Electronic vs magnetic MH ballasts

[Slickdonkey]

Right now I have four cheap magnetic 250W DIY metal halide ballasts (see here). I believe these have the same internals as the PFO ballasts without the pretty enclosure.

I've heard electronic ballasts have some advantages over the magnetic ones. Chief among them is less electricity consumption. Would it be worth my while to swap these out, or are the energy savings and any other benefits not worth it? How much energy savings might I be looking at? With four ballasts even a small savings could pay for the upgrade pretty quickly.

I would appreciate comments from anyone with insight on this, or who have used both magnetic and electronic ballasts.

 

[mattseattle]

Here is a post that Andy @ Icecap made when asked a similiar question:

A conventional MH ballast can use 30 to 50-watts that end up as heat. An efficient electronic ballast will use under 10-watts for a 250-watt application.
Also, the electronic ballast will increase lamp life by more than 25% and it's all done noise free and never a flicker with our MH ballasts.

The math: Between a $1.00 and $1.50 per ballast per month not including the waste heat a conventional ballast puts into the air that may require additional venting or the bulb life $ savings.

 

[mattseattle]

I was kind of shocked that the savings was not quite what I expected.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Right, so assuming he is correct, it looks like it would take a few years to recoup the investment.

 

[Scooterman]

The savings isn't as pretty as it is painted when you break it down & compare usable light vrs the little you save it would take years to make a difference worth looking into. I never seen that flicker with PFO ballast either.

 

[mattseattle]

Right, so assuming he is correct, it looks like it would take a few years to recoup the investment.

yeah, if I were you (which I'm not, of course) I'd stick with what you have. It fires the bulbs you want to use and you are not tight on space for a ballast. I changed over to the icecap electronic ballasts from the pfo hqi ballast due to space savings. Also, I just wanted a new toy!

 

[bc_slc]

The other point is that though the magnetic ballast uses more electricity, they also push the bulbs more. This is a negative in that the bulbs may not live as long, but a plus in that you get more umpfh out of the bulbs.

Mat

 

[Slickdonkey]

Ok, thanks everyone. Looks like no reason to switch other than it's fun to tinker

 

[Maxx]

I've used both Mag and currently use Blueline E-ballasts, (which are really just IceCap's in a pretty blue box with a 5 year warranty as opposed to IceCap's standard three year warranty.)

You're not going to save enough money in terms of electrical usage to justify the change over.

However, there are other things to consider:

If buying for a new system, (as opposed to what you are doing...trading one for the other), keep shipping weight in mind. Magnetic ballasts are heavy, thus cost more to ship. E-ballasts arent heavy and cost ALOT less to ship. Factor that into savings. It cost me $13.00 to ship two ReefOptix 3 reflectors and two Bluewave IV ballasts from New Jersey to St Louis, standard ground transport. I dont know what it would have cost to ship a Magnetic ballast set up that far, but I know it would have cost more than $13.00 in 2003. Try it now and see the cost differences to your area.

I have not weighted the ballasts or the reflectors for precise readings, but by feel, the reflectors weighs slightly more than the ballast.

But in counter point, I dont know anyone who makes dual E-ballasts, so you will need to buy one E-ballast per bulb. So its a little more expensive overall.

Other thing to keep in mind, (the real bonus to E-ballasts in my mind), is that they can be used to run almost any bulb. The only bulb my ballasts wont run is the XM DE bulbs, (oddly enough, labeled XDE's). They really do require a HQI ballast to run. But I can run probe or pulse start bulbs w/o fear causing a fire. The flexability IMO is a huge bonus.

When I bought my set up, I was in a smaller, older apartment with questionable wiring and electrical capability. I wanted to draw as little power on start up as possible to avoid blowing fuzes and breakers when I was out of the house. That in addition to the ability to run almost any bulb combination is what led me to buy the E-ballasts.

Its really all up to you. Determine what suits your needs best, and go from their.

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

Having run the blueline & Ice-cap I can testify to Nick. The only reason why I would spend the extra shipping cost is the actual performance you get out of a PFO when looking at PAR, plain & simple they are hard to beat, big difference using the same lamps & consuming just a little more power. I want more PAR because of what corals & clams I intend on keeping but is it really necessary no I don't think so, also needed to consider other than what your wanting to keep is tank depth & reflectors being used.

 

[Maxx]

Scott,
You're correct. I should have clarified in my previous post....I was referring strictly to comparing 250 watt ballasts. I dont have anyexperiance with 400 watt ballasts in any way, and I dont think anyone is making 400 watt E-ballasts. Champion might be, but I havent seen any real tests of them and how they compare to 400 watt mag ballasts.

Scott,
I'm running dual 250's over my 58 gallon tank. The tank is 21 inches deep and I had to move all my corals down to the bottom of the tank to avoid bleaching when I switched from DE's to SE's a month or two ago. Not quite what I would have expected.

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

I'm running dual 250's over my 58 gallon tank. The tank is 21 inches deep and I had to move all my corals down to the bottom of the tank to avoid bleaching when I switched from DE's to SE's a month or two ago. Not quite what I would have expected.

Nick

Now that is very good to know, what lamps are you using & kelvin?

 

[Scooterman]

http://oceanencounter.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=OE&Product_Code=EVCEB400&Category_Code=EVCEB

EVC 400W

 

[Maxx]

Now that is very good to know, what lamps are you using & kelvin?

Scott,
I went from AB10K DE's to AB10K SE's. Same height above the tank for placement of reflectors, and used the same ballasts.

Nick