hi guys my friend has a flower shop were he runs some hid lighting he bought some lights of some gardening website online anyway they are called proxima and are 600 watts ..now im in n.ireland so power is 240v ...i thought these lamps would draw around 2.6 amps but when they are running they are drawing nearly 1 kw for each light thats over 4 amps ,is this because the lights are cheap,i thought that a 600 w light would draw more when starting but then go back to around 600w or a little over when warmed up ...i have 32 amp breakers in the shop he only needs to run 4 of these lights i guess 2 0r 3 lights to a circuit would be enough ....thanks guys

 

You are in a place where the measurements look absurd because of inductive phase shift. My 50 watt HPS lamps appear to use 165 watts off the 120 volt power line but it isn't true. What happens is that an inductor in series with the bulb limits the current as if the bulb wasn't there. Your ballast will conduct the same amount of current through the socket if you just short it out!!!
So...look up the amps that your bulb requires by seeking the ballast specifications. The power of the bulb is NOT the power line voltage times the current because it is all messy phase shifted.