Who has used apollo dimming feature HPS?

[cnile]

600watt metal halide bulb says works with digital balast. its 600w balast appolo

do i need a 400w bulb to dim it or do i just flip the switch to 400w with the 600w bulb in there.

thanks

the instructions do not say how to dim it for some reason...

 

[Weaselcracker]

You can keep the largest size bulb in there and dim it to whatever setting you want.
This is what I've done for the last five years or so.
There isn't much science out there. I'll order a Lux meter soon and do some testing of the difference between a 600w bulb on a 400w setting, and a 400w bulb on the 400w setting.
The best info I can find indicates that there's an efficiency loss in dimming a higher wattage bulb. So you'll probably get a little more light if you use a 400w on the 400w setting. I haven't tested that yet. And according to the only decent study I found- the more you dim it the more inefficient it is.
Still- I feel safer having a large bulb in there. I don't like the thought of having a 400w bulb in a ballast when I can accidentally bump the knob and turn it up to 600. Is that going to cause an explosion? I really really doubt it. But it's obviously not a great idea to be overdriving anything electrical and will at least burn it out much sooner than otherwise.
Some people will say that dimming it causes a shift in the bulb spectrum. The best info I could find says that the shift is quite small. Larger with MH than with HPS though.
Anyway- yes you can dim the 600w bulb. If you read anyone saying that it's dangerous or will explode or any other such shit just disregard it- that's nonsense.

 

[cnile]

You can keep the largest size bulb in there and dim it to whatever setting you want.
This is what I've done for the last five years or so.
There isn't much science out there. I'll order a Lux meter soon and do some testing of the difference between a 600w bulb on a 400w setting, and a 400w bulb on the 400w setting.
The best info I can find indicates that there's an efficiency loss in dimming a higher wattage bulb. So you'll probably get a little more light if you use a 400w on the 400w setting. I haven't tested that yet. And according to the only decent study I found- the more you dim it the more inefficient it is.
Still- I feel safer having a large bulb in there. I don't like the thought of having a 400w bulb in a ballast when I can accidentally bump the knob and turn it up to 600. Is that going to cause an explosion? I really really doubt it. But it's obviously not a great idea to be overdriving anything electrical and will at least burn it out much sooner than otherwise.
Some people will say that dimming it causes a shift in the bulb spectrum. The best info I could find says that the shift is quite small. Larger with MH than with HPS though.
Anyway- yes you can dim the 600w bulb. If you read anyone saying that it's dangerous or will explode or any other such shit just disregard it- that's nonsense.

thanks man very helpful
exactly what i was looking for. i interested how the 400w will turn out.

 

[Cannabomb62]

Yeah just dim it down. I run a 1000 watt hps with a gallaxy legacy ballast and I just dim it down to 750 and it works great. No problems at all. For the past 2 years I ran a 1000 watt dimmed to 600 and never had a problem. Whats cool is if you feel like running full power you just turn that bad boy up to full power.

CannaBomb62000000