questions for hid gurus - ceramic, pulse, etc

14 years ago

I have a few questions about HID ballasts, lamps, and what makes them compatible. I've been Googling all these topics, so I hope that others might be wondering the same things and having the same difficult time finding coherent answers.

Q1: Are wattage, start type, and operating frequency the relevant factors in whether a ballast supports a lamp?

Q2: Are all ceramic metal halide lamps pulse-start metal halides? Vice-versa? What makes them different, if anything?

Q3: The most commonly discussed CMH, the Philips Mastercolor Retro, works in a magnetic core & coil HPS ballast. The fact that it is pulse start seems to explain why it will work in an HPS ballast but not in a standard probe start metal halide ballast, but will it work in a pulse-start metal halide ballast?

Q4: If an HPS ballast is pulse-start, what is the compatibility difference between it and a pulse-start MH ballast?

Q5: Why will (some?) pulse start MH lamps like the Sunpulse work with an electronic ballast while a CMH like the Mastercolor will not?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

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Comments (2)

zink
14 years ago
A good place to begin learning about Metal Halide, ceramic, and pulse/probe start differences is: http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightinganswers/mwmhl/differenceProbePulse.asp
From that page you can navigate Forward and Back to see the related topics. I don't have time to answer your detailed question as I would like, but you can usually get really good information from ballast manufacturers such as Advance and Venture. Commercial growing sites on the web will usually offer just enough information to make it seem like you need their product. Manufacturer's (not retailers) will usually give very good information on their websites, often in downloadable "white papers". I have obtained over a hundred very informative PFD's from those sources.

Warning - you will probably be contacted by salesmen in this forum who offer to email you personally for further information.

Zink

Here is a link that might be useful: MH pulse/probe explanation
lebowski
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the link, Zink. That's just what I've been looking for.
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