Light Test

[alton]

Ok I am not an expert but I am starting to see a trend. People are going out and buying old metal halide ballast and installing new lamps and thinking they are getting great light because they now have MH. When they could of received the same results with compact fluorescents. Example when I measured the foot candles of Gary’s 125g which is equipped with XM 10k lamps and 250 watt ballast I read 2,250 ft. candles at the water and 75 at the bottom of the tank. I have been to several other tanks and with the same wattage lamps and read 900 to 1100 ft. candles and at a depth of 22” of water, and at the bottom of the tank the reading was 6 ft. candles. I took a new 15 k lamp that was installed in an old ballast, and it read around 1,000 ft. candles. I then took the same lamp and installed it on a fixture that had a fairly new ballast and it read 2,200 ft. candles. To compare; a new power quad compact 50/50 fluorescent 96 watt has 1,700 ft. candles, 96 watt 10k CF has 1,500, and 65w 10k CF has around 1,300. As you can see by this simple test MH with new lamps and ballast is far superior to compact fluorescent but it changes if the ballast is old and worn out. And remember that a worn out ballast uses more energy then a new one. Retail stores are starting to learn that they can replace old lamps and ballast with new, and in a short few years they will pay for themselves in energy savings. And by the way I received my latest electric bill from CPS. The consumption was up slightly but the surcharges doubled and where around a $100!

[brewercm]

Are you talking about elect MH ballast or magnetic? Just wondering if there was a comparison of each etc.

[alton]

Magnetic. Electronic are new to the industry. We are replacing 1000w MH in gyms around the city with 400w with electronic ballast and are having great success. I will be going to Holmes practice gym this week to look at the foot candles from lights we installed two years ago and compare it to the levels we had then. What is nice about electronic is very little heat verses a lot of heat from magnetic.

[jaded]

good question brewercm... I know there are big differences between mag and ele with a new bulb but I didn't really consider that a ballast could actually die a slow death. After reading this post my assumption is that mag ballasts are more likely to degrade over time since they basically overrun the bulb which causes high heat. Not to mention that they are a fairly unsophisticated devices, but I have no data to support that claim. I also would like to know if it is also true with ele ballasts

keep up the good work alton, Im watching :)

[::pete::]

Yea and thats the guru of lighting and runs halides for 2 years. ;)

[bprewit]

The magnetic ballasts usually have caps that start to go bad causing reduced output. The transformer dosent break down easily but saltwater mist does cause corrosion of connections especially when wire nuts are used. I installed a new magnetic ballast and light on my tank and noticed the other light looked much dimmer so by cleaning the connections and replacing the capacitor I got it back to normal.

[alton]

I returned from the gym and in three years lighting the levels from the electronic ballast have been reduced by 20%. In comparing that to the Pulse Start fixtures in the gym next door the Electronic ballast fixtures were 20% brighter across the board both today and three years ago. The lamps in both gyms are still nice and white. Yellowing is a trade mark of magnetic ballast as they get older. The ballast where quiet which is a large problem with magnetic ballast when they get old. On another note I went by one of my favorite fish stores yesterday and took a reading on one of there tanks with (4) 400 watt doubled ended metal halide fixtures. At the top of the water over 5,000 foot candles and at the bottom in some places just below 100 ft. candles. Light meters run around $100 and I think maybe a good investment for MAAST. The members could leave a deposit and borrow them for a day to check the quality of there lights and also move corals around into the brighter areas. Remember magnetic ballast replacement kits are not that expensive to purchase and I think are well worth the cost in energy savings. I hope this article doesn’t make the magnetic ballast guys mad. I didn’t write it to down the standard, it’s just I am in favor of new technology. Remember the old days of tar ballast for fluorescent and HO lights. My industry fought changing to electronic back then too.