I need some advise from electrical engineers, or lighting specialists anyway. First, let me give you a little background. In 2007 I bought and remote ballasted one of those Cooper security lights exactly as described here (thanks so much pipe). Before that I was using CFLs but had always been unhappy with the yields. The 90W LED UFO I got a couple years ago works fantastic for veg and then I'd fire up the 150W HPS to flower. Then I bought a 180W UFO to try flowering with. Way less yield, like 25-50% of using a 150W HPS. But I need NO fans or venting for LEDs. That way less heat to deal with is so attractive. That heat was always a nagging problem for my situation of cab in closet. I tried using all kinds of venting configurations (passive intake size of fresh air from a different room 2X larger than exhaust still heated the cab up over 90F), cutting holes in walls for fresh air, venting exhaust to another room than intake, using a Vortex inline fan, etc, etc.. It still got too hot no matter what I did. I know closets set-ups will do that, but I have snoopy Grand-kids and need SOME stealth. I found that the only thing that really worked was leaving the closet and grow cabinet doors wide open and training an 18" floor fan on the open doors of the cab from outside the closet. That loss of stealth with all the noise and light is not that much a problem because I live alone in a rural area with no other houses even visible after the leaves in the trees and bushes fill out in the spring.
Now for my questions. I went to fire the 150W up again for this run. Bulb wouldn't fire, not even the dim before it fires up totally, the bulb looked scorched too, so I ordered a new bulb through Amazon and ordered a medium mogul because that's what I thought I needed. They (American Lighting) sent me an unsealed package using FedEx for $13 in total. (That's not cheap to my way of thinking, $13 just for on little 150W bulb?) And then the bulb base was not only too small (apparently medium is SMALLER than regular size, and does that medium mogul mean bulb size, or is that the actual size of the base? This this one is like half the size of the original Cooper bulb, both base and the size of the bulb). So I ordered an adapter because I also had a couple of the other smaller bulbs from two security lights I bought because they were mega cheap, $15/each for the whole set. So anyway, that bulb I ordered would fully fire up but would cycle off and on every 15 min. or so. So I put one of those old bulbs from the cheap security lights in and it worked fine. I sent a not so nice email to American Lighting who responded pretty nastily calling me names etc. but did say I have a bad ballast among all the other abusive harangue from them. I had to revert to using my UFOs as the plant was getting big and I was worried all this dicking around with the lighting was going to hermi it.
Now the actual question. The 150W bulbs from the cheaper security lights although smaller than the Cooper were making the closet too hot even with the door open, Vortex running, and floor fans on. The ballast was getting hot but the capacitor was really getting hot. I'm thinking that might be the culprit. Can I just buy another capacitor and replace it? How do I deal with the three wires coming off it? I'm very wary about doing that because I realize it might hold a charge. I'd rather not zap myself. Can I bypass the capacitor? Some 150 lights don't even have them. If those cheap security light sets have capacitors, maybe I could salvage one from there. Like I say I've been reluctant, I just don't feel like electrocuting myself. No big hurry either as I went back to my 180W UFO. But since I have, cut holes in walls, bought expensive fans, and the yield using an HPS still far outshines anything else in the lower wattage's anyway, I would like to fix it my ballast.
Please keep in mind I'm a retired USAF, disabled closet grower. I firmly believe in the KISS principal, mostly because I'm stupid anyway and it works for me. And sorry for the freaking novel here.
Now for my questions. I went to fire the 150W up again for this run. Bulb wouldn't fire, not even the dim before it fires up totally, the bulb looked scorched too, so I ordered a new bulb through Amazon and ordered a medium mogul because that's what I thought I needed. They (American Lighting) sent me an unsealed package using FedEx for $13 in total. (That's not cheap to my way of thinking, $13 just for on little 150W bulb?) And then the bulb base was not only too small (apparently medium is SMALLER than regular size, and does that medium mogul mean bulb size, or is that the actual size of the base? This this one is like half the size of the original Cooper bulb, both base and the size of the bulb). So I ordered an adapter because I also had a couple of the other smaller bulbs from two security lights I bought because they were mega cheap, $15/each for the whole set. So anyway, that bulb I ordered would fully fire up but would cycle off and on every 15 min. or so. So I put one of those old bulbs from the cheap security lights in and it worked fine. I sent a not so nice email to American Lighting who responded pretty nastily calling me names etc. but did say I have a bad ballast among all the other abusive harangue from them. I had to revert to using my UFOs as the plant was getting big and I was worried all this dicking around with the lighting was going to hermi it.
Now the actual question. The 150W bulbs from the cheaper security lights although smaller than the Cooper were making the closet too hot even with the door open, Vortex running, and floor fans on. The ballast was getting hot but the capacitor was really getting hot. I'm thinking that might be the culprit. Can I just buy another capacitor and replace it? How do I deal with the three wires coming off it? I'm very wary about doing that because I realize it might hold a charge. I'd rather not zap myself. Can I bypass the capacitor? Some 150 lights don't even have them. If those cheap security light sets have capacitors, maybe I could salvage one from there. Like I say I've been reluctant, I just don't feel like electrocuting myself. No big hurry either as I went back to my 180W UFO. But since I have, cut holes in walls, bought expensive fans, and the yield using an HPS still far outshines anything else in the lower wattage's anyway, I would like to fix it my ballast.
Please keep in mind I'm a retired USAF, disabled closet grower. I firmly believe in the KISS principal, mostly because I'm stupid anyway and it works for me. And sorry for the freaking novel here.
aloha
A little electrical tape an you're in biz 
