workhorse 7 ballast

I'm doing it with two 24" vho bulbs.  Wire the bulbs in series with three red wires to one end of bulb A.  The other end of bulb A wire to one end of bulb B.  Wire the other other end of bulb B to the yellow wire.  That's it.  You should limit this to 48" bulbs or smaller.

I'm not sure I agree with what fulham told Jake. I run two 110 watt VHO's ( 46" long each) on a workhorse 7 by running the ground looped to one side of the bulbs, and then run the other side of the bulbs to a pair (each) of the hot leads on the ballast. If you plan on having the ballast in your stand, you may consider the Longhorse 7. You can find the wiring diagram at www.fulham.com
As a side note, I talked to Fulham before connecting mine, and their engineers assured me it was safe to run up to 220 Watts, and it has never failed me in over two years. It is as bright as I have seen any other set of VHO's of similar color and brightness. EXCELLENT Ballast! E-mail me if you want a picture of how bright they are... I ran them for a month without my halides, and my corals (including sps) didn't seem to mind.

Wire it just like the Linear diagram in the following link. It's exactly the same way I did mine.

http://www.fulham.com/NewFiles/wire11.gif

Edited by Ryan Willden

I was under the impression that the wh7 can supply 220 watts which is two 48" bulbs.  It will fire one 8 ft vho according to fulhams web site.  But Jake is correct in that fulham officially does not recommend firing two bulbs with one ballast so do it at your own risk.

Ryan, vho requires 1500 ma current (HO 800 ma and NO 425 ma).  Fulhams wiring diagrams for NO is one red wire for each bulb, for HO is two red wires per bulb  and for vho is three red wires per (single) bulb.  That is why I've heard that three wires were needed for vho (500 ma per wire) and trick the ballast into thinking it's one long bulb.  I don't really know if that's true or not, did Fulham tell you that you'd get vho output wired that way or did they just say it would be safe?  The way you have it wired is for HO bulbs.

I don't know if both bulbs fire at vho levels or not (wired either way), but I would like to know.  Marcus and I were going to try to test this out, but it never happened.  I'm still interested...

Edited by jfinch

jfinch wrote: Ryan, vho requires 1500 ma current (HO 800 ma and NO 425 ma).  Fulhams wiring diagrams for NO is one red wire for each bulb, for HO is two red wires per bulb  and for vho is three red wires per (single) bulb.  That is why I've heard that three wires were needed for vho (500 ma per wire) and trick the ballast into thinking it's one long bulb.  I don't really know if that's true or not, did Fulham tell you that you'd get vho output wired that way or did they just say it would be safe?  The way you have it wired is for HO bulbs.

Good question... All I know is that they are bright, and the current bulbs have lasted for more than a year. They're still as bright as they were when I connected them. The ballast has been in use for over two years.
The fulham engineer I talked to said that there would be no problem running the two lamps with one ballast. Was he not telling me the whole story? Maybe, but my eyes don't decieve me, and I could tell a huge difference between one and two bulbs. Two VHO's running at slightly less than the recommended output is still brighter than one 110 Watt VHO running at full output. Either way you look at it, Two is better then one in my opinion. I originally followed Fulham's recommendation and only connected one bulb to three wires. It wasn't intense enough for me, so I added the second bulb, and it made a HUGE difference. I'll E-mail you a picture tomorrow of the light intensity if you'd like.

Edited by Ryan Willden

Marcus wrote: Ryan Wilden Wrote: Ryan Wilden, URI recommends changing your bulbs every 3000- 5000 running hrs. At 12 hours a day, that's 4380 hours in one year. I have a hard time believing that they would be still as bright even if they were on an Icecap. Since you see these bulbs everyday, you are going to have a hard time noticing the slow dimming of the bulb. I think that if you put some new ones in, you would notice a difference. But, if you have found the miracle cure, then you better buy the rights to it or something.

You can't dispute the fact that they are still bright, and that I've been
using them for over a year, because I have. I'm not going to give a
dime to a company like Icecap when Fulham makes a perfectly sound
ballast that will do exactly what I want it to do. And you're right, it is
a miracle cure in comparison to a $300 ballast. Ask your buddy Ryan
Williams. He's been using this setup about as long as I have with no
problems.

Edited by Ryan Willden

jfinch wrote: Atinic bulbs loose their "color" very quickly.  I've read studies that showed significant lose (50%) in only 2000 - 3000 hrs.  It's not necessarily a loss in intensity (or brightness), they just shift in color.  Ryan, I have no doubt that two bulbs are brighter then one.  Marcus had two 6' vho bulbs fired by one wh7 and the bulbs were pretty bright!  I was a bit surprised at just how bright they were!

I will agree that they shift in color after a time, but the intensity seems the same as you have indicated. Even after a year though, the bulbs are a nice blue color, and it made a big difference when running them with my 2- 10K 250 Watt Halides. Much nicer than with just one.

I agree with Jon about the power rating as well. I'm certainly not saying that the workhorse 7 will efficiently run two 46" VHO's. The WH7 will only drive 1.82 amps max, or 1800mA, and VHO's do require 1500 as Jon stated. However the question was about whether it would work, and the answer is yes, with minor drawbacks in intended performance.

Edited by Ryan Willden

This talk has reminded me that I need to change my bulbs top to bottom. man that will cost.

I need

2 mh250w 10k
3 160w vho act
1 160w vho white

that will be like $400 maybe I should just save up and do a space light.

scroll wrote: This talk has reminded me that I need to change my bulbs top to bottom. man that will cost.

Sucks doesn't it? I know how you feel though. I just replaced my two halides, and I got them cheap. It still cost me $140 though.
By the way Marcus, I wasn't intentionally trying to offend you, but sometimes your remarks tend to be a bit condescending. Come to think of it, that's why I stopped shopping at MSM. It would be nice if every comment on this board was about being right, but it's not. There's more than one way to skin a cat. That's all I was trying to say.

By the way, out of curiousity, I called URI and they assured me that underdriving the bulbs (as I am with the WH7) will actually extend the life of the bulbs, and that overdriving them will shorten their life. That is the only side effect from running them off of the WH7 ballast. And I'll take extending the life of the bulbs at the intensity they are at any day of the week.

Edited by Ryan Willden

Thanks Ryan!  Good info.

Hey willden,

 Kirk (AKA Kuhuna) came and saw my lights you can ask him what he thought of them since you never came over you must have been to  let me know when you want to .....