Skunkworkz
New Member
I don't even know if those particular bulbs are still available, since it has been more than 17 years since I bought one. My Lumatek has a setting beyond its "400" one that will drive a bulb at greater than 400 watts. I'd like to have one of those old 430-watt bulbs (in new condition, of course), so I could see if it would live at the Lumatek's maximum wattage setting.
The "430w" bulbs you bought, were HPS "conversion" bulbs that ran on MH-specific ballasts. (There's both MH>HPS & HPS>MH conversions still available.) You can still buy them, and they'll run on e-ballasts easily. On "turbo" mode an e-ballast overclocks by 10% so a 430w bulb would be run @ 440w in overclock mode & I'd think that it'd be no issue.