Overdriving NO Tubes

Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

I met a DIYer today (Marc, that's the guy I told you about with those5 stage
RO/DI units) that does this to his lamps.

Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the wattage of the
bulb. It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture that
with this balast is putting out 130watts after 1 year.

Will this trickery work for marine aquaria and corals???

~Mort

In article m,
says...
Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

I met a DIYer today (Marc, that's the guy I told you about with those5 stage
RO/DI units) that does this to his lamps.

Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the wattage of the
bulb. It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture that
with this balast is putting out 130watts after 1 year.

Will this trickery work for marine aquaria and corals???


Yep, it works. I've done it. I think the jury is still out over
whether it shortens the life of the bulb. However, even if it does it
is still a lot cheaper than any alternative. The hardest part was
hunting around to find 6500K 3' tubes.

You find lots of info about how to do it on Reefcentral.com. Be careful
with real electricity.

Alex

"Alex Kilpatrick"
wrote in message ...
Yep, it works. I've done it.

Have you measured the light output?
What are your results compared to nominal wattage electronic balasts?

I know going up with frequency (from magnetic to electronic) makes
the difference, but I have never heard positive opinions about
overdriving tubes powerwise.

The hardest part was hunting around to find 6500K 3' tubes.

How is overdriving influencing the color rendering/temperature?
Do you have any ways to measure effects of your changes at home?

Mort,

VHO bulbs must be replaced every six months. So if you want to save some money,
you can buy Sylvania or Philips 6500K bulbs at Home Depot or Lowes for ~$4.50
each. Great price. IceCap ballasts will overdrive them from 40w to 110w each,
but it will shorten their useable lifespan. In six months, their usefullness is
over. But that is okay!! It's time to replace them anyway.

If you don't change out your bulbs on schedule, you can end up with older bulbs
that shift in color spectrum which fuel algae outbreaks.

VHO - 6 months
MH & PC - 12 months.

Marc


Mort wrote:

Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

I met a DIYer today (Marc, that's the guy I told you about with those5 stage
RO/DI units) that does this to his lamps.

Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the wattage of the
bulb. It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture that
with this balast is putting out 130watts after 1 year.

Will this trickery work for marine aquaria and corals???

~Mort

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message ...
IceCap ballasts will overdrive them from 40w to 110w each, but it
will shorten their useable lifespan. In six months, their usefullness
is over. But that is okay!! It's time to replace them anyway.

I do not understand the reasoning here... If you have to change bulbs
every 6 months in their nominal working conditions, and overdriving
is shortening their life significantly, then when you overdrive you need to
replace them much more often to prevent color shifting and algae blums.
What am I missing in this picture?

What am I missing in this picture?

that MH is the way to go

--
Richard Reynolds

"Richard Reynolds" wrote in message news:50b1b.6287$Qy4.1954@fed1read05...
What am I missing in this picture?

that MH is the way to go

:-))) of course...

The best light output ratio. The best visual effects.
But running extremely hot and initialy expensive :-(

Pszemol wrote:

I do not understand the reasoning here... If you have to change bulbs
every 6 months in their nominal working conditions, and overdriving
is shortening their life significantly, then when you overdrive you need to
replace them much more often to prevent color shifting and algae blums.
What am I missing in this picture?

You are missing the dollar signs.

When I had 3 VHO bulbs on my tank, each one cost me $25 or more. By replacing the one
Daylight VHO with a Daylight NO, I saved $20 every 6 months, or $40 a year.

Marc



--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

"Mort"
wrote in message y.com...
Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the wattage
of the bulb.

Sounds good, but this will dramaticaly shorten the life of the bulb.
And be careful talking about "the wattage of the bulb" - it can be misleading.

It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture
that with this balast is putting out 130watts after 1 year.

What do you mean by "putting out 130 watts"?
You rather say "consumes 130 watts". You do not measure the light
output in watts. This is an electric not light output unit...
The light efficiency of different light sources is different, and
with given tube size and given amount of phosphors coating inside
the tube by increasing twice or triple the amount of current flow
you would rather increase the heat dissipation than ligth output.

Will this trickery work for marine aquaria and corals???

In my personal opinion you should be very sceptical analysing
stories like that. Experimenting with light in home environment,
without sufficient electical and light measuring equipment could
be very misleading and time/money consuming without good results.
Let the professionals do their jobs. If GE or Philips could drive
their bulbs with three times more light output they would do this
to outcompete their rivals but there is reason they do not do this.

And reasons a
- dramatic shortening bulb life
- increased heat production in the fixture
- lowered light efficiency
(much lower amount of light produced from 1Watt of electricity)
- color rendering change due to phosphor emitting color spectrum shifts
- color temperature change due to the same spectrum shifts

You decide. But in my opinion it is not worth it...

Well, I admit I do not know this man very well, but he claims that someone
he knows has a device that measures the light output and he said that
fixture "was clocked at 130watts"

So anyway... Naturally I have questions about this and that is why I am
here

~Mort