Can I upgrade my lighting?

[Dante]

Howdy,

I have a 48" Coralife fixture with 2 x 175W MH and 2 x 40W NO Actinic. The MH bulbs are SE mogul type and the NO bulbs are T12 with basic "tombstone" caps. There is a plexiglass cover between the bulbs and the H2O.

I was thinking of upgrading my pulse start MH ballast to electronic and that got me thinking....

Can I upgrade to 250W MH ballasts and 110W VHO ballasts and just change the bulbs in my fixture? Will the current wiring and caps, etc. handle the increased power?

 

[Len]

The wiring will be fine (my guess is they're 16-18 AWG). The starting cap for the MH should be okay too, but if you go with electronic, you won't need one.

 

[Dante]

Thanks for the info. Does the same go for the upgrade from NO to VHO? Can I use a ballast like this: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...K:MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=7756450841&rd=1&rd=1
and put VHO bulbs where my NO units are now?

 

[Len]

Ya, the end caps/sockets and wiring will do fine from NO to VHO. It operates at the same voltage, more amps but not much. That ballast will work. It would be a simple swap with the other hardware unchanged.

 

[Dante]

Thanks for the help. I'll update when I'm done.

 

[fishinsouthga]

i have the 150 hqi setup, can i just upgrade bulb/ballast to 250 hqi??? or are the fittings for the bulb different etc..


good idea

thanks