Quest about workhorse ballast

[bayarea_ca]

Okay, I got a workhorse 5 ballast, and there's 4 red wires and one yellow wire. ballast is 128watt anld 4 red wires. 128/4=32. So does that mean each red wire is 32watts? So If I want to power a 96watt bulb I would stick 3 red wires in the first two pin, and the last two pin the yellow wire? Or do I just need to stick one red wire in it and it'll power it at 96watts?

[Kennetht]

No.......If you are wanting to run 1-96W....then you need to hook up the yellow wire, and one red wire. Then just cap off the other 3. They are just there in case you want to run 4 bulbs. Your bulb will run at full potential. I have the same ballast with 2 55W PC's attached to it. I love the ballast. It runs 14 hours a day and still doesn't get hot. Go to http://www.fulham.com and look at their wiring diagrams.

[MrZ]

I have always used fulham ballasts like kenneth mentions. I run two red leads for 55w bulbs and 1 red lead for 28w bulbs when using workhorse 5s. This is how fulham recommends wiring 1 96w power compact to a workhorse 5:

 

[bayarea_ca]

Okay I'm getting two answer here, one person tells me 3 red leads, and the other tells me just one. Will one red lead run it at full power?

[Kennetht]

I had the same problem. The website said to use 2 wires per bulb, but only half of the bulb would fire. I went to one red wire to each bulb and had no problem. The 2 pins on the left get the same wire, and the 2 right pins get the same wire.....just run the yellow and a red, and cap off the rest. If it doesn't fire completely...try the other way.

[MrZ]

Make it easy on yourself - go to www.fulham.com

on the main page there are 3 drop downs for lamp types, quanties and wattage, and line voltage. Fill them out and hit submit, click on the ballast you are using and it will show you the recommended wiring diagram direct from the horses mouth.

 

For what its worth, fulham is calling power compact bulbs "biax".

[kkdo]

OK. Very stupid question here, but when you say "cap", what do you mean exactly? Like put one of those wiring nuts on each individual wire?

[liquidfluidity]

Is correct. Use his diagram. I ran 96 quad for the last 2 years and that is the same exact diagram I used. Any question , pm me and i can send you a pic of my ballast wiring.

[Rikko]

afaik the Workhorse ballasts are divided among the 4 leads.. If the ballast can fire up to 128W, that translates to 4x32W bulbs. If you combine the red leads you could also fire 2x64W bulbs, a single 96W bulb with one capped off, or one 128W bulb.

 

But, Ken says he's running his 55W using a single lead (which will theoretically push 32W), so I guess that blows my understanding of the ballast out of the water.

 

Either way, what I described works as is done by most.. Ken seems to be onto a sneaky method that isn't as well popularized.