buying new 600 watt lights to flower advise sought

They don't convert to 400V, they convert to the lamp voltage and current of the lamp, as do the 400V ballasts, but powered at a lower voltage. So basically it is the same ballast with a different power supply. A normal ANSI 600W lamp uses a much lower voltage than the 400V E lamps. But a higher voltage means a lower current.

In some greenhouses they have thousands of these or the 1 kW hanging in one location. Think about the power of even only 1000 1 kW electronic ballasts. That is an incredible amount of power. If a complete fixture would cause interference then greenhouse lighting would be illegal . I can assure you that my cell phone still works in a greenhouse, the owner can still watch television in the house next to the greenhouse and I still receive all the radio stations in my car driving through the Westland.

<waves back>

The "normal" Gavita is the DigiStar. This ballast was not developed for the 400V lamps but for the 230/240V lamps and not adapted from a horticultural design but newly developed and tuned to perform well on 230/240V lamps. The use a very high frequency, but not as high as the Gavita Pros. They also come with the soft-dim feature which gradually adjusts the power of the lamp in one minute per step. Because of the efficient design and the high quality parts that are used for the high frequency they dissipate very low heat as well (operating at 230/240V). Any electronic ballast you run at 120 will get hotter and be less efficient as a 230/240V mode and will dissipate more heat as a result.

So it's not a matter of better or worse, though the Pro is a horticultural design and the DigiStar was developed for the hydroponics market as a high end electronic ballast for 230/240V lamps. Gavita recommends GE Lucalox psl lamps for DigiStar ballasts.

wow plasma light!

wow plasma light!

check the specs on this:

GAVITA Pro 300 LEP
3.6/5 rating (23 votes)
The GAVITA Pro 300 LEP (Light Emitting Plasma) is a solid state horticultural plasma light fixture. There are no moving parts in the fully sealed housing, improving the reliability. The light source is a LUXIM STA 41.02 LiFi module which has a rated average life of 30,000 hours. The glass wide spectrum filter allows for low quantities UVB light to pass while shielding you and your crop from UVC. The Miro aluminum reflector generates an even square light pattern. The absence of heat radiation in the light allows you to hang the lamp close to your crop, or to add the light without adding extra heat radiation to your crop.
Features & Benefits

Solid State Plasma: no moving parts, fans or sound
Horticultural quality fixture
Miro Aluminum reflector, square light pattern
High quality glass filter
Full spectrum light incl. UVB
Rated average life of 30,000 hours

Specifications

Input Voltage: 207 - 277 Volt (+/- 3%)
Input Current: 1.3 Ampere at 230 Volt
Input Power: 300 Watt (+/- 3%)
Power Factor: >0,99
THD: <10%
Input Frequency: 50/60 Hz
Electrical Insulation: class 1
Dimensions: L 593 mm x B 261 mm x H 190 mm
Weight: Ca 11.7 Kg / 25.8 lb
Operating Temp. (°C): 0 – 35 C / 32 - 95 F
Case Temp. (°C): 75
Relative Humidity: 25 – 70% (non-condensing)
Reflector Material: Miro™ aluminum high efficiency reflector, square field
Glass Filter: 4 mm Crystal Clear Low-Iron float glass with wide spectrum grow light transmission
Covered Area: 3'x 3' at 1' distance, 4'x 4' at 1.25' distance
Light Source: LIFI STA 41-02 module
Luminous Flux: 18,000 lumen (indicative)
PPF: 300 μmol (calculated from spectrum analysis)
Color Temperature: 5600 K
CRI: 94
Operating Position: Light source pointed downward +/- 90
Accessories Included:
Brackets
Power cord

well that's a different story of course

Plasma light is not for efficiency but for quality. Very high CRI, true point source which makes it easier to build good optics, continuous spectrum including UVB and very little heat. Recommended for vegetative growth and in combination with HPS for the generative phase.

Basically it comes down to this: In a greenhouse you make sure that you have at least about 8-10% blue light from the incoming sunlight. Basically that blue light has a lot of influence on the plant morphology. In an indoor situation you do not have sunlight, so you bring it indoors with the plasma lamp, including UVB. This is new technology, so it is not very cheap, but it is very exciting technology. Lots of discussions going on about plasma light and many suppliers don't have a real idea what it does. I have even read comparisons between one plasma light and a 1000W MH. Well I can assure you that, though plasma light is a new technology and by far not as efficient in producing micromoles than a HPS lamp it can compete with 400W MH, in aquarium settings and it performed as well as about 500W MH, but remember that the high color temperature MH are far less efficient that the 5600K ones. It lacks the abundance of red light we like to use for a good yield. A typical 400W MH outputs between 350 and 500 micromoles initially (depending on color and brand), but the light maintenance is not very good. So superior optical quality, better continuous spectrum, low heat development (cool light),high maintained output and the addition of UVB are advantages for the plasma light.

thanks again for your input whazzup, nice to know that they are coming up with better lights for agriculture. for now i'm sticking to hps though.

so in the end when it comes to an indoor flowering room, which one is the better option, the pro or the digistar? i'm thinking the dim able aspect of the digistar makes it more economical to run for early veg stage. but the higher voltage of the pro has it running cooler. what about the light they emit is it the same?

another question i had was the they talk about 640w output, does that mean they are no longer 600w ballasts and are using 640w? do i have to calculate 640w per ballast for the electrical installations?

Depends on which light you want. The 1000W double ended can be dimmed back to 600W as well

If you want a dimmable ballast of 600W which is able to drive a MH and HPS lamp then the DigiStar is the best choice. If you are looking for a professional electronic HPS workhorse with the highest output any 600W will give you, and that for a long time, then the Pro 600 is your bet choice. Even after a year the lamp will still outshine some new lamps. The pro 600 complete fixture is best used in a group of luminaries where the remote 600 give you a lot of flexibility for the reflector.

what about mean lumen comparisons on bulbs that have the same watts? does the glass also cut the mean lumen by 30%? cheers

lumens are for humens. To measure the photosynthetic light you measure photons per second (photosynthetic photon flux) in an Ulbricht sphere.

Glass filters will cost you light of course, and it depends on the transmittance of the glass. The best greenhouse glass has a transmittance of more than 90%, some even 94% (when clean of course).

in the end i have found a supplier of the original philips that the gavita digi pro is based on for 100 sfr less in price then the gavita. this lamp is apparently the same it runs the bulb at 400v too. i'll post up some pics when i finally go get them. things got delayed a bit, lol.

go digital for sure. go with a name brand with good warranty. the major companies have worked out all the bugs. one of my setups has run 5 for a few years now with no issues. i will eventually replace all the mags with digitals and store the mags for backups. i would buy one extra digital as backup as you aint fixing a digital yourself

always take into account the reflector efficiency when you buy a complete fixture. That is a critical part of your luminary. Go for Miro aluminum and use a spread that suits your grow. The Gavita has a 96% efficiency which is very high. Most professional reflectors are replaceable (and you should replace them to maintain efficiency), check the cost of replacement reflectors too.

i know the bulb has to be replaced after a year or maybe 6 runs, but the reflector? i always just clean them. these are single fixtures so not sure how easy or hard it would be to replace a reflector. i'll ask about that too.

it is very difficult to clean Miro aluminum without damaging the surface. Depending on the stains you can for example use a light acidic solution to clean the calcium deposits with a very soft towel, and rinse it with demi water before drying, but it will never be the same.

We measure reflectors periodically for greenhouse growers to see when they need to be replaced. We see losses of 5-7% per year. At those rates you would probably replace your lamp, but why not your reflector?

That's why horticultural luminaries always have easy replaceable reflectors. The Miro are normally replaced, anodized reflectors can be re-annodized.