Our advice : Ballasts

Electronic ballasts

The technology and quality of these products have evolved considerably over the last ten years. They regulate volts and watts electronically with reduced power consumption. They are silent and do not create any resistance, so they produce almost no heat. They can be used with any compact fluorescent or T5, regardless of the power of the neon. Not to mention their high efficiency, which makes ballasts the most economical solution for controlling the most efficient sources: fluorescent lamps.

Magnetic ballasts

How to choose a magneticballast ?

The use of a ballast is not systematic, it will not be of any use to you in the case of lighting via CFL. However, its acquisition will be essential if you opt for a lighting with HPS, MH lamps. For T5 and LED SMD panels, the ballast is normally delivered with the rail and panel.

What is the difference between magnetic and electronic ballast?

Magnetic ballast

It is used to transform the current of the electrical circuits.The ballasts must correspond to the wattage of the bulbs used(MH, HPS, neon, ...). The most efficient way to use a ballast for HID lamps is to put it in a loop. There is less resistance to electricity when ballasts are connected in series in a circuit. Less electricity is lost in transmission. Ballasts connected in series carry more current, so the ground connection must be strong. Pointing a fan at the ballast cools it and makes it more efficient.
Connections should be made by a professional.

How to install a magnetic ballast?

Installation diagram of a magnetic ballast ETI DUO

The electronic ballast

This is the most commonly used type of transformer at the moment. Electronic ballasts have a number of significant advantages if you choose to light your grow room with an HPS or MH bulb.
First of all, we can see that electronic ballasts produce an average of 25% more light than electronic ballasts (85% for magnetic ballast against 99% for electronic ballast). They are also silent, more economical in terms of power consumption and appear to be more stable, which has the effect of significantly increasing the life of the lamp. Note that there are bulbs such as plasma lamps and CMH that are specially designed for electronic ballasts. Not to mention their high efficiency which makes ballasts the most economical solution for controlling the most efficient sources: fluorescent lamps.

Choose your ballast according to its capacities

Here again, Culture Indoor, your online growshop is proud to offer a wide choice of ballast that will suit all budding hydrocultivators. We offer you here a quick look at the notable features in order to find the transformer that suits you.

Plug and Play (PnP): "Plug and play" for the anglophobes. This is simply a term indicating that your ballast connects very quickly and easily to the socket of your bulb, without any particular connection. Plug and Play is used in most digital ballasts such as lumatek.

Ballast Lumatek 400W	Ballast Lumatek Ultimate pro	Professional Ballast 1000W DE (Double Ended)

Dimmable: If some transformers are usable only for a specific wattage others offer the dimmable function that allows you to adjust the power of the ballast according to your bulb. This is the case for example with the Super-Lumens which offers the soft dimmable function, allowing you to regulate the power emitted in the bulb in a very precise way, this has the effect of optimizing the luminous flux and increase the life of the bulb significantly.

Ballast SuperLumens 150W	Ballast SuperLumens 600W

Flip Flop: This new technology proposed by Digilight allows you to alternately power 2 grow rooms or two lamps in the same grow room, this is very practical to reduce the temperature of your grow room and optimize your yield. More information on the MaxiBright product sheet.

Ballast Maxibright Duo 600W

Know that the brand Gavita offers optimizedhorticultural lighting kits. This is the case for example of the Gavita Pro Line 600W which combines a ballast, a reflector and a bulb in one product. The latter has the particularity of being double ended (DE) or double ended, it allows to have the highest RPA light output. This becomes the most efficient lamp in 1000W.

Ballast Gavita Pro Line 1000W complete	Ballast Gavita pro 6/750W DE Flex e-version

Finally, there are bulbs specially designed for magnetic ballasts, CMH ( Ceramic Metal Halide ) combine the performance of lamps with metal halide (high light output, excellent color rendering index), which makes it the best light source for applications where light and color are important. Also to be discovered: Hybrid technology by SuperplantmH / HPS system for an optimal light spectrum.

CMH Superplant 250W	Hybrid bulb Superplant 600W