We need a trillion more indoor plants.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by freeztar

In other words, if I take a flashlight and shine it through a blue lens, I am changing the wavelength of the light, and hence I see blue on the other side. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct...partly. In the flashlight scenario, the 'full' spectrum of the flashlight itself is dependent on the filament material and other particulars of the bulb; making the addition of the blue lens is actually a subtractive process in terms of color, i.e. the filter blocks all colors but blue. Light intensity drops and heat goes up in the bargain.
The various 'grow' lights we are discussing are using an additive process to get more colors, not subtractive filtering. They either add different gases to the bulb (e.g. sodium),or coating the interior of the bulb/tube with different mixtures of fluorescent minerals.
Oiu/no, mon ami?

[Michaelangelica]

Well I bought it "Nelson party ultra Violet" made in china (of course)
(Don't tell my wife)
I have just spent the last 20 minutes trying to plug it in.
Karma suta positions are a breeze by comparison.
Architects who design inacessable light fittings should all burn in hell.
My new house is full of them (and every type of light known to man.)
I get very nervous on tall ladders. (The kitchen has a "cute" but useless in-built "window box" that gets no sunlight)
The packet on the Party Ultra Violet Light says "warning Party light generates UVA"
I thought that might be a good thing for plants in the window box. or do they need sunscreen?
Now the bloody light is half-in half out and I'm frustrated and it's stuck and won't work.
My wife is trying to ignore me.

It might be time for me to invite my cousin with her electrician husband over for dinner?

I did see some led lights equivalent to 250V lights at the Gigantic Hardware Store.
But they were very long floresecency things and I suspected they would look ugly, poke out of the recessed fitting, and I am not that sure about their safety in recessed light fittings.
Bugger.

[Ganoderma]

I *think* what cedar is talking about is just using a cover or different colour glass in the party lights. like those red, green, blue etc incandescent ones that are just a coating on a clear glass bulb...so its like turtle says, just taking away from the spectrum.

When i was breeding reptiles we often just went by the more k the better. simply because the UV A-B-C are past the blue end (6000k+ for the blue), and We want UVB in particular because this allows us animals to absorb vitamin D3.

Lumens is an efficiency thing...and incandescents suck..like mention before 1300-1700 for 100watt bulb...thats 13-17/w. you can readily buy philips compact flouros that are 50-60/watt...and LED are commonly sold at 60-80/watt. Taiwan National University is (or has?) installing LED street lamps (a damn good idea i think!!!!! LED are very directional, also cuts back on light pollution....look at Taiwan on a satellite image at night ). They only said that the ones being installed were "over" 100/watt....not bad considering many street lamps here are 4' flouros (weird i know) or hps.

Black lights (real black lights) are high in UVA and i am fairly sure that is why they are so bad for the eyes, and probably the skin as is all UV in excessive amounts. here are some scans of copies i made a few years ago when researching lights for reptiles.

Most of these are from Philips or Sylvania to do with spectrum and UV radiation.

Basic colour chart showing common bulbs. Philips.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by freeztar

I understand all this Cedars, but I still can't understand what you mean by:


The colored glass is changing the wavelength/frequency of the light. The K scale is measuring the same thing essentially (wavelength), except it assigns the color (read wavelength) value in relation to a radiating black body (such as stars; hotter stars [more K] are blue/white and cooler stars [less K] are red/orange/yellow).

In other words, if I take a flashlight and shine it through a blue lens, I am changing the wavelength of the light, and hence I see blue on the other side. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The reason I believe 'party lights', and other household lights, are not good for plant growth is because they lack intensity (much of the energy generated is thermal, hence these bulbs get hot).
They would probably work, if you could get close enough to the plants without burning them.

What Turtle and Gandomera said sums it up quite well. I believe its different types of phosphorous to achieve higher reds and blues (as well as green) spectrum types.

I am no expert which is why I suggested looking up what the aquatic plant people are doing/using. Artificial lighting leaves something to be desired and with the added burden of trying to get enough light thru the water (along with ferts/CO2) these guys methods may offer added insight on using artificial methods to produce a quality plant.

All fluorescents are not created equal having seen impact on plant growth in the office I worked at. George (the maintenance guy) came to replace burnt out bulbs and within a very short time leaves fell off plants. While the light us office ladies needed to work was adequate, it was not good for our medium and higher light plants. George was a good guy though, he ordered new bulbs and switched out the ones he replaced with the higher K bulbs, and used the other ones in non-plant areas. We did not achieve the same level of growth with the high light plants, but the leaves no longer fell off. Different companies bulb. According to George, the cost was significantly higher for the original type of bulb. I attribute that to the former building owner, a health insurance corp, probably going with full spectrum/daylight type lighting (a guess on my part).

[Ganoderma]

anyone find the red end more...dont know the word, like stressful but not? i find blue much more calming (i dont have SADS)

[Ganoderma]

i am hoping to experiment with some LED growing lights. i am thinking using Pereksiopsis spathulata (a very fast growing cacti with true leaves). the reason is this plant grows quick, very hardy, and shows whether it has good light or poor light by its leaf size/shape. once i find some in the right spectrum's i will give wiring a go...not my area. anybody have any good sites for learning how to wire up your own LED boards?

[DougF]

Originally Posted by Ganoderma

i am hoping to experiment with some LED growing lights. i am thinking using Pereksiopsis spathulata (a very fast growing cacti with true leaves). the reason is this plant grows quick, very hardy, and shows whether it has good light or poor light by its leaf size/shape. once i find some in the right spectrum's i will give wiring a go...not my area. anybody have any good sites for learning how to wire up your own LED boards?

I found this site that shows how to hook up the lighting hope this helps you out.

ILLUMALED Wiring Diagram — International Light Technologies, Inc.

This site has some good information too.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Lighting

is this what you were looking for?

[Ganoderma]

it does indeed, i hope my electric inept brain can get it right.

so to get it straight. it is basically like this?

you wire your "LED Driver" to an "illumaled module" (what is that???). then you can put 1 light in the white wire and one light in the black wire? or are those connectors?

is illumaled the light or something fancy? god i suck at technical stuff!

[LED driver]====[illumaled module]====[one light per wire]====[illumaled module]

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Ganoderma

it does indeed, i hope my electric inept brain can get it right.

so to get it straight. it is basically like this?

you wire your "LED Driver" to an "illumaled module" (what is that???). then you can put 1 light in the white wire and one light in the black wire? or are those connectors?

is illumaled the light or something fancy? god i suck at technical stuff!

[LED driver]====[illumaled module]====[one light per wire]====[illumaled module]

http://www.intl-lighttech.com/librar...led_wiring.pdf
I think 'ILLUMALED' module is the company name for the pre-wired bank/group of LED's they produce. The "LED driver" looks to be a transformer with rectifier; a device to convert house current AC to low voltage DC.

The "LED driver" you need is determined by how many modules to use; the more modules the greater the current required. See upper left corner of link, where it says:

Note 2: Use a combination of 1,2,3, or 5 module drivers to power more than 5 modules.

Does that clarify?

[Ganoderma]

it does indeed thanks a lot...i know transformers thanks for the help!

so do all LED run off DC?