Ballast distance from bulb

I have a few bulbs and ballasts without enclosures and I just wanted to know if it was feasible to just throw the ballast in the box and plug a conventional floor lamp into the box with the bulb (either MH, MV, or HPS) screwed in to the base usually meant for incandescents. Is the voltage rating of a conventional socket too low for what is supplied for an HID bulb (specifically the starting pulse of an HPS)? Will 10 ft. of lamp cord have some detrimental effect on safety and/or performance with regards to extra capacitance and/or inductance? I have a 70W HPS set, and a 175W MH and MV set.

Thanks