lack of lighting on a patio set-up

[Sandy4453]

Advice is direly needed. My orchids are kept on shelving units on my patio, screened and facing north/east. I definitely need to get more lighting to the orchids especially, the Catts (about 20) now that the sun has shifted and hardly get any bright light there in winter, but I know nothing about what to provide for them except, fluorescent lighting. I can't install lighting in the units, above the orchids because, being on a patio where weather conditions can interfere, would be dangerous...lot's of rain here in Fla. Would it be defeating to assume that a floor lamp with regular light bulbs would help enough? Does anyone know of floor lamps with fluorescent lights and which in particular I need to get?

Thanks and apologies for not searching this forum more in depth than I have where, maybe the answer already lies....

[John]

Hi Sandy, I have been watching your post for some time now hoping you would get an answer. I assume that you don't have room inside to move your shelves and put lights on them. You mentioned floor lamps, would you bring them in when it looked like rain? Could you put lights on the shelving units and cover them to shed the rain? I have had Catts bloom under 4 tube T8 fixtures. Maybe someone else will jump in with ideas.
John

[Ross]

Yeah, I'm stumped by this one, so I didn't answer. Lights outdoors are somewhat problematic.

[Ocelaris]

Why not a big old metal halide? Like a low bay warehouse light like they use in home depots?

Here's a 250w for ~50$, add another 40$ for a good Iwasaki 6500k BUD (Base up/down since it will be hanging) and you are set... that's exactly what I have for my aquarium... ok, a little nicer fixture, but same bulb. Could go with a 400w easily too though.

Hubbell Low Bay Fixture 250w 110v Metal halide - (eBay item 250195918087 end time Dec-17-07 14:01:46 PST)

just search "low bay" or "high bay" on ebay... metal halide

[Ocelaris]

here's a 400w version for 80$ shipped:

400 Watt Lithonia Metal Halide Low Bay lights - (eBay item 250196131586 end time Dec-15-07 12:11:35 PST)

Just lemme know if this interests you, can help you pick out a good bulb. I know they're not pretty, but they're out door tested, and cheap!

[Ross]

Are these OK in the rain?

[snow]

why not put in a fault interrupter plug like you use in wet places,then you can use whatever you desire. even florescents

[Sandy4453]

John, I really appreciate you bumping up this thread. I've basically given up on the lighting and not for any reason other than I'm stumped. I can't install the lights on the units themselves and cover them when weather dictates. The patio is screened and when it rains, no part is sheltered from it.

Ocelaris, this lighting sounds good but what I need to avoid is any kind of alteration to the area itself. I have no way of hanging this fixture unless I call in a handyman. I'm in a temporary living situation and not a good idea that I start installing lighting. That's why I was looking into something like a floor lamp? possibly that I could move out of the area when the weather gets bad.

[Ocelaris]

Well they make those 150-300w spot halogen floor lamps, but they're not very good at growing plants, however you can retrofit in a Metal Halide 150w bulb... I have done that for those kinds of fixtures before, here's a post I have made elsewhere which might come in handy. The basic idea is take a halogen fixture, and replace it with a correct sized HID (Metal Halide) socket, and ballast and put it back together.

So you like HID lighting in your Car? How about in your living room? It's energy efficient, and

This is how to retrofit a 150watt HID lamp into a standard halogen uplight you may have lying around.

excellent lighting quality. You can pick from 4200k up to 6500k, CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 80-

96. Typical lumens are in the 10,000-15,000 range... (BRIGHT!)








Parts needed:

150watt Metal Halide, HQI, Double Ended Bulb
150watt Electronic Metal Halide ballast
150watt HQI Socket

Assorted parts:
Halogen Lamp
Power Cord
14 gauge zip/lamp cord
crimps and electrical tape (solder + heat shrink tubing optional)

Tools
screwdriver, wire cutters, drill or poker.

HID Ballast

HID Bulb

Ushio 4200k 90+ CRI
http://www.ushio.com/det_gl_metalhal_ceramique.htm <-reference



Iwasaki Color Arc Renaissance 4000k-6500k 96 CRI

EYE COLOR ARC - RENIASSANCE <-reference



First, this is the easiest type of lamp to retrofit, it already has a Halogen bulb in it, so

mounting is a snap. You may have a Dimmer or 3 way (off, low, high). If it's a dimmer, you must

remove the dimmer. If you have a 3 way, you can pop off the back, and there is a diode inside.

Remove the diode, and it will become a 3 way on/off switch (no low mode anymore). The diode serves

to block voltage below 0v, esentially cutting the brightness in half. The dimmer is a big resistor

basically, and you can't dim most HID ballasts.




Here you can see the 3 special ingredients, Bulb, Ballast, and Socket. Also the cord, but pretty much any lamp cord will do, even the one that came with the light originally:




150watt HQI Socket



My Ushio 4200k 90+CRI 150w HQI Metal Halide (HID) bulb




Lamp cord




WHERE TO BEGIN:

First start by unscrewing the top part, and just cut the wires close to the crimp caps:




Then unscrew the middle section where we will extract the dimmer switch and bypass it. If you have a

3-way, you can rig it as an on/off switch, but that will be for later. I would recommend bypassing

it totally. Just cut the dimmer wires, and unscrew the nut holding it on.




See it's a big resistor, waste of power



Ok, now let's go back to the top section, should be cut loose at this point. Remove the bulb

CAREFULLY... do not get your finger prints on the bulb or it will kill the bulb when it gets hot and

possibly explode. ALWAYS ALWAYS use some sort of plastic or cloth, and only remove when cool. You

will have to remove the glass shield, just take the screws holding the glass shield off (not

pictured) and throw away.





Now we're going to remove the reflector with the middle screw:



Now remove the actual Halogen Socket with the 2 outer screws



See the HID (Metal Halide) HQI socket is a bit wider and sturdier and is rated for that 4000 volts

that arcs the lamp. The Halogen socket is not, and is smaller.




Notice that the HQI socket does not fit in the reflector, it's too long.



Just take some tin snips and cut a little to the edge until it fits:



It's a good idea at this time to give the reflector and top bowl a bath, since they're probably very

dirty.

Next we're going to need to mount the HQI socket. The white bowl (not the reflector) happens to have

mounting points for the HQI socket... PERFECT. So we need to drill holes in the aluminum reflector

so that we can put screws through the aluminum reflector, through the socket and into the bowl's

tapped mounting points. Get that? It's screw -> aluminum reflector ->HQI Socket -> white bowl. So

flip the aluminum reflector over, and line up the middle hole, then punch or drill holes (may have

to mark first) where the outer holes will go thorugh.




Now the wires for the HQI socket are going to go through the center nipple (yes it's really called a

nipple), and we won't use the center screw. My nipple had a plastic piece that was stopping me from

fitting my 2 wires through:



See how it lines up perfectly without the aluminum reflector?




Now screw the two outer screws in, and that's all for the reflector/top part. You should have your

wires coming through the bottom of the white bowl, through the nipple WITHOUT Pinching! Also since

it's metal, be careful not to cut the rubber jacket of the HQI socket wires.



Ok you need 1 par of wires going from the bottom to the top of the lamp. I was able to pull the wire

from right after the dimmer switch far enough up that it could reach the HQI socket wires. Then I

snipped off the socket at the bottom. But this long wire was already there, how convenient.



Now here is the optional part. How are you going to connect wires. Crimp caps work fine as long as

they are sealed well with tape or better yet heatshrink tubing. I chose to solder and heatshrink,

it's not a bad idea if you have it lying around. Since the ballast puts out 4000 volts momentarily

to arc the bulb, it's absolutely critical that you have everything insulated water tight. Lots of

layers of electrical tape is fine.






If your significant other is not around, you might even be able to use your handy dandy portable

butane soldering iron in the middle of the living room like I did!

Ok so we have 2 wires coming from the HQI socket to the bottom of the lamp. If you used the wire

that came with the lamp, you have a socket at the base. Snip it off and strip back some wires. You

will have 4 or 5 wires for the ballast. 2 for the Lamp, and 2 or 3 (depending if it's grounded) for

the wall outlet. my 2 lamp wires were red, there is no polarity here for a Double Ended HQI Metal

Halide bulb. The white/black wires are for the wall, and if you have a green wire, it is grounded,

or strapped to the ballast chassis depending on your application. My ballast was not grounded.









Careful when joining wires with solder, little copper wires can easily cut through heatshrink or

electrical tap and short out. Make sure any prickly parts are either cut off with nippy cutters, or

wrapped extra times with electrical tape and/or heatshrink tubing.

That's IT! We're ready to plug everything in and see if we blow up the house now. So take your bulb

out CAREFULLY!!!! They're not very shock absorbent, but they are pretty hardy, but it's glass.

DO NOT TOUCH THE BULB WITH YOUR HANDS... IT WILL EXPLODE when you turn it on (maybe). Use a piece

of bubble wrap like I did, or your shirt.





Now put it in the socket carefully, make sure that the contact points on the bulb make good contact

with the socket. Slide in one side, push it way back, and then slide it down. You could have

practiced with the halogen bulb... Sometimes it goes in left to right better than right to left...

Crank it up!

[Sandy4453]

OMG Ocelaris, you've literally given me a precise, how-to and I can't tell you how outstanding this is and thank you soooooooooooo much but, you left one itsy teeny detail out and that is when you'll be over to do this for me. I am so not good at stuff like this. I'm still impressed at myself for putting together the computer table I'm typing this on.

I can't thank you enough for all of this. Hopefully, someone here with more smarts than I will put this to good use. I just get too overwhelmed with stuff like this.