How do I wire an ETI Class 1 250w ballast? It’s one of the most frequent questions we hear from clients at Alchimia, on social media and by email. In this video we will lay out everything you need to know to correctly and safely install and connect this type of ballast to various types of reflectors and lighting systems designed for growing your own cannabis indoors.
More information about Ballast : ETI Class 1 - 250w
Alchimia Growing Happiness
Hi, how’s it going? Today I’m going to show you how to install an ETI class 1 type ballast with different kinds of reflectors, with cable and without cable.
When we buy the ETI ballast, it comes with the ballast unit and the cable to connect it to the mains electricity. Today we’re going to fit it to a pair of reflectors, one that comes with the direct socket, without a cable, for which we will need another cable. And the other reflector is supplied with a “Plug & Play” adaptor, in this case we would use a female Plug & Play.
Also, of course, the HPS bulb and a few tools (screwdrivers, cable strippers, etc) to perform the job.
We’ll start by connecting the mains electricity supply cable to the ballast. To do this, we need to take extra care that to our left, on the socket are the letters "F - F - N - N - LR - LA”. F - N (they are dotted) are Live and Neutral. That’s where we’re going to connect the cable.
Normally N is Neutral, we’ll connect the blue cable, take the screwdriver, the cable, simply connecting it to either of the two sockets, the dotted ones. We put the blue cable in, tighten the screw, and the Neutral is connected. And the same with the Live, we connect the live to F, it’s the brown cable, and we tighten it up.
If we do it the other way around, it’s no problem, we’re working with 220w AC, so there’s no polarity. But while we’re doing the job, we may as well do it correctly. And above all, most importantly: the green/yellow cable, the Earth connects to this screw on the side of the case. This will avoid any problems if there’s a short-circuit in the installation.
Perfect, it’s ready now to connect the current. We’ll start by connecting the Alchimia Stuco reflector, fitted with a male Plug & Play cable. So, all we have to do to the ballast is connect a female Plug & Play cable to the transformer output.
To the LR we connect the brown cable and tighten really well with a flat head screwdriver, a small one in this case, so it fits in the socket. And in the LA the blue cable, in the same way, the cable goes in the socket, we tighten it, and once again, and very important, we’re left with the Earth cable. We’ll also connect this to the case, in this case using a cross-head screwdriver.
Before, we had fitted the Earth from the supply cable, well now we’ll put both cables on the case, together and taking care that they stay in, because this will give us the security we need in the installation. Perfect, so now it’s all ready to simply connect the male and female Plug & Play.
We’ve done the electrical part, all wired up, now to assemble the kit. Basically, first the bulb. In this case a 250w high pressure sodium bulb, because we’re working with a 250w ballast. We take hold of it carefully, always trying not to touch the glass with our fingers… we remove the paper, and we screw it into the ballast. Very carefully, the HPS should be tightened well, but without forcing it and breaking anything.
Once we’ve got it fully screwed-in we’ll note the end of the tread, there it is, perfect. The second step, very simple, we take the Plug & Play male and female, and we connect them. We’re working without connection, no, not without connection but without current at the moment, because we still haven’t plugged the ballast in yet.
And now, yes, the final test : We’ll connect the ballast to the mains supply and see what happens. It’ll take a moment or two to warm up, but let’s go… there it is, we can see the bulb and how it’s working and in a few seconds it will reach it’s maximum splendour. We’re working at 250w. Perfect: connection, cable, ballast, cable reflector and bulb.
In the previous test we saw how to connect a reflector with Plug & Play, in this case the Alchimia Stuco. Now we’ve removed the cabe from the ballast and what we’re going to do now, with the cable stripped at both ends, simply, with Live, Neutral and Earth, we’re going to connect a simple smooth reflector, that only has a connection socket. What we have to do is connect this socket with the output of the ballast.
We take one end of the cable and connect it to the socket following the colour code of the cables, if we see blue, we connect the blue, which in this case is neutral, and we tighten it well, taking care that the cable is well-fitted, without any wires sticking out at the sides, which could lead to a short-circuit. Blue, next the Earth, the green/yellow that’s in the centre in this case, and we finish off with the Live, brown cable, inserting it in the socket as far as it will go, and tightening well, again making sure no wires are protruding…
Perfect, we’ve got one end done, let’s leave it in this position. So that the reflector doesn’t fall and we can see, and now to wire up the ballast on the other end. We can start, if you want, with the Earth, we can connect it together with the the Earth from the other 220v cable that we connected before. This must go, like I said earlier, to the outer case, where it connects with a cross-head screwdriver and will serve to protect us from possible accidents due to short-circuits etc… that may trip the fuses of your house.
Very good, we’ve got the Earth cable connected. Well, in the LR we’ll connect the brown cable, tighten well, and in the LA were going to connect the blue cable in the output towards the reflector, perfect. Firmly, we’ve got the cables done, let’s continue with the bulb.
We take the bulb out, holding it by the cap and being careful not to touch the glass with our fingers. This will lengthen the life of the bulb in this case. We screw in the bulb firmly but not too firmly, we don’t want to break it.
Perfect, we’ve made the connection, now all we need to do is connect the supply cable to the mains, to the socket, and wait for it to start working as it is in this case.
One of the most frequent questions we get asked, on social media and in emails: How do I wire up a ballast like this? A Class 1 ETI… well now you’ve seen, it’s simple, and for two different kinds of reflectors, with Plug & Play or with direct cable.
Until next time !!
