Will a ballast turn back on? Question about power outage.

[CannabisSativa]

I know that if you have an HID ballast and for some reason it turns off...right when you try to turn it back on all you hear is a "buzzing" noise...I am assuming because its too hot. Now what if you have your lights on a timer and the power shuts off for a few seconds then comes back on...what will happen then? Assuming you are not home...will this damage the ballast? or will it simply turn on once it cools off? I was thinking about this the other day when it was storming outside...

 

[Mist]

It doesn't stay off because it is too hot. It has to fire the bulb again and with magnetic ballasts it takes a few minutes when it is shut off and turned back on quickly. If it messed up the ballast every time there was a power outage from a storm there would be a lot of broke pissed off growers, LOL!
So don't worry, it will happen sooner or later and the light will be fine.

 

[CannabisSativa]

Thanks for clearing that up! About how long does it take to turn back on? I am pretty sure a few other people had the same question as well.

 

[Mist]

Well that depends on the ballast. I have seen it take 10 minutes and also take 30 minutes, but it does come back on. If you are home and the power goes out the best thing to do is manually turn off the light for 10 minutes and then turn it back on. I have found that, with sun system ballasts, it will come up again sooner that way.

 

[FreezerBoy]

They make timers just for this purpose. I'm blanking on the term ... delay timers? Once interrupted, they need X minutes of uninterrupted power before they pass the power on to the ballast (or whatever is hooked up)

 

[Stay Puft]

I think the term may be "Delay On Relay" or "Delay On Timer". (commonly called a "programmable relay" on ebay.)
BTW- A nanoPLC performs this function fine. (and many other things too!)
Regards,
Puft
An example of one:
http://relays.tycoelectronics.com/datasheets/CNS_DS.pdf