Electronic versus Magnetic Ballasts - What is the real difference?

[buzz]

I am going to be upgrading to MH shortly, and keep hearing how much better and more efficient electronic ballasts are than magnetic.
Magnetic is fastly becoming much cheaper to buy. So, my question is: How much more efficient is electronic than magnetic? Is there that big of a difference?
Shed some "light" on this for me...thanks!

 

[bang guy]

IMO for MH Electronic is only slightly more efficient. The best advantage is the potential to light a wider variety of bulbs. It still depends a lot on the manufacturer though.

 

[tony detroit]

I have magnetics on my 3 mh's. Custom sea life. They work just fine for me, but I do know that everyone I talk to says that the electronics work better. How much better I do not know.

 

[suver569]

I'm an electrician, I can tell ya that an electronic setup is gonna be 1)a bit more efficent 2)quieter 3)run cooler.
A mag ballast will always run hot. I had a 96 watt mag ballast with 1 30 watt bulb on it once for a test, and the thing was still burning hot 8 hours after I turned it off. It's a fire hazard IMO.
Mag ballasts also are noisy at times, some cheap ones are rediculious. The electronic ones typicallly run at 20,000 mhz or higher frequency, and only the dogs may be able to hear that. Mag ballasts will run at your typical 60hz, noisy transformer frequency.
One bad thing about the electronic ballast is equipment interferance. I've heard about people having problems with there lights and having computers to close to them. Just isolated incondents tho.
HTH