[rossb]

Sorry to add more confusion to an already murky topic. I got a couple of VHO's on sale from pet land. The commercial ballast for two 4' 110 W VHO's (from comercial lighting) is 93 bucks (100 ish with GST). You cannot directly buy from commercial lighting as they are only wholesale. That said...one can alway walk in all confident like and pick some large company (with an account with them) and tell them your going to pay for the item yourself. The really don't care :twisted: .

Here is where murky enteres it. I have quite a few standard phillips ballasts (6-8) gathering dust. Electrically you should be able to connect them together so 3X34=102 watts...which is in the VHO range. Anyone ever tried that?

How about connecting some 2' bulbs with pulse start ballast to the 34 W ballast to over drive them? would that work?

Note of caution...every electronic component contains a certain amount of smoke. Once all the smoke is out..well they quit working...plus that smoke is really really bad for you