Did someone call my name? Twenty times while walking backward in a circle (widdershins, of course)?
That was really wierd. One minute, I was fantasizing about Angelina Jolie (I was giving her an erotic tattoo) and POOF! the next minute I'm here typing a post in a thread I care nothing about.
Hmmm. Indoor plant lights. The place to begin is to find out what spectrum frequencies plants NEED. I know that the major variant of chlorophyll is most sensitive in the red part of the spectrum, and to some extent in the blue as well. That is why most plants are GREEN. Their surfaces reflect the light they do not need.
However, not all reds are equal. The chlorophyll molecule is a "tuned oscillator" requiring photons of a very narrow bandwidth. There are variants that require photons a teensy bit redder, or a teensy bit yellower. Ideally, an LED array with 1/3 blue LEDs and 2/3 red LEDs would be close to maximum efficiency. Assuming the frequencies were 'spot on'.
[EDIT 1]
From Wickipedia, we have:
Quote:
Measurement of the absorption of light is complicated by the solvent used to extract it from plant material, which affects the values obtained,
In diethyl ether, chlorophyll a has approximate absorbance maxima of 430 nm and 662 nm, while chlorophyll b has approximate maxima of 453 nm and 642 nm.
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Reading the graph, it seems the bandwidth is around 30 nm wide, around the very narrow peaks.
So, it looks like we need
red LEDs outputting from 420-450 nm, &
blue LEDs outputting from 640-675 nm.
[EDIT 2] Also check out this
Wickipedia article on LED grow lights.
