66 replies to this topic

[Storm Rider]

LeSellers, on 13 February 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

We use standard four foot T 12 florescents and several red "party lights" that I installed in ordinary Edison fixtures.

You're right: they can be expensive, but high Kelvin (5000) values seem to cover the needed red and blue wave lengths the plants need to grow and flower. We added the red lights when winter came and we lost the red wave frequencies from the window next to the system.  

Lehi

You may want to check out a Dutch lighting product from Lemnis Lighting.  It is an LED light, great power savings and will last 20 years.  They have bulbs specifically for plants.

[calmoriah]

so here is their website:  http://www.lemnislighting.com/en/about_greenhouse.html

I can't find any site for selling it in the US.

[Storm Rider]

Our company is actually reviewing their products for the puprose of representing them here in the Middle East.  I have been very impressed with them.  The technology is leading edge and their quality is outstanding.  I am pretty sure you can buy them in the US.  Here is where you can find the head office in the US.  Here is where you can buy Leminis lighting on the internet in the US.  Hereis another internet store to buy the bulbs in the US.  Their main product is the Pharox line of bulbs, which is used for retrofitting.  The payback for these is often in the months.  I am not employed by them, but I have been impressed.

[LeSellers]

Storm Rider, on 13 February 2012 - 11:40 PM, said:

You may want to check out a Dutch lighting product from Lemnis Lighting.  It is an LED light, great power savings and will last 20 years.  They have bulbs specifically for plants.

Storm Rider, on 14 February 2012 - 01:37 AM, said:

Our company is actually reviewing their products for the puprose of representing them here in the Middle East.  I have been very impressed with them.  The technology is leading edge and their quality is outstanding. ...Their main product is the Pharox line of bulbs, which is used for retrofitting.  The payback for these is often in the months.  I am not employed by them, but I have been impressed.

I've been looking for a good cheap source of LED lights.

I will be making my own because at, for instance, $26 per lamp, with our needing no less than 45 lamps, the cost is far too high for us. I recognize the energy savings they provide, but the initial investment is great enough that a few months' payback seems unlikely.

An LED is not hard to solder into a circuit. Hundreds of them, at a few cents a piece, will do all of my greenhouse set up (and the basement experiment, too) for $400 plus the cost of a power supply for each system. That's thousands less than the equivalent commercial products. eBay has 'em, and I have a soldering iron. That's all I'll need. Well, that and a lot of time. (Maybe I can recruit some of our grandsons to help out. Hmmm.... Girls, too.)

Lehi

[calmoriah]

LeSellers, on 14 February 2012 - 09:18 AM, said:

(Maybe I can recruit some of our grandsons to help out. Hmmm.... Girls, too.)

Lehi

Include the girls....it took forever for my dad to get the message that I was interested in such things, he finally got it when I was at college in physics and electrical engineering (I switched to the second as a more "practical" major, should have stayed in the first as I didn't like EE for that very reason (I enjoyed the impractical much more than the practical aspects).  I could have used much more background as I was great in the science and math stuff, but stunk in the technical stuff, didn't have a clue what they were talking about when it came to transistors and such.  The professors just assumed that we knew it.

[calmoriah]

Lehi, haven't heard from you for awhile, but this made me think of you:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-17861710

[DispensatorMysteriorum]

Lehi,

This is some cool stuff you've got going on! I'm not even close to as prepared as you are, but we're making progress. This year I have planted 10 blackberry plants (6 different varieties), 6 raspberry plants (4 varieties), one boysenberry plant, 4 Loganberry plants, 6 blueberry plants (all different varieties), 2 Lingonberry plants (2 varieties), 30 tomato plants (6-7 varieties), 10 pepper plants (4 varieties), onions (three varieties), garlic, 80 strawberry plants (four varieties), 5 grape vines (5 varieties), two peach trees, one plum tree, one apple tree, and three cherry trees.

I like fruit, can you tell? haha I've thought about adding protein such as rabbits, but one thing at a time... Right now I'm looking into making a rain collection system to water everything.