430W HPS in a 400W ballast

I had considered placing an augmented 430W Philips Son Agro bulb in a 400W ballast.

Is this a poor idea? Do I risk a short circuit and/or fire?

Nope. They do work in the 400 W ballasts.

dyzel, thanks for taking the time.

I'm guessing you meant to say, "They don't work in the 400 W ballasts". Correct or not?

Again, thanks.

no, he meant to say, noope, there is nor risk of fire and/or short circuit

IAm5toned said:

no, he meant to say, noope, there is nor risk of fire and/or short circuit

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BINGO! I mince no words!

Go ahead and use it.

Well, I've been told I have a good profile from the left. After my bone-headedness, a man has to have something. O.K., I am clear. It is safe to place a 430W HPS bulb into a fixture controlled by a 400W ballast.

As described in the sentence above, it is not an electrical hazard.

Thanks people.

i have been runnig 430 bulb in 400w ballast fro a while now, no fire yet, or damage to anything. gl

I have a logical idea as to WHY they work in 400 watt ballasts, for example, my Sunlight Supply 400 watt ballast's pamphlet says my 400 watt ballast's pull on juice is 460 watts per hour, so I guess the extra 30 watts from a 430 bulb pulls off of that.

A 400 watt ballast will supply 400 watts to the bulb. a 430 watt bulb is simply capable of handling another 30 watts above that. It simply will not recieve the extra 30 watts it is capable of putting out. It actually means that the 430 watt bulb is overengineered for your ballast and is in fact, a safer bulb.

The statement about a ballast pulling 460 watts is only indicative of the ballast having a slight energy waste which is to be expected, and not that it will supply the extra 30 watts to your bulb. Hope this helps you.

um...they are made for the 400 ballast. is what i sue here. dont waste my time with a mh even.
it gives more lumens and 30% in the blue

the extra wattage, a ballast uses, is from hysteresis....
in other words, power in, shall = power out. always.
if the lamp is drawing 400w, and the ballast/lamp combo draws 460w, the extra 60w is expressed as heat loss, by the ballast.
60w, averages about 205 btu's of heat, generated by the ballast.
keep your ballast cool, and that number goes down, if only slightly. but if your running lots of ballasts, every little bit helps.

its the same reason a 240v ballast is more efficient than 120v... less hysteresis.

hey mr electricion...ive been told that we arent or shouldnt put a fan on the old magnetic type ballast. any truth to this or if so why. we can obvious on the digi as they come with them.

shouldnt???

and why not?


since heat, speeds up the oxidation process (that is the process that ultimatley renders a ballast inoperable... either the heat sink(laminated plates of steel surrounding the mag ballast) rusts away, or the insulation corrodes on the actual conductors, causing a short within the ballast core itself.

heat is the enemy of any electrical device, period.

definalty...i wasnt told why. just not to. and i dont listen to stoner theories. need the facts here....thx

and sorry for the mini jack

The statement about a ballast pulling 460 watts is only indicative of the ballast having a slight energy waste which is to be expected, and not that it will supply the extra 30 watts to your bulb. Hope this helps you.

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myxedup, I'm the mixed-up one here. IAm5stoned, is a 430W bulb in the 400W ballast still augmenting the blue area of the spectrum as it was designed to do? Alternatively, is anything above 400W from the ballast a reflection of its inefficiency i.e. heat, inaccessible to the 430W bulb? Would its spectral map look like a run-of-the-mill 400W HPS bulb?

Sorry to beat a dead horse but I'm genuinely confused. Thank you for the replies. Oh, Medi 1, please mini jack to your heart's content. I'd appreciate a clear answer to your question as well.

well if its not meant to be in a 400 ballast...what one then..its the only one there is. there is no 430 ballast and any other it wont work.,you can run a 1k ballast and use a 400 and a 6090 bulb in 2 rooms or 2 moguls and be ok, watts need to add up for this. and add a relay to use it on 2 diff timers.
i see the blue and red in my 430 here with my digi cam. i need to take many pics to get one with the right colour i matched my white ballance setting with or the colour is off. it flashes back n forth..or pulses red/blue

a 430 is the way to go using a 400 ballast. i dont even use mh bulbs. waste of money to me. i have non of this so called stretch some claim, and my branching is just fine

Actually, Hydrofarm makes a 430W ballast:

http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=3499

Medi 1, you are right. A better question is whether it matters. I haven't seen a well controlled side by side study to see if vegetative growth is enhanced and internodal distance is decreased - more important with some strains than others.