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IceCap Ballasts -- What's the watts or who's on first



For years the mystery of mysteries in reef keeping was "How the heck do
IceCap electronic ballasts work with so many different kinds and sizes
of bulbs?"  Sometimes, folks supposed that the IceCap has some special
brain function that learned what bulbs were connected to it --
electronic engineers often refer to this type of flourescent ballast
circuit as "hee hee hee," which is EE shorthand for
"Whattayakiddinwiththatstuff?"

Eventually, it came out that IceCaps overdrive lamps rated for higher
wattages and underdrove those rated for lower wattages.  Being
electronic (operating at a much higher frequency), you still got more
light (or maybe about as much) light from a large high wattage bulb
than from a more conventional magnetic (a.k.a. tar) ballast.

But what I never came across was any listing of the watts for IceCaps
with different combinations of bulbs.  A few values have been
published.  Four 110-watt-rated VHO bulbs get 230 watts out of an
IceCap.  I think a pair of 75 watt VHOs get something over 200 also.

Anyone find what I never did?  More of the values for IceCap outputs?

Scott H.

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