Compact Fluorescent Grow Lights | For Cheap Grow Room Setups

Wrong, compact fluorescent grow lights offer diverse uses, over the traditional strip lighting, which when used for grow room lighting, can only really grow plants to a maximum of 12inch (foot) so are used mainly for propagation and seedlings.

compact fluorescent grow lights have now changed all that, with integrated ballast and there compactness that makes them, when used in numbers makes them a bulb that can be used from propagation to full maturity.

? Replace your HID! (High Intensity Discharge)? Metal Halide? Sodium Lamp

Yes that?s right, while fluorescent grow lights don?t have as many lumen's as HID lights alone, but with being energy efficiently, compact fluorescents can be placed very close to the plant, and with the colour rendering meaning much better matched to plants, than any other bulb, means every ray of light can be absorbed.

? Are there any other benefits?

Well yes, not only is the ballast built in to Compact fluorescent grow lights, which is a massive saving on the pocket, but also with not having a massive start up current, there?s also no need for a relay and socket, which is normally needed for protecting your timers.

? Flower power

Put all this together and the savings are really big, making growing plants with supplementary lighting a lot greener than ever before,and maybe one day soon, you'll be able to go off grid too.

? CFL getting Specialized

Hydroponic compact fluorescent lamps now not only come in daylight spectrum (full spectrum) but also are also available in red spectrum 620nm to 660 and blue spectrum 460nm, so what ever stage your looking to grow, there?s a cfl bulb for you.

? Which reflector should I use?

Well any reflector is better than NO reflector, if the use is just to supplement your main lighting, then you can get away with just an eco (cheep) reflector, but use as a main, only light then a good quality reflector needs using, one like the Sun Mate Grow CFL Reflectors best, or something Simula that directs all available light down.

? Life of my bulb

Average life of a cfl lamp bulb is about 10,000 hours or so and that?s nearly a year and a half use at 18 hours of use each day, and a the current prise of twenty pound or if you?re the other side of the pond, wave.. Forty dollars OR SO.

Return to Grow Lights For Plants from Compact fluorescent grow lights

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

readmore

T5 Fluorescent Grow Lights-Grow Room Lighting

Fluorescent grow lights have for many years been used to propagate seedlings, in plant nursery's and peoples hydroponic grow rooms, these fluorescents are used for early germination, giving months of extra growth to your growing season,giving you a real head start, no matter what you choose to grow.

Normal fluorescent light emit a fairly broad light spectrum, which comes in two basic types: cool white, which emits ample blue wavelengths but not all that much red light, and warm white, which emits plenty of red wavelengths but not much blue.

Until fairly recent development, fluorescent grow lights have had a poor light to watts ratio, but with the t5 full spectrum light that give a whopping 80 lumen's for each watt used. That double compared to the t8 and t12 tubes, not bad hayThe lumen's of these t5 bulbs can then be dubbed again, when used with a reflector, which reflects all the light that escapes , back to where its useful, your plants.

T5 Fluorescent grow lights are much more efficient at converting energy to light than most, "the exception being led lights". But these also radiate light from a limited spectrum Sold as bulbs or tubes, fluorescent lights come in two types: cool white, which emits ample blue wavelengths but little red, and warm white, which emits plenty of red wavelengths but not much blue.A good solution is to install one cool white and one warm white tube in a two-tube fluorescent fixture. Place the lights as close as possible to the plants without touching.

T5 fluorescent grow light tubes come in either 2ft/24w 2,000 lumen, 4ft/54w 5,000 lumen's, and are recommended replacing after about six months of use.

? Running costs

To work out your operating cost, per hour, first add up the total watts of each bulb used, ex I?ve got four t5 fluorescents piggy-back together, each bulb takes 54 watts, so that?s 216 watts in total, now divide 216 by 1000,and comes out as 0.416, then multiply this number by the cost of a kilowatt that you get charged for, and that info should be on your utility bill.

? WHICH MEANS WHAT!

The ?T? on the tube means tubular, and the number after the ?T? indicates the diameter of the fluorescent tube, in eighths, why so confusing I don?t know, so a t5 is 5/8, the down side of the t5, is that this tube will not fit, or rather not start on some ballasts, annoying I no to my own cost so just once more so you remember

T5 tubes do not work in standard T12 or T8 fluorescent fixtures. They are designed only for high-output T5 fluorescent fixtures.

200 - 280 nm UVC ultraviolet range, harmful to plants, highly toxic.

280 - 315 nm Includes UVB ultraviolet light, which can causes plants colours to fade. 315 - 380 nm Range of UVA ultraviolet light which plants don?t use hardly.

380 - 400 nm Start of the visible light spectrum. Process of chlorophyll absorption.

. 400 - 520 nm Peak absorption by chlorophyll occurs, and photosynthesis starts (Promotes vegetative growth).

520 - 610 nm This range includes the green, yellow, and orange of the spectrum and has less very little absorption from pigments.

610 - 720 nm This is the red band. Large amount of absorption by chlorophyll occurs, and most significant influence on photosynthesis.

720 - 1000 nm There is little absorption by chlorophyll here. Flowering and germination is influenced.670mn is about the max for red (flowering)

? POINT TO KEEP IN MIND

? Make sure you buy a high output t5 tube

? Preferably a full spectrum bulb

? For vegetative, Cool white

? For flower, warm white

? Use a reflector

? Hang fluorescent lights close to plants ( if possible )

Now having said all that, if your just starting out or just coming up to replacing your fluorescent tubes the you may well want to consider doing away with your tube altogether, especially if your set up consists of either T12 or T8 ballasts as T5 tubes wont fit them, so it worth considering?. ? Compact fluorescent grow lights

Compact fluorescents grow lights have been around for a while now, and are cheap to run and don?t require a ballast either, unlike fluorescent strip lighting and hp sodium lights, compacts can also be use as a primary lighting source and are available in both red and blue or full grow light spectrum's .

 

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

readmore