MH HQI watts

[kkutac001]

I had a quick question about MH ballasts and bulbs. Say you have a 250W ballast for a DE HQI fixture. Can I put in lower-wattage DE HQI bulbs, up to 250W? For instance, a 150W DE HQI bulb?
Like when you have a reading lamp: you can use 20W, 40W, 60W, even 75W in it. Is the same true of DE HQI sockets? TIA, Karl

[Louis]

Unfortunately that only works for flourescent ballasts. Although there is one ballast that comes to mind that will fire a 150w or 175w metal halide.

HTH,
Louis

[caferacermike]

And the sockets are different.