Can someone explain "overdriving" ?

[lmuller1]

I see the term used all the time, not sure exactly what it means. Any help is appreciated.

 

[James77]

It's when you run a bulb at a higher wattage than it was intended to run, like running a 250W bulb at 300 watts.

 

[lmuller1]

So it's more watts not more volts? I'm running Icecap ballasts right now, 2 430s on a total of 4 6ft VHOs. If I ran shorter bulbs like 4fts but still only 2 per ballast it would increase the watts consumed by each bulb therefore producing more light than 4fts not overdriven?

 

[dippin61]

no.. icecap ballasts have a total watt rating. meaning you can run a total of upto what the ballast is rated for. each bulb will still only run at what they are supposed to.

its more like running t5's off that ballast. or overdriving a SE bulb with a HQI ballast.

 

[lmuller1]

I'm still not getting it. I've gathered that overdriving increases light intensity but how does that happen? Is it supplying more voltage than the bulb is spec'd for or is it supplying/forcing more current thru the bulb? How do I know if my setup is overdriving or not? Again, thanks for the help.

 

[Herbie]

Hey,
I am running a mix of standard flo. bulbs and VHO bulbs with my VHO ballast. The standard bulbs are being "overdriven" to VHO levels because of the ballast. If you want to save a few bucks with a VHO set-up, you can run standard flo. bulbs and the ballast will "overdrive" the bulbs at VHO levels. I am running standard Coralife bulbs along side some URI VHO bulbs on the same ballast, and I can not tell the difference in output between them. I love URI actinics, but I run Coralife Daylight bulbs because URI bulbs look to pink to me.
Hope this helps..........Herbie