[Delphinus]

The advantage to using an electronic ballast is that the ballast won't give off heat. Thus, there is a slight improvement in efficiency.

That said, I have to view the claim that the reason the bulbs last longer with a little bit of skepticism. Personally, I feel they're probably acheiving this by slightly under-driving the bulbs.

My own take on them is that they're overpriced. The slight gain in efficiency and lamp longevity is offset by the huge initial cost up front, and frankly even if the improved efficiency results in a lower hydro bill, I think it would take years and years for the ballasts to pay for themselves. So don't look to them to make the hobby cheaper, but if heat or noise from the ballast is an issue then maybe.

I have tried electronic ballasts in two cases. In one, it was an Icecap driving a 175W Ushio. This was supposed to be the best ballast for an Ushio, driving them at peak performance. The lamp flickered so badly that looking at the tank gave me a headache. I tried three different bulbs before giving up and sending the ballast back. .. In the other case it was not an Icecap brand ballast but another one (name escapes me at the moment). At one point when trying to testing a DIY fixture, one of the leads had contact to ground and the surge fried the ballast instantly. The ballast is unrepairable, so now I have a $150 paperweight. It was that easy to destroy the ballast, a few seconds of tinkering and that was that.

I'd be more sold on the idea of electronic ballasts if the cost wasn't so much.

...

Now, an upgrade to a pulse-start ballast ... that's another story. Most of the bulbs of interest to the hobby run better on pulse-starts over the older style probe-starts. Upgrading to a pulse-start is definitely worth considering.