ballast heat vs bulb heat

Hello all, just had my 1k sodium start cycling on me so i went and brought a couple of 600s with mag ballasts, my question is this, my 1k ballast was digital , it didn't chuck out too much heat but always posed a challenge when keeping my space cool, i now have the 2 magnetic 600s and i swear the tent is cooool now but i've had to move the ballasts to the next room because they real hottt.
Is this normal ? do the digital ballasts create more heat from the bulb ?
any help would be great.
thx G

Son of a collier said:

Hello all, just had my 1k sodium start cycling on me so i went and brought a couple of 600s with mag ballasts, my question is this, my 1k ballast was digital , it didn't chuck out too much heat but always posed a challenge when keeping my space cool, i now have the 2 magnetic 600s and i swear the tent is cooool now but i've had to move the ballasts to the next room because they real hottt.
Is this normal ? do the digital ballasts create more heat from the bulb ?
any help would be great.
thx G

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Magnetic ballasts are hotter than digital ballasts because they are less efficient and because a digital ballast is more efficient, it will divert more energy to the bulb therefore making the bulb brighter but this also causes more heat at the bulb.

Digital ballasts have reduced flicker so maybe that makes the bulb hotter. With mag ballasts the bulbs are flickering on and off with the alternating current. Anyway, whether that's the reason or not, you may have found a good reason to use mags instead of digitals, in addition to less radio interference. But they're hot and noisy so you do have to put them somewhere appropriate. Just have to keep the cable fairly short and heavy gauge to avoid voltage drop.

Ah i see, thanks for the guidance i thought maybe it was an efficiency issue, i suppose my haggard old 1k bulb wouldn't have helped heat wise, i'm glad it worked in my favour because its been 90 degrees here so i have been struggling to keep my temps down, @BobCajun i have used 30amp electric cooker type twin and earth do you recon it'll allow me say 3 or 4 meters without resistance being an problem ?

Son of a collier said:

Ah i see, thanks for the guidance i thought maybe it was an efficiency issue, i suppose my haggard old 1k bulb wouldn't have helped heat wise, i'm glad it worked in my favour because its been 90 degrees here so i have been struggling to keep my temps down, @BobCajun i have used 30amp electric cooker type twin and earth do you recon it'll allow me say 3 or 4 meters without resistance being an problem ?

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Yeah I'm sure 3-4 meters is fine for that gauge. 600w bulbs are more efficient than 1000s too so that may be part of it. The 600s are the most efficient wattage available, for some reason. So I would always go with two 600s rather than a 1000. In a 4x4 that gives you a full 75w sq/ft, pretty much optimal. Why anyone ever used 1000s I don't know, other than cheaping out on reflectors. Obviously two 600s would spread the light more evenly too.

One thing you get with magnetics is longevity. For the ballasts and the bulbs. I've got some old 400s that are at least 30 and a 1000W MH thats 20 or so. Bought a 400W EYE Hortilux conversion bulb to get MH light from a HPS ballast in 2001 and it's running right now after 16 years of almost constant use. Looks like a dead bulb but fires up every time and the plants seem to like it fine. I bought a another Hortilux conversion bulb almost a year ago to get HPS light off my 1000W MH and hope it lasts a few years as it was $170.

My little air pump makes more noise than any of my ballasts and if they are noisy that can be easily fixed. Looking to get two 600s for just the reasons @BobCajun states above. 20% more power used for 50%+ more usable light and a better spread. I use open reflectors and they are cheap enough.