Hey fresh,

I've not got any experience with ballasts that are incorporated into the lighting hood i'm afraid. I'd "GUESS" that they aren't really any different to remote ballasts but as they're inside the growing area they will be a little warmer as the temp in the grow area will usually be warmer than outside so they will run a little hotter. Also they will raise your growrooms temps but probably not too much.

I'm not sure they're much cheaper than seperate lighting kits tho, when i was looking at lights some time ago they were maybe $20-30 cheaper, but i'm in the UK so things maybe different on your side of the water. I assume you've checked out ebay?