Re: [APD] IceCap ballests hype or not?

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

A few things we have been told by IceCap.

They were designed to run VHOs at the same light output as
regular buls, which saves lots of watts and makes the ublbs
last longer.  But you don't get full light output from your
VHOs.

How an electronic ballast operates a bulb is an interactin
betweenthe bulb and ballast.  With different size and type
of bulb the ballast delivers (or the bulbs draws) different
current and gets diff voltage.  I don't know all the
cmbinations but the one I do recall is that when the VHOs
are rated for a total of 440 watts, the IceCap is
delivering 270 watts.  Big savings, not a lot of light.

Otoh, with normal output bulbs, the IceCaps overdrive the
bulbs, giving you a lot more light than "normal" for those
bulbs but shortening their life and using more watts than
if you ran them on a normal ballast.

Fulham ballasts can operate lots of kinds of bulbs too,
partly because they can be wired a variety of ways, partly
because they make some many models and partly because they
are somewhat adaptive to the bulb.

For my money, I like the Fulhams.  You can get them for
about $20-$50 if you can track them down.  They're the kind
AHS uses.  I have two IceCaps in my pile of unused stuff in
the basement. I replaced them with Fulhams. AHS might sell
them without buying whole kits -- I'm not sure.  But the
reflectors you get with the AHS kits are specularly
spectacular. 

Hope that helps,
Scott H.
--- "Adam N." <adam at xhaos_org> wrote:
> What's the story with Icecap ballasts? Are they just
> normal electronic
> ballasts or are they something special?  Just wondering.
> 
> Adam
> Dean and/or Clark in '04
> 
> 
> 
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> Aquatic-Plants mailing list
> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
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