How to Use an Industrial Low Bay Light Fixture?

I am glad to see an expirienced person showing how its done. That being said, I read the post talking about someone buying those on ebay for $115. I just bought a 400w hps with remote ballast for $120. If you find a sweet deal on a used light and want to turn it into a remote ballast then go for it. But if you aren't really sure if your doing it right or using the right guage of wire than spend a bit more on something made for what it is being used for. Just to show I support using altered lights I would like to say the 400w MH that I am using is from a construction site I worked on and ended up being made into a remote closet growlight. +rep for making it easy for people to do it right.

Douche Nozzle said:

I am glad to see an expirienced person showing how its done. That being said, I read the post talking about someone buying those on ebay for $115. I just bought a 400w hps with remote ballast for $120. If you find a sweet deal on a used light and want to turn it into a remote ballast then go for it. But if you aren't really sure if your doing it right or using the right guage of wire than spend a bit more on something made for what it is being used for. Just to show I support using altered lights I would like to say the 400w MH that I am using is from a construction site I worked on and ended up being made into a remote closet growlight. +rep for making it easy for people to do it right.

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thanks if you go to ebay and do a search for crescent light fixture you will find this same fixture brand new. check out the price

Great point. I am going to keep an eye on what it sells for. The shipping is decent for it also. $20 insurance included. Great find. I am all about rigging things and being cheap so who knows. Maybe I'll sell my new light and buy 2 of these!

Douche Nozzle said:

Great point. I am going to keep an eye on what it sells for. The shipping is decent for it also. $20 insurance included. Great find. I am all about rigging things and being cheap so who knows. Maybe I'll sell my new light and buy 2 of these!

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if you are interested check out my thread on this light. on thur. morning the light gets relisted at buy it now for 20 bucks.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/158466-do-you-need-400w-hps.html

ive been looking for those lights and i cant find them seems that in these countries they dont sell, so what other should i look for..

oceanhaze said:

ive been looking for those lights and i cant find them seems that in these countries they dont sell, so what other should i look for..

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im really not sure, what country are you looking to make a purchase in?what is your normal voltage you use? i take it then you cant order from e bay without paying international shipping. let me know and ill try and research and see what some options are for you.

Hey smoke. I've had this light up and running for a while now, no problems. My plants are LOVING the 400W. The only issue that I have is that the ballast puts off a nasty smell. I'm not sure if it's the coatings on the coils and what not getting hot for the first time but it seriously smells like BO. I can't quite put my finger on it; maybe BO and rubber. Have you experienced this? Go ahead, give it a good whiff.

Schmarmpit said:

Hey smoke. I've had this light up and running for a while now, no problems. My plants are LOVING the 400W. The only issue that I have is that the ballast puts off a nasty smell. I'm not sure if it's the coatings on the coils and what not getting hot for the first time but it seriously smells like BO. I can't quite put my finger on it; maybe BO and rubber. Have you experienced this? Go ahead, give it a good whiff.

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yes i have had a slight smell on first start up. but i need to know how bad of a smell you are getting.
how long is the cord going from the ballast to the light? what size cord did you use for this? how hot is the ballast. it does get pretty hot, you should be able to keep your hand on it for a little while. feel the ballast, feel the cord that goes to the light. is the smell coming from the ballast, the cord, or from inside the grow?
is the cord and connection at the light to close to the bulb?
if you cant determine anything, shut it down immediatly and take your ballast apart again and recheck all connections and inspect for anyting getting hot.

what is the bulb you have in it?

remeber you need to use at least #12 wire to go from the ballast to the bulb and keep it about 15 feet long or shorter.

well an update to keep everyone up to date. i have been working with Schmarmpit on his lighting issue using private messages. we will continue the troubleshooting later today. we are thinking a pinched wire inside the ballast. we will post the findings once the problem is resolved.
at this time i just put another brand new light together and made it remote with a 15 foot #12 wire cord. and i am going to run it for awhile and check it out.

also you cant put the ballast in closed ceilings or walls, in dead air space, buried or boxed in. all this is saying you have to let some air get to it and somewhere for the heat to go. you cant take the ballast and put it in a box or cupboard and close it up. if you need to close it up then you must leve at least 4 or 5 inches of space all the way around the ballast and provide ventilation to keep it cool.

i took a new genlyte fixture and ran it for 10 hours and really not much of a smell unless i put my nose right up against the ballast. smells normal just the warmth of the varnish coating on the transformer plates. my ballast really didnt get that hot due to its pretty cold in the op. with the thermal heat gun the hottest part on the ballast was 92 deg. F. with the op ambient temp. at 64 deg. and outside temps of 43 deg.
well with the temp of my op its a little to early for me to start anything without supplimental heating.

well Schmarmpit took the light apart and found nothing overheated. changed out the #14 wire going to the lamp to #12 wire and made it shorter to 10 feet long. its back up and running. hopefully all is well.

Just got an old Lithonia 400 watt mh with multitap ballast. It is wired for 277 right now, and can be rewired for 120. But looking at your instructions, I realize they are for a different brand of light.

My light has only two wires hooked to the plug, not three. Indeed, there appear to be only two wires in the cord. One looks black or brown, and the other is white. Do you think I will have to open up the ballast and put in a whole new cord? Or can I simply replace the plug, even though thre are only 2 wires?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

BooRadley said:

Just got an old Lithonia 400 watt mh with multitap ballast. It is wired for 277 right now, and can be rewired for 120. But looking at your instructions, I realize they are for a different brand of light.

My light has only two wires hooked to the plug, not three. Indeed, there appear to be only two wires in the cord. One looks black or brown, and the other is white. Do you think I will have to open up the ballast and put in a whole new cord? Or can I simply replace the plug, even though thre are only 2 wires?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

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i have a few lithonia ballasts. they are usually very easy to work with.
you definately want to change the cord and the plug to a #14 or #12 cord with 3 wires. you can buy a premade cord for 120volt or make your own. your light is 277 so you have to open the top of your fixture to change the voltage. remove the old cord taking note of the wires. install the new cord and connect the ground to the ground screw or ground wire inside. connect the white to common. connect the black to the 120 volt wire. make sure you put a wire nut on the unused 277 wire and any other unused wires.

to make it remote you shouldnt have to open the ballast, just unscrew the 2 screws holding the socket and install a box like i did for the other light.
make sure you use #12 wire to go from the ballast to the bulb and keep it short as you can. 15' or less. the shorter the better.

thanks for responding .. The lights are the same as your demo, and he said he will sell them out at 50 bucks apiece if there bought at 3 or more at a time or 60 for singles.. They come with everything includeing the bulb, but the bulbs are used. How do you feel about useing used bulbs? and are these lights safe and will they get the job done? maybe 1 per plant? Anyways they are MH set ups right? Im pretty new to this lighting stuff ..normally have always grown outside, im from the hills of humboldt and now smack in the middle of a city

randh2004 said:

thanks for responding .. The lights are the same as your demo, and he said he will sell them out at 50 bucks apiece if there bought at 3 or more at a time or 60 for singles.. They come with everything includeing the bulb, but the bulbs are used. How do you feel about useing used bulbs? and are these lights safe and will they get the job done? maybe 1 per plant? Anyways they are MH set ups right? Im pretty new to this lighting stuff ..normally have always grown outside, im from the hills of humboldt and now smack in the middle of a city

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they come as either a MH or HPS ballast and look pretty much the same. only on the inside the HPS will have an ignitor and the MH will not. if you want to send me a private message with the link for the lights your looking at ill take a look at them.
i would get a new bulb. you have no idea how long those bulbs have been in use and even though they work they dont put out the lumens of a new bulb. i buy new ones and keep a record of how many hours of use, so i can replace it after maybey half of its rated life and keep it as a spare, and label it with the hours of use.
the lights are safe and i can help you with the wireing and setting it up if you need help. they are magnetic ballasts and some of them hum a little, but once the fans and exhaust are on you really cant hear them. i set them up as remote due to they do heat up pretty good.

heres a 400w MH pretty good price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=160325003607

i apologize to anyone that has been waiting for chapter 3. been really busy with work, family, my room and every other thing going on. im sure you all know what i mean. i also started my garden about a month earlier than i normally do.
so its getting close to needing a some sort of reflector. i have my first attempt at a reflector that i tried out and im not really happy with the footprint its giving me. here is a couple of pics. the bulb is just starting up in the first pic. in the second pic ignore the wirenut for my connection due to just a temp hook-up for testing purposes. i may end up leaving it just wirenuts, but i will be advising against it to everyone else and i will be using an electrical box in my tutorial of how i made my reflector.


i started on a cooltube using a bake around tube. i wont need it untill summer so that will get finished later. im making it to use either horizontal or vertical and the reflector that i make for use without a cooltube will be easily mounted to this cooltube. i like flexability due to i never know exactly how im gonna grow them until i see how the plants are growing. so here it is, i need to change the long screws to the next size bigger. the screw eyes in one end are mounted close to the end because at this point there will not be a duct connected there, it will just draw air from the room.


once i actually make something im satified with ill post chapter 3. sorry for the delay.

Hey man, thanks a million for tossing up a nicely detailed tutorial. I've had a hi bay light for years and have always just used it straight up, even with the giant crappy reflector. Been toying around with the remote ballast idea for quite some time.

Anyhow, as luck would have it, I came upon a Lithonia 400 watt MH from the mid 90's but was told it was only for 240 volts.. So I finally pop the thing open and it has a multi tap and was ALREADY wired for 120, but there was a couple things I wanted to ask you about..

Pic #1 - There seems to be a big metal slat that mounts just under the socket with 2 wires connected to a locking mechinism at the end, not entirely sure what it is, but I'm assuming it has to do with the on & off functions. Just wanted to know if I should remove it or if it's something that needs to be there. It's connected to a COM & white wire and a mysterious black wire coming from the box in Pic #3. I'm assuming this is where I'm gonna hook my power cable/plug up to.

I'd appreciate any help you'd be willing to offer, if there's anything that you need a better pic of just let me know, I'm trying to do this right, safety first.

Stoneded said:

Hey man, thanks a million for tossing up a nicely detailed tutorial. I've had a hi bay light for years and have always just used it straight up, even with the giant crappy reflector. Been toying around with the remote ballast idea for quite some time.

Anyhow, as luck would have it, I came upon a Lithonia 400 watt MH from the mid 90's but was told it was only for 240 volts.. So I finally pop the thing open and it has a multi tap and was ALREADY wired for 120, but there was a couple things I wanted to ask you about..

Pic #1 - There seems to be a big metal slat that mounts just under the socket with 2 wires connected to a locking mechinism at the end, not entirely sure what it is, but I'm assuming it has to do with the on & off functions. Just wanted to know if I should remove it or if it's something that needs to be there. It's connected to a COM & white wire and a mysterious black wire coming from the box in Pic #3. I'm assuming this is where I'm gonna hook my power cable/plug up to.

I'd appreciate any help you'd be willing to offer, if there's anything that you need a better pic of just let me know, I'm trying to do this right, safety first.

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that is a socket for a quarts bulb. you dont need it. you can unhook it, but just make sure to cap the wires off because that mysterious black wire will get power at some point.
when the light fixture loses power and the light goes out, then when power comes back on it takes a while for the bulb to come back on. so while the main bulb is waiting to restart, that little quartz bulb will come on so there is light. when the HPS or the MH bulb comes back on the quartz bulb will turn off.

nevermind lol