Cheap & Easy DIY Overdriven NO Flourescents

Sep 15, 2004
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Tucson, AZ
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#41
I have a question. When you took the wires that were ment for two 40 watt bulbs and put them to go to one bulb, did you still use the 40 watt bulbs or did you go out and get some higher wattage bulbs? If you got higher wattage bulbs wouldn't you get the full 80 watts of power.
 

ecotank

Superstar Fish
Aug 30, 2003
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Palm Springs, Ca
home.earthlink.net
#42
You use the same 40w bulbs, by overdriving them you are going to shorten their lifespan, but get considerably (about 55-60w) out of them. I've been overdriving an aqua=glo light now for about a year and the output is still better than the NO light right next to it, so not sure how much shorter the lifespan will be.
 

NoDeltaH2O

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Feb 17, 2005
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#48
i'd go for it. remember when you tough the flourescent buld, which will be warm, that incandescent bulbs and MHs get a LOT hotter. I currently have two 24" bulbs in a ballast designed for two 4ft bulbs, but wouldn't hesitate to try just one bulb on the same ballast, I just didn't think of that when I wired my system up.
 

NoDeltaH2O

Superstar Fish
Feb 17, 2005
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#50
I bought the 48" whole shop light, which has an electronic ballast and they start up automatically when the timer turns them on. I'm by no means an electrically inclined person, but I guess the starter mechanism is either included in the shoplight kit, or not needed with eletronic ballasts like they were with magnetic ballasts?...

About the price: I noticed that 24" flourescent shoplight kits are $16 whereas the 48" shoplights are only $8. Buy bulk and save? I guess the 48" ones are the most common so they can sell them for less. Or maybe they know the 24" kits are used for custom applications so they can just charge more for them. I would definitely go with the 48" ones over the 24" ones, for if you go with teh 24" kit you will not be OverDriving.
 

RobD

Medium Fish
Jun 14, 2004
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Mt. Pleasant, MI
www.cst.cmich.edu
#51
I just picked up 4 of thoese 48" Home Depot lights. They all have the good SL15 ballast in them. The thing I noticed with them is that they fit my Perfecto hood, which has two light fixture positions. So I just need to paint them black.

So my question is, when running the F32T8 bulbs (not the T12), is the wattage 32 watts, or do you count them as 40 watts when doing the wpg figure? I've seen some posts on other message boards that says they put out just as much light as a T12. I mean:

Standard T8: 4x32W=128W/90g = 1.4wpg
Standard T12: 4x40W=160W/90g = 1.7wpg

But when I do the 2X ODNO, it becomes:
2XODNO T8: 4x32Wx1.5=192W/90g = 2.1wpg
2XODNO T12: 4x40Wx1.5=240W/90g = 2.7wpg

I'm not looking into doing any high-light plants, nor do I want to get into CO2 at this point. So how do I calculate a T8 for wpg, and should I even bother doing ODNO at this point? I'll probably keep the ballasts just so that I have them if I ever do need them. Should I avoid going into the 2.? wpg arena.
 

Lucubrate

Small Fish
Feb 1, 2005
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San Antonio, TX
#52
From what I understand, the WPG rule is such a rough measure that yes, since it is a 4 foot bulb, the T8 still counts as 40 watts.

In actuallity, it is quite possible for the T8 bulb to be contributing more usable light than a T12. But that depends on the exact T8 and T12 bulbs you are comparing, and since the WPG rule doesn't really take that into account... just say it is 40W.
 

Toam

Large Fish
Jul 27, 2005
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Grove, Oklahoma
#55
running multiple lights of the same wattage doesn't increase anything does it? for example, two 20 watt bulbs, that'll simply increase where the light reaches? or would it actually help boost the wattage?
 

EvilWays

Small Fish
Feb 27, 2009
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#57
does pumping 80 watts into 40 watt bulbs really mean they are putting out more? is the 40 watt label on the bulb what they are meant to be run at or a max for the bulb?do you have anyway of testing to see if putting the extra wattage into the bulbs really does anything?