Grow Light Ballasts

Grow Light Ballasts

For the novice, indoor growing seems only to involve suspending a bunch of grow lights over the plants and plugging the former into a socket. In truth, a lot of planning, and sometimes various hydroponic supplies, is involved, especially considering that some plants favour a particular intensity of light than others. This is where grow light ballasts come in. These electronic devices control the power that goes into the lights, thereby making the light intensity consistent. They also have other convenient features such as LED status indicators, end of lamp life signals, and auto-restrike features protect your expensive lamps from damage due to power interruptions.

Alternative Power

There are also generator-ready grow light ballasts suited for alternative power sources for when the grid is offline. You can plug them directly into a petrol generator so your plants are never caught without that much-needed energy and don't lose efficiency in powering your valuable bulbs. This feature can be present in any type of ballast, whether switchable or those that power only specific types of bulbs.

Switchable Ballasts

While some ballasts may power only one type of bulb, grow light ballasts with switchable HPS and MH settings are able to power both high pressure sodium (HPS) or metal halide (MH) bulbs. This feature gives you the flexibility of choice between these common types of bulbs so you can incorporate them in your setup without the ballast being the limiting factor. Being able to switch between these types of bulbs is essential for giving your plants energy in any stage of their life cycle. For instance, when they are in the vegetative state, they can get the optimum light spectrum via MH bulbs, but when the fruiting or flowering stage comes, just flip the switch to power the HPS bulb for the best type of light for fruit and flower growth.

Electronic Ballasts

These types of ballasts are capable of higher output than magnetic or switchable ballasts. They can put out as much as 30 per cent more light than the latter, which translates to more yield from your garden. These devices also run much cooler than its predecessors all while giving cleaner power to the bulb, allowing them to burn with better output and last longer.

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