give and regulate the voltage needed for the electrical arc that makes your bulbs shine. However, these two types of ballasts achieve this very differently: Magnetic Ballasts- The problem with magnetic ballasts- and a huge reason they’re being phased out- is because of the heat they generate. Magnetic ballasts are made up of a series of copper coils wrapped around iron (or other metal-based) connectors. When it’s plugged in, the ballast will send energy through those coils to give you the electricity your bulb needs. All of those components will heat up, and they need lots of constant cooling to keep your lights, plants, and grow room safe from heat and fire damage. That’s where electronic ballasts come in. Electronic (Digital) Ballasts- Instead of coils and metal bases, electronic (aka digital) ballasts use a series of microchips, semiconductors, and electronic components to create and regulate that voltage. These components get hot, too, but because of their small size and design, most- if not all- electronic ballasts have internal fans to keep them cool when operating (just like a computer).
"Can I use my regular ballast with a ceramic-based bulb?"
Joshua Tinkham asked us, “will the new CHPS from Hortilux... run on my digital ballast or a cheap magnetic hps?” This is a great question because lots of growers ask whether one type of light- say, a CMH or CHPS light- will work with another type of ballast- say, a ballast used with standard HID or double ended HID's. The short answer: yes you can, but here's the thing about ceramic bulbs: The ceramic-based lights we've seen are either 315w, 630w, and 945w's, which are tricky to pair up with a ballast that's not made specifically for one of those wattages. Ceramic lights sit right outside standard grow light wattages, which makes finding a ballast a little hard. Give that bulb too much power and it'll blow, don't give it enough and it may not fire- see how a 400w ballast may not be compatible w/ a 315w bulb, or how a 600w ballast may not give a 630w bulb all it needs? That said if the ceramic HPS bulb you're interested matches the wattage of the ballast you're using there shouldn't be a problem. For example, if you have a 600w electronic ballast (dimmable or otherwise), you shouldn't have a problem using it with your CHPS bulb. However, if you have a 630w CHPS/CMH bulb and a 600w ballast there's a good chance that the bulb will either not work or it will perform poorly. As long as you're not over- or under-powering your bulb you'll be fine. We would, however, suggest going with a digital ballast over a magnetic ballast for that CHPS bulb.
