Best 250 Watt HQI Ballast?

[Entacmaea]

Hi There, I am looking for opinions on the est 250 watt electronic ballast for a 10K double ended HQI bulb. The only electronic I have found so far are a LN Electronic at PA, and I also heard rumblings of IceCap coming out with one tuned for HQI's?

Any help would be great. Thanks!
Peter

 

[peterh1975]

Hey Pete,
Nice name!! Take a look @ Marinedepot.com and look at there PFO ballasts. Most reefers here use the PFO ballasts for there reef. However the HQI pendents are not highly reputable but there ballasts are awesome, barely any heat and no noise from my 250 dual hqi. I also have a 150 watt dual hqi and there is no heat nor noise from it.

 

[Entacmaea]

Thanks Pete, you too! :lol: I have seen the PFO ballasts, but would really like to go electronic for long term savings. I have a DIY enclosure and reflector, so all I need to do is switch out my 150 watt HQI ballast and sockets for the 250 watt equivalent. Any 250 watt electronic ballasts out there?

 

[peterh1975]

Hey Pete,
Championlighting.Com has the e-ballast, but there are all out of stock. Icecap carrys these also but i don`t know much about how they run. hellolights.com carrys eletronic ballasts also, but i would buy anything from thenm since last time i have purchased 1800$ worth of VHO systems and he could not even replace my ballast after 1 month of use. The guys name is James and he totally ignore my emails. Those ballasts were from Ikea !!!??? go with only reputable dealers.....saving don`t mean jack.
Peter

 

[VC]

The New IceCap Electronic HQI Ballast has been out for a couple months now.
They will run any 250Watt Bulb, Double ended or Mogul base.
We have them in stock.


Vince

 

[peterh1975]

Hi Vince,
Out of curiousty....how much energy is saved using ice cap e ballasts ? my energy bill is killing me, and do they make dual ice cap e-ballasts ?
Thanks Peter

 

[Shaun@eCorals]

I would also look at Sunlight Supplys' new 250watt ballasts. They're really sweet and the DE reflectors are the best on the market!

No bias-ness here - this product speaks for itself.

 

[Entacmaea]

The savings for an electronic ballast can be significant. For one 250 watt bulb on a small system, lighted 12 hours per day, at about $.14 per kilowatt (NY) it is about $150 per year. The ballasts save about 15% -20% in amperage, which translates above to $23-$30 per year. This is a pretty small savings for one bulb, but it does get significant if you are running, say, four bulbs on your tank... Other advantages are that the ballasts are supposed to run the bulbs cooler, which makes them last longer...

 

[Andy2]

From IceCap:
Also, our new electronic MH ballasts use a sweeping frequency technology that runs a bulb 40-70KHz., which means it will light anything, can't flicker and by using such a high frequency the arc is constant and not pulsing 60 times per second (as it would on a 60Hz. application).
Andy

 

[tlc]

andy,
how does the ice cap ballast compare to the pfo hqi as far as lighting output
sure it might save some money, run cooler, and make the bulbs last longer, but if it is not equally as bright or brighter it defeats the purpose.
is this also true of the 150 watt electronic ballast as well....
thanks for any input...

 

[Andy2]

From IceCap:
Our somewhat crude light output tests have shown our electronic ballast to exceed conventional ballasts on DE 250-watt MH bulbs. I prefer these tests be done by independent reviewers. Remember, just because you're saving electricity doesn't mean it's at the expense of light output.
As far as the 150-MH ballast, nothing comes close to our ballast no matter how your keeping score unless you're blasting the bulb and dooming it to a 6 month life. We don't put our name on anything that's average. If we did we couldn't offer the level of service we're known for.
Andy

 

[tlc]

appreciate the feed back. all these lighting tests are confusing as heck for a regular joe like myself. i just want the most bang for the buck....

 

[Andy2]

From IceCap:
My biased 2 cents then would be a screw-in 175-MH powered by our original 175 ballast. For a review on bang for the buck, http://www.icecapinc.com/article2000.htm

It's not HQI but packs a lot of punch.
Andy

 

[Bill2]

I'll say it once and say it again. European Bulbs run best on 220v european ballasts. Paul Erik Hirvonen and I reasearched it for a long time. I was having to do it with my 1000w and I'm sure the higher the wattage the more noticible the problems.

 

[Andy2]

That missed the mark. And I thought I was moving off topic.
Andy