Electrical question..put on your thinking cap please.

[Ed Hahn]

If I have a ICE Cap 430 ballast, I use two 54 watt T5 bulbs. I was told it will overdrive the bulbs to 80 watts. Now what will the total power consumption be of using this ballast? Will it always remain 430 watts or ETC?

Thanks in Advance,
Ed

 

[liveforphysics]

Energy has to go somewhere Ed. It cant draw 430watts, and can only dump 160 into the bulbs, and just magically dump the remaining 270watts into another dimension or something. When the ballast gets a little warm, it means its dumping maybe 10-30watts into heating the case of the ballast through inevitable inefficiencys in the design of the ballast.

So, to answer your question, if you are pumping 160watts into the bulbs, your ballast isnt going to be pulling more than 200watts, unless its glowing red .

 

[Ed Hahn]

Here is what Ice Cap explained on RC..
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7241309#post7241309