Quote Originally Posted by mightymarijuanabuds
NOOOO

no on that, no on the 400 into a 1kw ballast... NOOO non matching bulb/ballasts!

the bulb / ballast wattage MUST match... sure, the light may WORK in a different ballast, but over an extended period of time that growing requires, there is a good chance that, at the least, the bulb will crack or explode, and at the worst, will cause a fire... if you have made it through a whole grow with mismatched bulb/ballast wattages, then you were very lucky IMO

spend the extra few bones to get the proper bulb, and sleep better at night :twocents:
Opps guess the last 5 years of using a 400w MH in an extra 1000w transformer is bad then!!!! O-My-God!!!!

Bull Shit!!!

It's only going to draw as much amps as it takes to light the bulb. Instead of having 20% amperage in reserve (as caculated by the engineer) you have more like 40% so the transformer producess less heat and still put's out the amps.

Have I nice Day!