Home Made Grow Lights

[veggiechicken]

Maybe the fish were fed up with all the lights

[Snadger]

I once played about with an auld fish tank with a light in hood. Still have it but can't remember why I stopped using i? Its a terrible thing..............



















senility!

[redser]

Are the fluorescent tubes them selves marked cool white as i am doing some work at the mo and the lady is throwing out a fluorescent light with tube i think that will be going home with me tomorrow

Not sure, mine is packed away. Had a look on wikipedia. Look for CW marking (cool white). Also the temp range should be 4100 for cool white so look for that or 41 somewhere in a code.

"ColorsColor is usually indicated by WW for warm white, EW for enhanced (neutral) white, CW for cool white (the most common), and DW for the bluish daylight white. BL is used for ultraviolet lamps commonly used in bug zappers. BLB is used for blacklight-blue lamps employing a woods glass envelope to filter out most visible light, commonly used in nightclubs. Other non-standard designations apply for plant lights or grow lights.

Philips and Osram use numeric color codes for the colors. On tri-phosphor and multi-phosphor tubes, the first digit indicates the color rendition index (CRI) of the lamp. If the first digit on a lamp says 8, then the CRI of that lamp will be approximately 85. The last two digits indicate the color temperature of the lamp in kelvins (K). For example, if the last two digits on a lamp say 41, that lamp's color temperature will be 4100 K, which is a common tri-phosphor cool white fluorescent lamp."

[redser]

How do you power the fluorescent tubes? (Presumably you haven't wired them in to the lighting circuit )

Yeah you have to buy the fixture. You just need a flex and plug then. If you get it at an electrical wholesalers they'll just put it on for you. If not it's easy to do. All that, plus the hardboard, pot of paint and chains came in at around 30 euro. Cheaper than moving house to face south

[veg man]

Are the fluorescent tubes them selves marked cool white as i am doing some work at the mo and the lady is throwing out a fluorescent light with tube i think that will be going home with me tomorrow

[veggiechicken]

Mine's on a long lead so no problem, but I wondered that myself. Tubes are cheap - its the fittings that aren't

[Sylvan]

How do you power the fluorescent tubes? (Presumably you haven't wired them in to the lighting circuit )

[veggiechicken]

Remains to be seen whether it works or not, Snadge!! At worst, it has cost me nothing but if I have to buy sticky backed plastic..........

[Snadger]

Are you ready for this? The VC/BluePeter version of a Lightbox thingy!
Take one collapsible plastic crate, some spare mirror tiles and small mirrors from Freecycle, a plastic box and a worklight. Put them together and;-
[ATTACH=CONFIG]33097[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]33098[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]33099[/ATTACH]
Thought I would put a white cloth over the top, to reflect the light downwards. I started with a tinfoil ready meal dish but it didn't sit very well on the light.

Deffo not worthy of a Blue Peter badge..................where's the 'sticky backed plastic'?

Nice to see you're thinking 'out of the box' though VC (Or should that be IN the box)............

[veg man]

That's right, if by ordinary you mean cool whites. You dont want to cook your plants, not at this stage anyway People would be well within their rights to argue the toss and say that the more expensive gro lights are better, but really the flourescents do a great job. Search on youtube for clips. CFLs would be great too but the bulbs are more expensive than the tubes. Cheaper to run in the long run I'd imagine but the initial outlay put me off.

Cheers that will do me

[redser]

I hope i have this right you dont need the fancy grow bulbs just an ordinary fluorescent bulb will do please correct me if im wrong it will save a fortune Thank you

That's right, if by ordinary you mean cool whites. You dont want to cook your plants, not at this stage anyway People would be well within their rights to argue the toss and say that the more expensive gro lights are better, but really the flourescents do a great job. Search on youtube for clips. CFLs would be great too but the bulbs are more expensive than the tubes. Cheaper to run in the long run I'd imagine but the initial outlay put me off.

[redser]

Grow light tent part 1:
Before: A 1 metre x 1 metre east facing square window that's as much use as a chocolate fire guard.......[ATTACH=CONFIG]33108[/ATTACH]

After: A 1 metre x 1 metre foil coated grow tent..........[ATTACH=CONFIG]33109[/ATTACH]

Total cost so far = £2.04..........

Part 2 to follow.

God you could have a rosemantic dinner in there!

[veggiechicken]

Part 2, Hurry or I won't sleep tonight
Reminds me of an audit I did once, at a building material store. Reluctantly the storekeeper let me go up some stairs, and at the top, under a skylight, were a load of plants I just looked at him, and he was very embarrassed!
What are those, I said in my best authoritarian voice (even though I knew)
Sorry, he said, they're my overwintering geraniums

[Bigmallly]

Grow light tent part 1:
Before: A 1 metre x 1 metre east facing square window that's as much use as a chocolate fire guard.......

After: A 1 metre x 1 metre foil coated grow tent..........

Total cost so far = £2.04..........

Part 2 to follow.

[veg man]

I'm still thinking this through - could you use foil backed insulation boards to line a box - or plasterboard as that is matt white? I just may be able to find offcuts of these

Any Buiders skip will have some if you dont mind skip diving lol or try wickes/B&Q for a damaged board