Multiple bulbs on a single ballast?

[XXXJAYXXX]

Hey everyone.. Had a technical question posed to me today.. Just wondering if any of you electrical wizards could chime in on this!

I have a friend growing in a 4ft crawlspace with 1000W bulbs.. needless to say... his room is WAY overlit.. and he was wondering if it is possible to wire 2 x 400W HPS bulbs to a single 1000W magnetic ballast?

Seems to me that this might work as its still pulling less than the ballast rating.. but I dont know for sure and we want to be safe if we try this! Thanks in advance!

XXXJAYXXX Reviewed by XXXJAYXXX on 05-19-2013. Multiple bulbs on a single ballast? Hey everyone.. Had a technical question posed to me today.. Just wondering if any of you electrical wizards could chime in on this! I have a friend growing in a 4ft crawlspace with 1000W bulbs.. needless to say... his room is WAY overlit.. and he was wondering if it is possible to wire 2 x 400W HPS bulbs to a single 1000W magnetic ballast? Seems to me that this might work as its still pulling less than the ballast rating.. but I dont know for sure and we want to be safe if we try Rating: 5

[cannabis-seeds]

I haven't done this, but I recently saw a splitter/adapter that would let you run 2 600 Watt bulbs off a 1000 Watt ballast - not sure how the math works on that, but that's how the product was described.

Maybe they have the same type of thing for 400W bulbs.

Can a room be overlit? Love to know from some of the experts on here.

[TANKJR]

LOL Yea, well maybe a ROOM can't be over-lit, but a 4' crawl space with a 1000w is going to cause a lot of problems. You would almost have to SOG small plants to keep enough distance from them to keep from frying them!

You may find a splitter that would do that, and it would work, but why doesn't he just go get two 400's and sell the 1000? He's gonna have enough challenges growing in a crawl space as it is. I would recommend dropping back and punting and go get the lights that make sense for a crawl space. Maybe one of the new Induction lights? He he Mixing and matching ballasts and lights can be very dangerous. Stay within design parameters of electrical devices and avoid burning down houses.

[XXXJAYXXX]

All of his lights are in cool tubes.. so heat is not really an issue.. but the plants do get fried at the tips if they get more than 16-18 inches tall. I would be interested to see one of these splitters in action! He is basically trying to cut down on the extra wiring that would be involved to double the amount of ballasts and fixtures he is running. And yes.. a room can be overlit.. if you have your lights in cool tubes and get them within a foot of the tops.. you will see them do some funky things indeed! It usually just causes the tip not to grow bud.. the tip stays spiny with long veggy leaves and then fattens up once the light is far enough away. Do you happen to have a link for that splitter?

Cheers!

[Shovelhandle]

that splitter is designed for Sunpulse 600 watt lamps only.