600W HPS Lumen at 24"

[Kindman69]

Guys, do you think a digital ballast can put out less then its rating? I say this because my 600W HPS seems to be putting out low lumen compared to what other people are getting.
Mine measures 5000+ lumen at 12" but only 3500lumen at 24" My friend has a 400 watt and is getting between 2500-3500 at 24" and almost 5000 at 12".
I also notice that when my ac or dehumidifier kicks in, that my lights spectrum changes for a second or so. I always went under the assumption that that was just a temporary thing while the load increases, but could it be that I'm getting permanently less output due to overloading a circuit? I run CGFI's and they never trip.

Kindman

 

[blynx]

Is it a lumatek digital ballast?

 

[Kindman69]

Is it a lumatek digital ballast?

Nope, its a Global Greenhouse Lighting 600hps ws

 

[blynx]

ah ok. I had similar experiences with a lumatek digital ballast. the light was way underpowered and finally the light went, replaced it, then the ballast went.

 

[magiccannabus]

GFCI is not designed to stop overload. They're only designed to save your ass in a ground fault condition(such as you standing in water and grabbing power lines for example).

What are these lamps measuring at 6"?

 

[Kindman69]

GFCI is not designed to stop overload. They're only designed to save your ass in a ground fault condition(such as you standing in water and grabbing power lines for example).

What are these lamps measuring at 6"?

Lol, not sure, my meter peaks at 5000 lumen?

 

[PeteWeedSeed]

Try putting your ballast on its own breaker. Or unplug everything except the ballast then measure the lumens.
This will tell you if its a problem with the power the ballast is getting. If the lumens stay the same, then something is up with the ballast.

 

[Kindman69]

Try putting your ballast on its own breaker. Or unplug everything except the ballast then measure the lumens.
This will tell you if its a problem with the power the ballast is getting. If the lumens stay the same, then something is up with the ballast.

Thanks Pete, did as you suggested The outlet I'm using seems to be ok (Slight loss).
There is a slight dim I notice when the ac comes on, but it jumps right back to where it was. I did notice though that my old bulb was outperforming my new bulb by about 15% . My old bulb is a Sunmaster and my new bulb is a GE Lucalux PSL.

I held my lightmeter up to a 250HPS at the store, it measured 1500 lumen at 24"

So, bottom line, my ballast is ok, I loose some from the glass, maybe about 5% from the outlet, and probably a bunch due to my space being a bit wider then my lighting foodprint. And the sub performing bulb doesn't help either

Thanks for the info guys

Kindman