Electronic vs Magnetic MH Ballasts

[stevebla]

Electronic vs Magnetic MH Ballasts. My LFS guy who I like says that magnetic ballasts are more reliable and the way to go. I was wondering if energy savings with electronic ballasts make them the way to go???? All opinions welcome as I have to make up my mind soon to get my 100g project going. I am planning on 2 175 w MH

[dakar]

Well, this hasn't come up for a while.... So I'll toss in my nickels worth.

Any reputable manufacturer will publish the efficiency ratings of thier ballasts, even if you have to do some math to sort it out (I have a copy of all of most of the Advance ballast's datasheets and more stored on the board with links from theads around here somewhere).

Magnetics have been around for a VERY long time, and most of them are still in use today! Not so true for most electonic ballasts, although they are getting better every day.

I guess the thing about magnetics that keeps me using them is the price is attractive, you can get a 400w mag. ballast for about $35... and you can do things with them that you can't with electronics... swapping out the capacitor to drive bulbs a little harder... the only difference between an M59 and H33 ballast is the cap, there is a tremendous difference in bulb performance.

Continuing, for the sake of arguement I'll make up some numbers, you'll have to find the real ones for your project, but let's say mags are only 90% efficient, meaning 10% is lost to heat. Most electronic 400w ballasts will run you upwards of $100, let's say they are 92% efficient, with 8 hour photoperiods, how long would it take to recover the initial cost difference?

On the other side of the coin if noise is a concern, most magnetics produce a constant hum or vibration, there are a lot of ways to combat this from shock mounting the coil/core. Unless you can get lucky and can find the ones that come in thier own waterproof/resistant box filled with an epoxy resin. With most electronics this is not an issue, just heat.

I've heard *claims* that electronics can get a longer life than a magnetic , while this *might* be true for some fluorescents, for a HID lamp, probe or pulse start, that would have to be proven to me, by the time the probe has been eroded away enough to be concerned the bulb is generally past it's
useful lifespan for us.

[Reptoreef]

Do your research as to what you intend to have as far as live stock and how much you are willing to spend... IMO, it's a toss up. I personally like both. But find myself favoring HQI magnetic the best... there's really not a bulb it won't fire.

[dakar]

merged the two threads together....