MH coil ballast vs electronic; should i switch?

[buffalo123]

What am i gaining by switching from my dependable coil ballast to an electronic balllast. I read some a dimmable and more efficient.
Not sure what more efficient actually mean. They use very close to the same wattage is my guess.
Why should a hobbyist switch from coil to electronic ballast?
Am i gaining more light, longer bulb life ???

 

[alton]

This will become an arguement fairly quickly so I will give my two cents. When you plug in a mag ballast on day one the heat it produces is wasted energy plus it starts breaking down to where after years of use it will get hotter be less efficient. An electronic ballast will either work at 100% or not. I have two electronic ballast that are 8+ years old and they are on a tank with a third ballast and you can not tell the difference with your eyes or a meter. The most inportant thing in saying that if you are still using probe start lamps you need to match it with a magnetic ballast. If you are using pulse start use electric or electro-magnetic.

 

[sirreal63]

It depends on the bulb you are running. Most bulbs work as intended with electronic ballasts, but not all. What bulb are you running?

 

[James77]

What am i gaining by switching from my dependable coil ballast to an electronic balllast. I read some a dimmable and more efficient.
Not sure what more efficient actually mean. They use very close to the same wattage is my guess.
Why should a hobbyist switch from coil to electronic ballast?
Am i gaining more light, longer bulb life ???

As sirreal said, the bulb choice does matter. Easiest is Radium, on magnetic HQI ballasts, it will draw about 330 watts from the wall. An electronic would be about 260 watts, but would not be driving the bulb properly since it is meant to Run on magnetics. So you'd be saving about 70 watts of power, but losing about 25% PAR. Even on the HQI setting with a switchable ballast, it would draw about 310 watts, so you'd save 20 watts with the electronic, but it is not as reliable as the magnetic.

I do use switchable ballasts and prefer them for their versatility, but I would not hesitate to run magnetics again. The extra power consumed is negligible when you come down to it, about $3 more per month for me. Noise.....people always claim electronic as silent being one of the pros over magnetics....but, I have not used a magnetic that I did not find completely silent. But Ive only run sunlight supply magnetics though.