Heat radiation : burning bulb vs. ballast

[bikerbo]

Hi there

I was wondering, I want to get the ballast out of my growroom, but will there be any difference in the temperature ?

Well I'm sure there will be (must be ), but what is the comparision of the heat radiated from the bulb and from the ballast ?

For example, for a 400W bulb and 400W magnetic ballast. I suppose the bulb radiates 2 times more heat than the ballast ? How is it for real

What do you think / know / experienced ?

cheers !

 

[Avinash.miles]

bulbs make waaay more radiant heat than ballasts, but moving ballasts out of the room , or creating an exhaust pulling the hot air off ur ballasts & immediately out of the room will affect ur temp some.
just some tho
if u wanna really change ur temp, increase air exchange, or use and AC unit.

 

[bikerbo]

thanks ! i will buy a longer cable and move it out my room.

unfortunately i cant use AC because of no place to vent the hot air from the unit, and its noisy.

we will see if there will be a difference when i take the ballast out.

 

[standsideways]

thanks ! i will buy a longer cable and move it out my room.

unfortunately i cant use AC because of no place to vent the hot air from the unit, and its noisy.

we will see if there will be a difference when i take the ballast out.

I highly doubt moving 1 ballast will make any change, maybe a wall of 20+ ballasts in a big grow, sure.

What are the dimensions of your area?
Air cooled reflector?
How many CFM of intake/exhaust do you currently have?

 

[bikerbo]

I moved the ballast, we will see if there is any difference when the room heats up.

The room is 3x3 feet and is about 10-12 feet tall (really tall )

i have an air cooled reflector (cooltube 600w) with winds spreader attached to the top. all goes like this:

cooltube -> 125mm vent -> 125mm inline fan 140 cfm -> carbon filter

for the intake i use 4 small pc fans at the bottom of the room and i guess total intake is 40 cfm (there is some negative pressure so the smell doesnt leak)

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Have you made sure your ducting is a un-kinked as possible?

It's amazing how much more air (thus heat) can be moved when the bends and curves are smoothed out. 3x3 is a bitch of a space for un-kinked ducting though. Good luck!

Stay Safe!

 

[d3cryption]

fwiw I took my 1k mag ballast out the room... it dropped my temps 3 degrees..

 

[bikerbo]

I tried my best keeping the ducting as straight as possible, no improvements can be made. I'm stuck with 82-84 degrees in my room. I guess it's not that bad, although a little hot.

 

[Avinash.miles]

moving one ballast will make a diff, duh, any heat source removed influences it, no matter how small, obviously if u move 20 u remove less heat, but if moving one make 0% change, and u move 20, whats 20 times 0%, hows that work out?

hope it makes a diff for u, my guess is it will make a small temp change.

also, def whach for kinks or 90 degree cuts in ur exhaust duct every lil turn removes cfms

 

[Avinash.miles]

double post sorry

 

[growshopfrank]

unless you have to heat your room having the ballasts outside of the grow area is like free money from the energy saved by not shedding the extra heat