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OfflineMud
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Registered: 10/03/09
Posts: 41
Last seen: 9 years, 5 months
overdriven ballast
    #299134 - 10/17/09 01:36 PM (14 years, 5 months ago)

Hey peoples first post here but I have been stalking this forum and think its the cats pj's!

I ran across this while looking up stuff on the LOA 65w and did not find info on overdriven ballasts in this site search, hope it helps someone.

http://www.geocities.com/overdrive_lights/

"The light is a Home Depot "Commercial Electric" Shop Light which uses an electronic ballast - a Sunpark SL15. The fixture sells for only$6.49 at the local Home Depots. Electronic fluorescent ballasts have become recently popular and can drive lamps more efficiently and ata higher frequency, which eliminates hum. Electronic ballasts are designed to power the newer and more efficient T8 bulbs on the market,but can also operate the old standard T12 bulbs. (T12 = 12/8 inch diameter, T8 = 8/8 inch diameter). Side by side, 32w T8 bulbs in thiselectronic ballast fixture are brighter that 40w T12 bulbs in a magnetic ballast fixture. That is just the start. Although I bought and playedaround with many types of electronic ballasts (32w, 59w, 110w, HO, etc) I ended up buying many of the Home Depot fixtures after findingout what I could power with them, mainly by "overdriving".

Overdriving (which requires a ballast that drives 2 or more lights) involves disconnecting the wires from both ends of one lamp's socket,and join them to the wires of the the other lamp. This results in a 32w lamp being driven to output approximately 1.7 times as much light as normally produced. This will reduce the life of the lamp, somewhat, but in the overall picture it is very economical to replace a 32w bulb -even twice as often. With fluorescent lights, over 95% of the total cost of using the bulb is the electricity, since the bulbs last so long to begin with. I used both a current meter and a light meter to compare my results. The 1.7 times figure was verified by another experimenter I read and your own eyes can DEFINITELY see the difference."

Mud

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Invisiblemhbound
Ballin out at all cost
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Registered: 09/22/08
Posts: 8,144
Loc: High Flag
Re: overdriven ballast [Re: Mud]
    #299231 - 10/17/09 03:18 PM (14 years, 5 months ago)

Not a good idea unless you are a licensed electrician...Not only that I doubt it will work.


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Suck my balls America

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InvisibleDrGreenThumb
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Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 487
Loc: Phish Tour Flag
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Re: overdriven ballast [Re: mhbound]
    #303495 - 10/25/09 07:39 AM (14 years, 5 months ago)

Eh... don't mean 2 burst your bubble mhbound, but I HAVE followed the link so generously provided by Mud and throughly researched this topic further. I think it's a GREAT idea as a cheap alternative to overpriced T-5 setups that run too hot (which I was considering for a veg room before reading this). I WILL try this out right away, take lots of pics, and build a tek as soon as I get a working fixture.


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“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” -Dr. Seuss

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OfflineMasterHerbalist
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Registered: 02/18/09
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Re: overdriven ballast [Re: DrGreenThumb]
    #303878 - 10/25/09 11:13 PM (14 years, 5 months ago)

Sounds like it's time to get wiring.

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OfflineMud
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Registered: 10/03/09
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Re: overdriven ballast [Re: MasterHerbalist]
    #303919 - 10/26/09 02:55 AM (14 years, 5 months ago)

I was going to post and ask mhbound if he actually read the post from the link, no disrespect intended I would have said the same thing without reading it. 

I thought about this when I ran across (12)duel ballasted 350w  outdoor light fixtures this weekend for get this.... 30$ a piece with the glass light deflector thing and 15$ without it. These came from a parking lot lighting upgrade I would assume. I found these at the local recycled home improvement place. They also had a metric shit ton of fl fixtures, I found an eight bulb for 6$ and the LOA65w ballast for 5$.

I will get 2 of the duel 350w fixtures this week I am thinking its just to good pass up on.

Mud

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Invisiblemhbound
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Registered: 09/22/08
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Re: overdriven ballast [Re: Mud]
    #303925 - 10/26/09 03:45 AM (14 years, 5 months ago)

I did and have seen it before I am just VERY careful with electricity...I didn't mean that it wouldn't work really but that it would be hard to get to work if at all.

Again, that's why I said I wouldn't try it without some prior knowledge to electricity...I've been electrocuted 3 times and I have no intention of doing it again or burning my home down.


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Suck my balls America

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InvisibleDrGreenThumb
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Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 487
Loc: Phish Tour Flag
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Re: overdriven ballast [Re: mhbound]
    #303942 - 10/26/09 06:23 AM (14 years, 5 months ago)

Your concerns are very understandable mh. I feel that the Growery is behind the curve when it comes to this topic, and since sooo many people are using flouescents in one way or another it deserves further exploration.
Hey Mud, good to see that you're still with us. I haven't made any contributions to the site lately and since I'm currently jobless for a few weeks I figure "what the hey."
So yesterday I went to WallyWorld since it's like the only store around and not everyone has a HDepot. I checked Lowe's but the commercial ballasts were like $20 as opposed to $10 shoplights at the bigW. So here they are. Hopefully I have some results tonight and can post within the next few days.  :bigblunt:


--------------------
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” -Dr. Seuss

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