wareagle22

These lights have transformers in them to step the voltage down. The bulb in a 150 watt HPS is running on 50-55 volts. This is where the 2.8 to 3.0 amp draw comes from. The 400 watt HPS runs of off 90-95 volts. Installing a capacitor in line with the bulb drops the amperage to about 1.4. Hope this helps.

X-Shark

This will give you a pix of what Wareagle22 is talking about.



The "CAP" is short for capacitor.



It is wired in parallel in the circuit. Some Cap's have 4 terminals to make this even easier. A 1/4in female spade terminal just plugs onto the male terminals on the Cap.









These lights can get heavy. This can cause a problem with the mounts and the shaking of the boat during trailering and rougher water.



There are guys removing the guts out of their lights except for the socket and bulb. Then they are building a remote box with all the guts from the lights in them.



Here's one nice example. While it may look complicated to some. It's just the same circuit as above 4 times, for 4 lights.

The Maintenance Shoppe

Xshark you are right about the lumen output per watt of hps light being much more effecient than others, but the color spectrum the emit isn't as useable to the human eye. I have compared MH to HPS lights and the MH lights just seem to be a lot brighter to the eyes than the hps.



I want to see someone use neon lighting in your application. There is nothing brighter than neon. Neon uses about 100 milliamp at 10,000 volts per foot of tubing. The bonus is zero heat emitted. You can order neon tubing bent to any shape you desire. No need for heat dissipating housings. You can make a reflector out of aluminum stock very cheap.



I'm not trying to start shit.



I just would love to see someone run with the idea of neon.

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new wave archery

you are correct on that mh is brighter than the hps. but the hps is bar none the best way to go with for fishing. the lumen range and cri is alot better for water espesially murky water.. i have run everything from halo,led,mh,hps,incandesent, and other hids. but the hps is the best way to go that i have found for the wattage and amp load. i do run mh's on my boat now and they work fine for me but will be changing them out this winter with hps bulbs and ballasts.also goign to be making my own light housings that will measure 15"highx120" wide that will hold 5-400 watt hps bulbs onlyin them to go down theside of the boat. and build a transfomer box for all the goodies with fans cooling everything down. its going to be my ultimate setup.

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Five Prongs Of Fury

I second this motion!!! I run 4 150 watt hps lights and they are definitley the ticket. I also will have to agree that the mh's are brighter but just as NWA said the hps's are unbeatable in murky or stained water. They tend to penetrate through whatever is suspended in the water rather than reflecting off of it. Oh yeah, New wave, when you do get your hps system going judging from what you have in mind it will be hands down the baddest rig on the water. I can't wait to see the final product!!!

wareagle22

After chasing flounder on Friday night in some really dingy water, I have decided to change from MH to HPS. The metal halides are unbeatable in clear water (intercoastal, Fort Pickens), but for dingy water, I am sure that the HPS are the way to go. I have 6 on order and all the stuff to build a remote ballast box to take the weight off the fixture and to add a capacitor to reduce the amp draw. If any of you are on the fence about which lights to try, I will be out this weekend with the MH one last time if you would like to look at them (I am going to keep them for the fall Fort Pickens run:clap).