Anyone with experience with orchidweb mr16

[txboi25]

Has anyone had experience with orchidwebs mr16 do they work?

[terryros]

Yes, I have a number of them, along with a number of the BR30s. The MR16s let you have the lights a fair bit above the plants. This is nice to accommodate spikes on Phalaenopsis. Choose the natural daylight type.


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[elaines]

Hi!

I have 2 of the MR16 bulbs. Both are in heat lamp reflectors that take A-base bulbs (gotta have some sort of fixture, after all). The bulbs are really pretty small but put out strong light. The light creates decent shadows from about 3-4 feet over my orchids. The ones I have are the 40* beam angle and natural white bulbs, each bulb centered over a 2.5 ft humidity tray. The label says the bulb brightness is 490 lumens and light appearance is 4000k. The light is strongly focused into the 40* angle. When both lights are on, I can't tell it from the other room because they don't really light up the surroundings, only what's within their "target zone".

If I'd do a better job caring for my plants, I could tell you how the bulbs are affecting their growth. Sorry I can't "shed light" on that. I'm using the bulbs to supplement light from a constantly-covered-in-Kansas-dust due-south-facing window that gets no direct sun in summer. In winter, I get abundant light. Between the bulbs and the window light, the high light orchids under the bulbs are all putting out new growth right now (despite my "care"). They did start growing better and grew all summer after I got the bulbs.

Hope that's of some help.

-Elaine

[Gthumbz89]

I just ordered one but until I experiment with it I won't have a clue. I hope someone else knows the answer.

[Gthumbz89]

I just received my order. I must say that orchidweb overstated their light levels. I get good leaf penetrance from this light even far away from the light, but when I measure it with a light meter it doesn't give off a very strong reading from even a foot away. Given that this bulb does not contain any special PAR frequencies and is simply white I don't think that I should use reduced light levels in considering how far to place it from the plants. It does seem like it would work when placed very close to the plants though as at a few inches from the bulb I get a reading of 2000 FC's.

No idea what the color spectrum of this light is, so it could be 2000 FC's of a useless spectrum. It is nice in that it runs very cool. I can touch the bulb and it only feels luke warm. Until I actually grow with this bulb though the jury is still out.

I hope this helps in your purchasing decision. As for me it gave me some confidence to upgrade my metal halide to a dedicated led grow light. (I found a cheap 300 watt one on ebay). I plan on making a post about it soon as the info on led lights is lacking on this forum.

[naoki]

I've been wondering why their LED bulbs are so expensive. It looks like that they are made by Taiwanese company (ALT: Aeon Lighting Technology). Maybe 7W MR16 is their Asteria series. By looking at the spec, V7, which uses Cree XT-E, is quite efficient.

True white (maybe 5000K?): 780 lm (amazing 111lm/W)
Neutral White (around 4000K?): 650 lm (92.9lm/W)
Warm White (around 2700L?): 580 lm (82.9lm/W)

It looks like OrchidWeb is using Neutral White.

Here is the comparison to Cree Flood light which you can get it from HomeDepot for $15-17:

Flood light
Both 2700K and 5000K: 650lm/9.5W (68.4 lm/W)

HD Cree A-type is a bit more efficient (but some light will be lost due to reflector).
5000K: 800lm/9W (88.9 lm/W)
2700K: 800lm/9.5W (84.2 lm/W)

Here is the table for other Cree Household bulbs.

I've been using Home-Depot Cree A-type (2700K, 9.5W) for a while. The original Warm White was using XT-E, but I think they replaced it with "Soft" White (instead of "Warm") earlier this year, which uses XB-series diodes.

It is amazing how much more light AEL is getting from the same chips (when you are comparing the same corrected color temp, i.e. 2700K vs 2700K). So there is a big price difference ($15 vs 60), but in a long run, you might be able to save money (especially if the electricity cost goes up)! But it will take quite a long time.