New lights for seedlings.

[kurt]

Will the area be heated for optimal soil temps for a "garden setting".I did see a heating mat in one of the images.I know my family in PA have basement type planting rooms and they have to monitor soil temps during their winter starts.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by kurt

Will the area be heated for optimal soil temps for a "garden setting".I did see a heating mat in one of the images.I know my family in PA have basement type planting rooms and they have to monitor soil temps during their winter starts.

If you are asking me the whole setup is going on a table in the living room by the kitchen.
It stays around 65 to 70 degrees.

They didn't have the lights I needed in 150 watt so I ended up buying 12 100 watt lights at 6500K.
3 rows of 4 now.
While I was there they had everything else I needed to start my seeds.
I bought 3 bags of Jiffy seed starting mix and 4 72 cell Pro-Hex seed starting trays.
So this year everything I do will be different.
Before I used the compressed peat things with the web on them Jiffy sold.

Worth

[Worth1]

Okay I'm done and I have flash burns.
These things are bright 1200 glorious watts of light using only 2.3 amps of electricity.
Worth
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[Worth1]

Normal 4 lights I have on the ceiling in the garage and the seedling starting lights.
What a hoot.
Worth
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[sdambr]

Wow that's bright. You may have the DEA come knocking.

[Ricky Shaw]

Cue music: 'Theme to Rocky'

[Ricky Shaw]

You hear a jet, run fast, he's putting it down in the driveway.

[AlittleSalt]

When the tomatoes are planted out in real sunlight, they'll be confused. One plant to another, "Are we planted on the dark side of the moon or what?"

[Ricky Shaw]

So,

Twelve CFL's 100watt each.
1200 watts at 2.3 amps for 19,200 Lumens

or..

Four, T-5's 4ft, 54 watt each.
216 watts at 1.8 amps for 19,500 Lumens



Relative amps per watt is much lower in the CFL's. Anyone know why?

[kurt]

The only thing to make it better now is a plywood box sheathed in Mylar to direct the rays to the plants.

[Worth1]

Guys I read all of the comments above and laughed out loud at every one but Kurt's, but he wasn't trying to be funny.

Here is a discovery I made that was right over my head all of the time.
Literally right over my head.
Those ceramic bases can have Y connectors put in them.
In other words I can double the amount of watts in every one of them 2400 watts
.
Or I could just add the red spectrum bulbs where I want them.
I have this same ceramic light socket over my head right now with a Y connector in it and two 100 watt CFL lights at 55 K.
Why I started putting these ceramic light bases in and replacing the existing fixtures is.
I had to take a fixture out one time because it stopped working was old and I didn't like it.
To my horror I found out the people were using 100 watt incandescent lights in a fixture that was only rated for 40 watts or something.
The insulation on the wiring was baked off and there was bare wire ready to start a fire.
These ceramic light fixtures are rated for 660 watts, 250 volts.

Here is something else I stumbled on this morning.
By accident I realized that not only can you put 4 72 cell trays with three lights each under them.
You can turn the trays the other way and put 6 trays under them with two lights each.
That's 432 tomato seedlings under one set of lights.

Now here are a few thoughts on lights.
We have to stop thinking about lumens.
We need to concentrate on light spectrum and watts this is what the plants see.
Lumens are measured from visible light we see not what the plant sees for a large part.
If we lived in a world that only provided the light spectrum that plants need it would be a stage looking world indeed.
Hers are some plants growing under LED grow lights tuned to what plants want blue and red.


Not bright at all but I have read you need to wear protective glasses to look into them.

Unfortunately common household lighting is designed for people not plants and the Lumens are for us not plants.
So if you were the take the wrong spectrum for plants with a super high lumen like green the plants wouldn't see it no matter how bright it was.


As for the CFL lights I have not drawing as many amps as the T% lights I dont know how that happened it baffles me.
My on line calculator must be wrong or something.

A few thoughts on reflectors and shades.
By far the easiest thing to use is very bright flat white paint.
Mylar is good also.
Aluminum foil is horrible.
Mirrors are horrible.
Again they are reflecting light we see but not necessarily the light plants see.

Here is something strange some of you might not have noticed or thought about.

Objects reflect light, the color of that object is the reflection of the pigments that make up that color reflecting it back to us.
If we were to filter out the green spectrum of a light source we would not be able to see a green abject as green.
This is why the farther down a diver goes the less color they will see.
The thickness of the water filters out the light the deeper you go.
Another example is the type of light you use.
I have worked in dark buildings that the only light source was artificial.

We had to work with colored wires and we had to know what color they were to make connections.

If the artificial light was poor and far away some colors would go away and the wire would change colors.
The only color that you could see would be part of the pigment to make up a color not all of it.
Very strange.

As it stands now I have no idea if my light setup will work, I hope it goes.



Worth

[Cole_Robbie]

The reflection % for mylar is like 98-99, and flat white is about 90, but that number starts to drop very quickly for mylar when it gets wrinkled or dirty. Plus, the diffusing effect of the flat white is very helpful.

I still have a month or so, before I have to either buy or build some more lights. I may make some more of my bucket lights: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=35099

I've been eyeing one LED light product, and really want to try it out: http://www.a51led.net/

The company has a good reputation, because they will disclose the diode manufacturer and specs on their product. Most light-assemblers won't tell you who made their diode. There are only a few diode manufacturers, and the led light is only as good as the diode.

[Worth1]

With every project there are phases.
This I would guess be phase 5.
Worth
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[Zenbaas]

Looks like you are ready for some serious action Worth.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Zenbaas

Looks like you are ready for some serious action Worth.

I just hope it works, if not I have a good supply of lights for around the house.

This is the list of what I bought.
Three bags of seed starting mix.
4 Pro hex seed starting trays.
5 packs of plant labels 100 all together
12 metal 4 inch octagon boxes.
12 porcelain light fixtures.
20 3/8 snap in romex connectors.
50 feet of 2 conductor 14 AWG romex.
12 100 W 6500K CFL lights / 3 4 packs.
The total cost was $150.

I had the boards, screws, chains, pulleys, ropes, hooks, stud finder, wire strippers, needle nose pliers, channel locks, screwdriver, battery operated drill, saw, ladder, tape measuer, timer and hammer.
Plus years of experience doing this stuff.
For the average person it would be far better to go out and buy a stand with the lights and be done with it.

One year I used a stack of books on each end of 2 4 foot florescents to raise and lower them.


Worth