Re: [APD] Aromat Ballasts Arrived

[Gordon McLellan <gordonthree at gmail_com>]

Jerry,

I'm not sure what definition of "noise" is being used or if there are
differing levels of "loudness" involved ... but the MH bulbs and
ballasts I've used in the past (250w 20000k, mogul base) made very
little noise ... there was a slight buzzing and popping/crackling from
the bulb when it starts, but after it's been running for 20-30min, the
only noise I hear is the cooling fan in the ballast box - and that's
no louder than the cooling fans on computers.

And that is with a cheap "core and coil" ballast, no electronics involved.

I wouldn't say the ballast is dead silent, it has a hum, it is a low
freq transformer after all, but its not at all loud like the hum from
one of those street-light transformers ... my microwave makes a good
hum and the ballasts are no where near that loud.

Only suggestion I can think of, you've already mentioned - try a
different bulb.  Do you have another area to test the setup at, like a
friend or family members house, to rule out anything funky with your
home's power supply?

Good Luck!
Gordon


On 2/3/06, Jerry Baker <jerry at bakerweb_biz> wrote:
> Jerry Baker wrote:
> > S. Hieber wrote:
> >> The fixture only takes two wires and the ballast only offers two, so that's unlikely, I think. Perhaps a bulb/ballast mismatch. Aromat ought to know if that's the case.
> >
> > I'm beginning to suspect there are no ballasts for these bulbs.
>
> The engineer I spoke with at Aromat believes it is the bulbs (just as
> the people at Hatch transformer [Icecap] believed). This is crazy. When
> I talk to engineers at the ballast manufacturers they seem to be of the
> opinion that there is no such thing as HID without noise, but when I
> talk to the merchants they say, "it's dead silent even with your ear
> pressed against it." I think I know who I believe now. I'm going to test
> the grounding in my apartment this evening and see if I can find a cheap
> 150W MH bulb to test. If both of these tests succeed and it turns out
> that MH just makes that much noise, I suppose I'll have to sell the
> stuff. :(
>
>
> --
> Jerry Baker
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> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
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