Quote Originally Posted by tikiroom
oldmac,

When you overdrive those bulbs with that ballast, is there any adverse effects? Such as lamp life and added heat.

Also do you roughly know total wattage included that ballast?

Figured it would be ok to ask since still on topic.
Tikiroom,

The plus side of driving the bulbs to VHO levels, doubling the lumens output without doubling the wattage. A 2' or 4' 4 bulb setup equals an 8 bulb HO setup. Right there is a savings of 32 watts for a 2' or 92 watts for a 4'.
Also you can use NO (normal output) bulbs that are cheaper then HO bulbs, tho you can't mix NO and HO bulbs together. Ballast watts used is not much more then standard HO.

Heat is increased but it is minor, since the ballast can be remote mounted it is actually cooler then a fixture with the ballast internal.
Bulb life is shortened. But even tho the lumen drop off is not as sharp or as bad as a HID, floro tubes need to be switched out also.
In my UVb supplemental light, the bulbs are NO reptile bulbs, I change them every 6 months or upon death.
OM