Swapped 400w MH for 180w CFL

[Fueler]

I have 4 400w metal halide fixtures in my shop with surrounding areas supported by CFL tube fixtures.

I bought one of THESE to try in one of the MH fixture. I can't say that it's really any brighter and perhaps might be just a bit less than the MH bulbs that are a year old now. It's a tough call. I think I can live with it.

I contemplated leaving the light deflector off to give out more light but opted not to in order to keep the CFL from getting dirty.

The watts on the CFL is 180. Oh, and it really is big in size but it did fit in the canister with the light deflector closed.

No more slow ramp ups that is normal for MHs.

I did not measure the actual wattage and am assuming the mfg numbers are correct.
The cost of the CFL bulb was 109.99 plus shipping.
The bottom line is this.
At my current electric rate including taxes each MH running for 12 hours (often more) cost me $11.76 per month or $133.48 per yr.
The CFL for the same 12 hrs should cost me $5.27 pr month and 60.07 per yr.
The break even point at the current rate should be 1.5 yrs.

I have the home and half of the rest of the shop converted over to LED and really wanted to do that for these MH lights just because I like the daylight range possible with LEDs. However they are going to have to drop to $200 ea to make that anywhere close to financially sensible.

Update: Came back to check when it was dark:thirty. The CFL is definitely brighter than the yr old MH lights.

 

[Sneeze357]

The cost of the CFL bulb was 109.99 plus shipping.

Ouch, you got hosed.
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/71818/FC180-S50.html

Lumens on a 400w metal halide is about 36,000, but they will drop to as low as 18,000 before they burn out. The 180W CFL is only about 1/3 as many lumens. (They are also less efficient as far as lumens per watt)

I really like these 105w CFLs:
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/64212/FC105-S41OD.html
I have about ten of them and they work well. I just can't spend more than $20 on a single bulb, experience has taught me they do not last 10 years, regardless of what the package says.

I just noticed the bulb you posted claims you don't need to unhook your MH ballast, but you should. It's wasting power if it's still hooked up for no good reason.

 

[Fueler]

I suppose you could blame Google for that.
I was looking for 240 v, 400w replacements, not 120v and 600w.
I did not want to mess with bypassing the ballast.....yet.
It would be nice to get rid of the transformer hum.
I need more so I may get one of these and one of their hi bay reflectors to do a side by side visual test.

I wonder what 400w MH with bulbs might be worth selling used If I just swapped the whole mess out.

 

[Sneeze357]

The ballast should be really easy to wire around. Just take the two wires that go from the ballast to the socket, and reattach them to the power wires coming into the ballast.

These types MH fixtures don't have much value used, recycling the fixtures is a good idea. Not sure if your lights are 120 or 240v, but 240v CFLs cost more, if yours are 240v it would likely be easy to convert your circuit to 120v also.

 

[Fueler]

I just revisited the specs on this Big E bulb. It reads like it must have a functioning MH ballast.
If this holds true then one of your recommended bulbs would have to be used if the ballast was bypassed AND converted to 120v from 240v.

Can any of the Electric Pros here confirm how many watts the ballast itself is using?

 

[Sneeze357]

Hmmm, you are right, that description is very misleading. Works from 120 to 480v, only if you leave the old ballast in place. In other words it only works from one voltage and you use the ballast as a transformer. Very inefficient. When powering a full 400w bulb, I think the ballasts use somewhere between 50 and 100 watts. Not sure how that is effected with a lower wattage bulb...

 

[Fueler]

I wish I had looked a little closer and asked more questions. Live and learn.
You may be right on the transformer usage. The local power company shows these use 455w and the pulse start versions uses 476 watts. I need to climb up there and see which mine is. Kind of thinking pulse start based on the way they start up.

A 200w pulse start uses 232w. It would be nice if mine drops that far but I have some doubts.

http://www.actonenergy.com/portals/0/business/forms/lighting-wattage-guide.pdf

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Can any of the Electric Pros here confirm how many watts the ballast itself is using?

I'm not a "pro" but the 400w MH fixture draws about 480 watts, so, if the MH bulbs are really 400w, then about 80 watts are consumed by the ballast. Not sure why anyone would want such a ba$tard, hybrid light fixture, considering I've been finding 400w MH bulbs Probe and Pulse start types, for about $20 at the Habitat ReStore (new) and at Lowes and Home Depot for less than $30. The ones I've found at Habitat must be used in a closed fixture (mine are open bottomed, no lower lens) so I've had to pass on them for safety reasons (they are ANSI M59, same as mine, and would work fine, but the safety issue is a concern)

For myself, I don't use my MH fixtures that much. The bulbs will deteriorate little more than the condition they are in right now, so I have no reason to change them out.

Charles