how to over drive a T5?

[viodea]

I've heard people saying overdrive a T5 with ice cap. How?
Is there a dial or switch to do it?
Is it done by wiring?
Is it done by bulb selection?

[lark]

Reminds me of a joke.

A Red Sox and Yankees fan are having lunch. The Red Sox fan pulls out a thermos of soup. The Yankees fan asks, "what's that"? The Red Sox fan says, "A thermos. It keeps hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold." The Yankees fan asks, "how does it know"?

The icecap just knows. It drives 48" bulbs at 80 something watts. No dials.

[kittyj]

As Lark said, you don't have to do anything. Just hook it up like any other ballast.

[an411]

What would doing this accomplish? you being able to use different bulbs or something?

[lark]

Originally posted by an411
What would doing this accomplish? you being able to use different bulbs or something?

You get more light out of the same set up. Basically, the icecap allows you to turn high output bulbs into very high output bulbs.

Suppose you have four 48" t5 bulbs in your canopy. With standard ballasts, you have 216 watts (4x54). The icecap overdrives the same bulbs -- it gets about 85 watts out of the same bulbs. So, same set up, but different ballast adds about 120 watts (4x85 is 340 watts).

[an411]

are there any side effects to doing this?

shorter bulb life?
of course probably a more expensive electric bill?

This is interesting I never heard of this being done

[ljosh]

shorter bulb life from heat

[lark]

People seem to have good results. Heat is an issue, though. Wouldn't want to do it without good ventilation in your canopy.

[viodea]

so, there is no way to NO overdrive bulbs when using ice cap ballast, is it?

[lark]

Originally posted by viodea
so, there is no way to NO overdrive bulbs when using ice cap ballast, is it?

Some would say this is like asking, "can we please get LESS beer"!

:0)

Right -- icecap only has one option: on or off. I wonder whether they could modify it for you? You could ask in the icecap forum. Might be more expensive than just buying a standard ballast, though.

[viodea]

I may want to overdrive it if I use ice cap. I'm just wondering if they have a reason for it.