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Thread: indoor lighting

  1. #1
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    indoor lighting

    My system needs to be portable, since we have winter for about six months. I bring my fish in for the winter, so I will bring the plants in as well. I am looking at compact florecent bulbs for lighting. Does anyone know what kind I could use?

  2. #2
    Moderator badflash's Avatar
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    Re: indoor lighting

    I use shop lights with Daylight bulbs from Home Depot. I get the stainless steel shoplights from Walmart. The shoplight runs $16 and bulbs are $2 each.
    The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow

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    Re: indoor lighting

    I replaced the tin roof on the veranda with lazerlite. Keeps the house warmer in winter also.

  4. #4
    Moderator jackalope's Avatar
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    Re: indoor lighting

    I'd look carefully at the research on CFL's, as well as electromagnetic pollution when they are being used, and they give off toxic pollution including mercury when they break ..... not something I want around my grandchildren or in my fish tank ;0 And the long term research isn't in yet!

    in this article:CFL Bulbs Have One Hitch: Toxic Mercury
    Quote Originally Posted by NPR.org
    "The problem with the bulbs is that they'll break before they get to the landfill. They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens," says John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the trade group for the people who handle trash and recycling.

    Skinner says when bulbs break near homes, they can contaminate the soil.

    Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and it's especially dangerous for children and fetuses. Most exposure to mercury comes from eating fish contaminated with mercury,
    Some states, cities and counties have outlawed putting CFL bulbs in the trash, but in most states the practice is legal.
    Clik

    or this:Compact fluorescent light bulbs contaminate the environment with 30,000 pounds of mercury each year
    Quote Originally Posted by Natural News
    Measuring the environmental impact of mercury use in a particular product is more complicated than you might think. Mercury is an essential element in millions of fluorescent lamps throughout the world, and as those lamps are thrown into landfill, the mercury can escape and contribute to air and water pollution. (It can easily leach into groundwater supplies.)

    According to http://www.lightbulbrecycling.com, each year an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in U.S. landfills, amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste. Astonishingly, that's almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year. It only takes 4mg of mercury to contaminate up to 7,000 gallons of freshwater, meaning that the 30,000 pounds of mercury thrown away in compact fluorescent light bulbs each year is enough to pollute nearly every lake, pond, river and stream in North America (not to mention the oceans).
    Clik

    Health Issues With Fluorescent Lights
    Quote Originally Posted by eHow.com
    According to a study done by the National Research Council of Canada, performed by Jennifer A. Veitch, Ph.D, fluorescent bulbs give a white and cool light believed to raise "stress hormone" cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels. The study showed these levels rise within 14 days of consecutive exposure to this light. The excess of both ACTH and cortisol generates stress in the body.

    <snip>

    Compact fluorescent lights are a source of electromagnetic fields. According to the Canadian Initiative to Stop Wireless, Electronic and Electromagnetic Pollution, exposure to electromagnetic fields may cause loss of homeostasis and depression in humans.

    <snip>

    Most fluorescent light bulbs that contain magnetic ballasts generate a 120 cycles/second flicker. The human eye can only detect 50 cycles/second flickers and the accelerated flickering of a fluorescent light bulb can cause eye strain and mild headaches. The headaches may become severe, depending on the length of time you remain exposed to fluorescent lighting. According to the Australian Government's Department of the Environment, studies show that the flickering of compact fluorescent light bulbs can trigger migraine headaches in those who are prone to suffering from them.
    There is also evidence that it may trigger seizures in persons who are epileptic, since my oldest son has seizures, we don't use these CFLs in our home! I haven't got the link right now, but if I come across it again, I'll put it in this thread.

    After you read the complete articles listed above, there's much more to learn about these hazardous bulbs, just Google this - "compact flourescent lights" + toxicity

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  5. #5
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    Re: indoor lighting

    I guess it's all about what information you read. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... bulbs.html

    I replaced the 8' floresents in my shop with CFL's. I figure I greatly reduced the amount of mercury in my shop.

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    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: indoor lighting

    At my Home Depot they have shop lights for $10. It holds 2x 34 or 40 Watt 4' T12 bulbs. The bulbs are $1 or less typically. The metal is thin on the casing. I took mine apart and made a frame for 5 of these for a small table I had with the grow bed on top. Just get screws for sheet metal and some cheap untreated lumber. That came out to 10 bulbs, and if I recall properly it was 32,000 Lumens. The plants grew like CRAZY. Strangely, compared to my outdoor version of the same setup the ones indoors grew faster. I had an 18/6 day/night cycle indoors, which might be why it grew more indoors.

    That was a huge concern of mine. What if the bulb breaks over the grow bed. I didn't have any problems with it and the bulbs seemed surprisingly sturdy; however, if I had the resources I would likely build a frame with some kind of glass in front of the bulbs to catch any breakage (or something like that).

    I have had CFL bulbs just crack open on me while on. I would not use these directly over plants or water, but I would position the light in such a way that if it broke it would not drop into anything. I actually used those lamp dome things that are silver to help clamp it somewhere and aim it, and funny thing those reflectors contain lead. It's just a disaster waiting to happen... I never ate anything I grew there since it was just for testing... well except a few fish for taste testing... hm...

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    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: indoor lighting

    I forgot to mention, but if you have the resources you can try the LED grow lights.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7K24eBp ... re=related

    I have had little experience with LED grow lights.

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    Re: indoor lighting

    the led grow lights are very expensive initially. the first ones and some of those in production still are very poor. but they are certainly the future. low power demand, very long life, cool operation, and as you pointed out fairly clean. they have an added advantage of being color range specific which allows a lot of customizing in a system.

  9. #9
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    Re: indoor lighting

    I love the idea of LED lighting. I see that they use different collors for growing plants. What colors are used for best results? They also don't give lumen ratings, which makes it tough to design something.

  10. #10
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: indoor lighting

    Lumens are not relevant to plant photosynthesis although with specific wavelengths it can give SOME comparison among those specific lights themselves. The idea is that, for instance, a light that produces all wavelengths only produces 5% of the light needed for plants, which would make it ROUGHLY equal to an LED light that is 20x times weaker. This is rough because so many other factors are at play such as which chlorophyll are we talking about and at what stage of plant growth, etc, etc, etc.

    Blue and red are the most important. For leafy greens like vegetables, get a mostly blue one. A lot of science still needs to be done to determine exactly what wavelengths are best, and it will likely vary between plants and even strains. The best thing to do is to save the seed from the best growers for your specific lights and use those the next season or clone the ones that did best. Farmers have done this for years (although the industry has bullied them into buying seed rather than using their own). Anyway, good luck and please keep us posted!

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