Lights...again.
 

Having moved a few times and rarely having enough windowsill space facing the right direction has forced me to pursue growing most of my stuff under lights.

Like others, I have the cursory florescent setup(s) obtained cheaply from Home Depot in addition to some experiments with HID.

In my bedroom, over top of a dresser, I used a bracket shelving system to hang a 2 x 4 foot lay in troffer usually seen in drop ceiling with acoustical tiles. It uses T- 8 bulbs and I'm using a 50:50 mix of cool white and warm white (actually Phillips "Daylight" and "Kitchen and Bath") These are, I believe 5000k and 3400k. I have them approximately 4" above the foliage of about 40 paphs. Mottled and green leafed plus a few other things thrown under there to observe. (Couple small phals, a BLC, a neobethamia gracilis and some unopened flasks. The plants sit in a "boot tray" like you toss your wet winter boots on when you come in from outdoors, filled with river gravel and water. So far, and I've only used it a couple months, I've been pleased. I run an oscellating (sic.) fan about 3 feet way which blows back and forth, covering the whole setup.
I don't have any major questions with this set up.

In the basement, there is an old powder room with nothing in it but a toilet. Cinder block walls, cement floor and wooden rafters above. My other flourescent lights are in there which is comprised of cheap $7 shop light fixtures holding two 48" bulbs each. Each shelve has two shop lights, each with a warm and cool white bulb. Again, generally about the same degrees kelvin.

In the ceiling, and this is where it gets interesting, I bought a 70 watt high pressure sodium light that you might traditionally mount on a garage or pole. I remove the plastic shroud so the bulb is fully exposed. Next to it is a 100 watt mercury vapor light set up the same way. I decided this wasn't enough and 4' away mounted another pole style 185 watt mercury vapor light. I've read mixed reviews about mercury vapor but metal halide has been too difficult and expensive to obtain. (Lowes just started selling one about 100 watts for $65.) I'm fairly pleased with this. Enought that I had to make another temporary setup when I got a little overzelous with my plant purchasing using another 70 watt HSP and a 185 watt mercury vapor in a corner of the basement and draped the whole thing in white shower curtains to reflect back the light and help contain humidity. What I'm NOT happy about and have a question about is the amount of electricity being used for this set up. Home Depot sells a product manufactured by Lights of America that is a 65 watt compact flourescent bulb designed (because of the ballast) to be screwed in place of a 185 watt mercury vapor. They claim it's brighter, the color is more white than blue, and more energy efficient. The brightness lumens on the box are higher than the mercury vapor but the photopic lumens on the box is less. I want to try it but it's a $20 bulb. I'm just not sure about it yet. Lights of America has been unresponsive to my questions. Anyone familiar with it or using compact flourescents in general?

Also, on this forum, I'm reading about people using T-5's. A T-5 to me is a compact flourecent or a very thin tubed straight bulb. I'm reading that many of you are stating they're almost too bright! Yet they seem to be less wattage than T-12 bulbs or T-8's. I don't get it.
Am I understanding you correctly? Now...on that note, I was a a seminar in my local library the other day and looking up, noticed they had what looked like a compact flourescent bulb in a recessed fixture that was so bright I had to turn my eyes away. I thought maybe this was what you were talking about but have yet to see anything like it at Home Depot or Lowes. Maybe I need to go to a specialty lighting store.
Any suggestions? I'm really concerned about efficient electrical usage since I'm living at home with an aging parent temporarily and this is all going on their electric bill.

Thanks!

interesting there. how big are T-5's?
I just grow with two shop lights right now plus every windowsill, but I see in the future I will need to expand.

T5s definitely produce more lumens per watt of energy consumed but they do that at 95 degrees F as opposed to T12 which is measured and intended for 72 degrees. I have to run a small fan across mine (between light bank and terrarium as it gets pretty warm in terrarium otherwise. Also lumen output is measured at the bulb. Even though my light bank puts out approx 2000 FC, that is at the bulb. A foot away it's much less than that. I grow Haraellia and other shade-tolerant spp about 20-25" from bulbs and others that want more light about 10" from bulbs.

In addition to more lumens per watt, T5s can be mounted to give the light in a smaller area; so, more foot-candles fall on a nearby plant. They are thus a lot "brighter." Also, you can use efficient solid state ballast which produces much less heat than cheaper ballasts. I have a 4-tube T5 light in an enclosed glass orchidarium and the air temperature is only about 5F higher than the ambient.

I bought it on eBay (see eBay: T5 FLUORESCENT FLUOREX GROW LIGHT = 400 MH compact CFL (item 260083048456 end time Feb-06-07 21:00:00 PST) ). I'll post a photo when I complete some work on the orchidarium.

FWIW I found an informative site on lighting [The Krib] Lighting

Wow. I just went back and re-read my post. Sorry about the typo's. I'm normally not that bad.

O.k....I'm sold on the idea of trying some compact flourescents since they can be screwed into a traditional base and can be set up however you want to configure them. I'm all for maximum output per watt. I am curious though if anyone has seen the 65 watt replacement bulb working in a 185 mercury vapor fixture. Apparently some municipalities ban mercury vapor lights and this is marketed as a flourescent substitute that is supposed to be really bright. Brighter in fact, than mercury vapor. (Yet "photopic" lumens are lower and I think that's what the plants actually need.)

No I haven't actually seen it however I offer this caveat: When you buy a compact flourescent (and I've bought a bunch!) you buy the ballast along with the tube. Yes they are compact, and if that is what you need, fine. But they aren't cheap over the long haul. I can't comment on how they do against other similar non-flourescent products. Also keep in mind the newer T5 solutions (which includes compact flourescents which are wrapped T5s) have VERY low mercury content. This is important to many communities as they become more aware of what is going in their landfills.

I forgot to add - check the following threads where I show pics of my CF setups. My recommendation is to dump the mercury vapor fixture (which has a non-standard base) and go with CF if that's all the space you have. There are some pretty high output models. Also keep in mind the CF fixtures, for some reason, have about half the life of full length straight T5 bulbs of same wattage.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ied-these.html
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...solutions.html
http://www.orchidboard.com/community.../Orchids02.jpg http://www.orchidboard.com/community.../Orchids05.jpg http://www.orchidboard.com/community...bs/DSC1435.jpg
This shows my upstairs grow area where I am supplementing natural light with CFs. I made a home-made light setup with an extension cord and two CF bulbs. I don't have the space here for anything more robust.

If you have space, then a dedicated T5 fixture with 4 or 6 or 8 tubes is worth the investment, over time.

Do the compact bulbs in this picture work well for orchids? It would sure be an inexpensive way to add more light.

They work just fine, it's just that they are an expensive solution if you can do 24" or 48" banks. It's not terribly expensive (about $28 per bulb) It wasn't possible in my case so I opted for these. I realise I will have to pay for balasts when I redo the bulbs.

T5 Lights in My Orchidarium
 

The upper lights are four 24" biax tubes; the lower ones are four newer 48" tubes in the fixture from ebay,

Looks similar to mine

Ross and anyone else who grows under CF:scratchhead:

Have you tried to measure the footcandles for your setup? If you have, what kind of light meter are you using?. I bought a cheap Hydrofarm Light meter that says it measures fluorescent and sun but I can't get a reading on my CF.

I have four Full Spectrum Spiralux Vita-Lite, 23 Watt, 5500K, and two 50 watt Sylvania Spot-Grow lights.
I just recently brought my plants inside while they are waiting for their new "orchid room" so I just bought these bulbs hoping I can keep my orchids alive for the next month. There are four windows facing every direction except South so they get some natural light too.

IT is so BRIGHT in there that you would think you are outside, but no reading on the light meter. Perhaps I just need more light??

Thanks I forgot to add each of the 23 Watt full spectrum put out 1380 Lumens .

Yes I have measured both my setups. As I showed above, I use 3 55watt full spectrum lamps to supplement full sunlight. I leave the screens in the windows to temper things a bit (many of the bright light orchids' leaves run a bit on the red side) And I get 2500-3500 foot-candles at the leaf surface. In my terrarium I measure approx 1000-1500 FC next to the three minis that need that much light (Dendro aberrans, which shows nice reddish leaf color and Maxillaria variabolis which is nice light-green color). Near the bottom of the terrarium, farthest from the lights I only measure about 400-500 FCs. Everybody in the terrarium is lovin it so far. There is a bank of 4 T5 tubes hung in contact with the top of terrarium. The bank of tubes puts out about 2000 FC. The meter I use is a dual scale Light Intensity Meter by Environmental Concepts. Hope this helps.

As I re-read your post, I had initially missed something. My meter will respond to normal flourescent lights over my computer when held 3-4 feet away from a standard 40 watt 4' T12 shop light! Not much mind you, but does respond. When I get the above readings (first response) I get strong readings. So my initial guess is your meter is defective. That's pretty common. Try a local organic indoor hydroponics store (there must be one somewhere near-by). They'll have meters and you can check them before you buy.

Linnie, I just had another thought. Rather than even try to measure light intensity, why not look up specs on the bulbs you are using and use those specs. Remember published lumens (rarely are specs in foot-candles, even though that's what you want) are at the bulb surface. Light drops off (gets dimmer) as a square of the distance. So using my case, the T5 bank puts out approx 20,000 lumens (at bulb surface) or approx 2000 foot-candles (get foot-candles by dividing lumens by 10 - close enough). At 12" it would be approx half, or 1000 foot candles. At 24" it would be approx 1/4 or 500 FCs -- I think I have my math correct. Anyway my light meter pretty-much confirms this and the plants are my best judge. Sorry for rambling, but just stick a whole bunch of bulbs out and wait for the new grow room :biggrin:

Hi
I am new to the OB and also new to growing orchids. However, I am experienced in growing plants in aquarium. I am using compact fluorscent tubes which are 96watt each with color temperature varies from 5000K to 10000K and above. The bulds are specially designed for plants. With special reflectors, the lights are so bright that you will not be able to look at it directly. In a fish tank, lights need to travel through approx 24 inches of water with lots of impurities and small particals, before reaching the bottom for the plants. Some plants requires really bright light to survive.
Those CF lights are quite expensive. Each bulb costs up to $100 in retail. I bought them from Compact Fluorescent Lighting Kits and cost one third of the price and the services were excellent. The also sell kits which comes with everything required.

Hope this information useful.

Albert

The vendor is called 'A H Supply' and sell things on-line.

Tindomul1of9

What I ordered was 2x '96 watt Bright Kit'. I am not able to key in the links here but you can just click '96 watt kit' on the left of the main page of A H Supply for details. You can see details of the CF bulb by just clicking 'bulbs' on the left. To order click 'easy ordering'. The bulb you need is 96 watt 5000K.

The kit contains everything necessary except the bulb, you need to order separately. The package came with instructions on installation. You can simply fix it to a piece of 2x4 (wood) and hang above the plants or to the bottom of a shelf above the plants. The kit is about $60 and a CF bulb is $33. The best part is the reflector which reflects most of the light to one direction which increases efficiency. I have no instruments to measure but looks like it is 5 time brighter than normal fluorscent tube.

Search for '96 watt bright kit' in the internet and you will see the comments from other users. I remember I have seen actual measurements of the output (lumen) from a web site.

If you are not comfortable to install your self. Local Fish Store carries some strip lights using similar technology. A double bulb (2 x 96 watt) strip light costs about $380. However the reflector will not be as good.

Albert

96 watt CF
 

Attached are pictures of a fish tank illuminated by 2x 96watt Bright Kit

Just came to this thread a little late.

I have also used A & H Supply. When I had my aquarium and needed to increase the light, I bought the 55watt kit to retrofit my existing lights. Everything is included, instructions are easy to understand and the reflector is incredible. :banana:

T5s are becoming very popular in reef-keeping. some people preferr them over the metal halides because of the lower energy used.
i didnt see anyone mention the individual reflectors used for T5s. they are made by icecap and aparently double the output of the T5s. i know that 6 T5s with individual reflectors running on an icecap 660 is enough to grow ANYTHING in the reefkeeping hobby, and i suspect its more than enough for the orchids.

How would this be possible? Think about it, to double the output you'd havr to modify the tube itself. 5000 lumens is what a 48" tube puts out - that's it. I think you mean that the reflector makes it possible to project most of the lumens down. What's new about that? My 4 tube fixture has 4 individual reflectors - 1 for each tube. Hydroponics folks use 8 tube fixtures.

Lights
 

I started out with a 4' 4 lamp t8 (32 watt) fixture from Home Depot but found that while it would bloom phals, it just wasn't enough light. I have since purchased 4 High Output (54 watt) fixtures from 2 different vendors. These put out twice the lumens as the 32 watt fixture. Still not sure they will make my cattleyas bloom but time will tell. Also found a method of using one single, and one double 1" pulley (from Loews), and para-cord to create a method of hoisting the fixture up and down.

Which fixtures did you get?

lights
 

They are t5, and not t8. I bought 2 from htgsupply.com for about 149 each. I bought 2 from growershouse.com for about 110 each. htgsupply lets you choose 2 3500k and 2 5000k lamps with each fixture. At Growers House I bought both at the same time and chose one with 4 3500k and one with 4 5000k lamps then installed 2 of each lamp in each fixture.

I have exactly the same setup, and I *love* my lights. Not stoked about the electrical bill, but hey - I don't have to pay for a heater! And I knew what I was getting into.

I actually had to remove bulbs because my plants were getting too much light.