Mystery Lights...PLEASE HELP!!

[Kwazie]

I just bought an indoor green house for my aparment here in Wisconsin and I got an offer to buy 2 complete ballast/hood/light set ups for $50 a piece. the only problem is niether I nor the seller knows what the wattage is. I was able to find out they are both 13AMP 125VOLT systems and they are both metal hailide. Does anyone know how I can determin the wattage?

[Nicos]

Welcome to the Vine!!!

Urm...well I think you get the prize for the 'first most original post'!!!!

Hmmm...terminology......

is halitide sort of halogen??I've a feeling you can use a halogen bulb there????

Have you got aquarium lights by any chance???..may be a phone call to a 'fish' shop might be useful?????


..certainly let us know how you get on!!!!

[SarzWix]

Didn't the system come with lights/bulbs already? Usually with light fittings, the wattage is indicated somewhere on the bulb and close to where the bulb is fitted there is often a small label indictaing the maximumm wattage suitable for the fitting.
I've never used grow-lights, so I don't know if this will apply to your set-up. the only other thing I can suggest is to trawl ebay, and see if you can spot a similar set up being sold by someone else which might mention the wattage, or who may stock spare bulbs.

Good luck, I hope you sort it out

[Kwazie]

The set up did come with bulbs balasts, and hoods but the problem is they are so old that the informational stickers on the balasts had worn off and there was no information on th bulbs, I did not however look into the bulb fittings to see if there was anything there. I am getting this deal through my ichthyology (fish science) professor and he is unaware of the exact specs of the light though he did mention that they were used to grow coral in a salt water tank and with the lights on the 80 gallon tank would evaporate at a rate of about 2.5 inches per day. From this I can assume they are fairly powerfull (400 watt +) but I would like to buy replacement bulbs for them due to the condition of the originals.

I did investigate online to see if I could find similar specs for MH lights but the info provided was so ambiguous and disjoint that it was difficult for me to follow. most systems I saw can run 125 volt but states nothing about the amps.

[Nicos]

Oh dear...don't you have a question about potatoes or chooks????


Hmmm...can't help you mate..just give it a few more days to see if anyone can come up with an answer!!

[SarzWix]

Our usual 'grow light growers' (Crichmond?) haven't been around much recently, so it might be a little while...
If the lights were originally used for fish, it might be worth looking for a speciality fish forum or someone who sells that sort of equipment?

[Robinson Polytunnels]

The formula for deriving the power (Wattage) is quite simple.
P = V x I
(Watts = Volts x Amps).
Given your values of 125volts and 13amps, your wattage would THEORETICALLY be 1.625kW.

I would guess that 13 amps is not actually the current drawn by the bulb but is likely to be the fuse rating. In which case you can safely say that the wattage is less than 1.625kW (probably considerably less).

As for trying to calculate the wattage from the evaporation rate of the water in the tank, this is complex to say the least. You would also need to know the surface area of the water in the tank, ambient air temperature and humidity (and probably some other less significant parameters).

IMHO I think the most important considerations are the voltage and that the bulb fits in the bulb holder! Like any household lightbulb, the wattage can vary quite considerably.