hey you geeky electrical types.. what happens when.... (1 Viewer)

[darrin]

what would happen if you took a 175watt bulb and run it off of a ballast intended for a 400 watt bulb?

 

[Trey]

For MH that would not be a good idea. I just went through a similar discussion with a contact at PFO. You would overdrive the bulb and risk it exploding.

Trey

 

[Wildfire]

With the BASIC understanding that I have, here is what I've got:

Lamp luminescence is caused by the resistance of the wire filament (for incandescnant bulbs) or the amount of energy excitiation in a stable gas (flourescent bulbs). MH / SH lights work off of GENERALLY the same principle, so if a ballast is meant to puch enough power to light up a 400 bulb, and you put a 175 W bulb into it's path, I would expect that the 175 W bulb would (quite literally) burst into flame......

 

[bigbird123]

not a geeky type

You are correct in that analogy. I couldn't have explained it better---no really. If us country people start using big words like that, we won't be able to get govt. assistance anymore.

Wildfire is right though. The 400 ballast could send enough current to burst the bulb and also charge enough ions in the process to send an electric charge into the tank if close enough to it. That is is why in all construction projects it is manditory for all electric boxes (control panels) to have at least a three foot passage around it, so any charge won't jump that far.


Steve

 

[Guest]

Darrin, speaking from recent experience(Friday), I accidentally put a 250w bulb in a 400w fixture. It worked fine for one day. The next morning when the lights turned on the bulb shattered.

 

[Cakepro]

Since you electical geeks have congregated here, I have a question.

A mogul socket is a mogul socket is a mogul socket, right? The reason I ask is that I have a dual 175 watt Hamilton retro I'm swapping for a dual 250 watt PFO ballast, etc. I would like to be able to screw the 250 watt bulbs in the existing sockets in my canopy and just plug the sockets' wires into the PFO ballast but the plugs are very different. The Hamilton has a weird 3-prong plug and the PFO has a long white serial-port-looking plug (without all the little needles).

Haha, how do you like those technical terms?

 

[texasreefer]

The sockets are the same. You will just need to change the ends to plug it into your ballast.

 

[Cakepro]

Change the ends? Don't they make adaptors or converters or something?

 

[texasreefer]

You could try and see if PFO makes a adapter to adapt to the Hamilton wiring. I think both companies use the different ends so they will only work w/ their ballasts to try and make you buy repalcement parts from them. Personnally I just buy bare ballasts and make my own disconnects from old extension cords. I used a trailer plug the other day to make a disconnect for a VHO system. If you need help changing it out let me know.

 

[AggieBrandon]

haha another country boy on the site....I will not disclose any of my wiring creations...most are non reef related though...

Brandon

 

[texasreefer]

Normally I can get pretty creative w/ wiring but people tend to get nervous when I do. I used to keep a suicide cord in my toolbox to use whenever I needed to check something right fast and didn't have the right plug. For some reason people used to get nervous whenever I used it w/ 480V. Though w/ the 480V normally I would open the box and screw it to the terminals, if it was 110 or 220 I would just twist the wires and stick them into the outlet.

 

[pernelf]

After reading some or most of your posts Jeff, I am still utterly amazed you are still breathing

 

[texasreefer]

I am still utterly amazed you are still breathing

Most people say that. My uncle wanted to take life insurance out on me.

 

[bigbird123]

wiring

I don't know what yall have to worry about, I yousta youse my too kids as jumper cables until one of 'em grew and they didn't reach the same distance anymore. We use to wet'em down and flip a coin to see which one got to be the ground.

LOL!!!

I guess now Sherri's spell checker is going wild...LOL!!!

Sorry Sherri, I just had to say that.

Steve

 

[Guest]

Re: wiring

Sorry Sherri, I just had to say that.

I am sure she is deeply offended.

 

[Cakepro]

All I really care about is that you spell my name correctly.

~ Sherri