Roy, Thank you for your helpful observations on supplemental winter lights. Re: "picture of a happy Eucomis regia" -- BEAUTIFUL photograph! On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 10:55 AM Roy Herold via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Steve, Ken, Mike, et al, > > A couple of observations here.... > > I finally took the plunge last fall and got some LED fixtures for the > greenhouse. The biggest problem here is actually in fall when the sun > goes behind the tall trees to the south that don't lose their leaves > until mid November. These trees are around 20 feet taller than when I > built the greenhouse, and things have been getting worse and worse. > > I was torn between getting a generic 5000k fixture and one that had more > light wavelengths in a single fixture. The latter seem to be like some > of the ones that Ken is using in terms of having multiple types of LEDs, > a mix of blue, warm white, red and IR. I selected one from Amazon made > by SHZLUX: > > https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JLJ3D6Y/ > > I was very impressed with what I received. The construction is great, > lots of cords, switches, adjustable hanging cables, etc. They consume > 70W per 4' fixture and are insanely bright. I bought a set of 2 for less > than $25 each, they worked fine, and I got four more. These easily cover > about 25' of 3' wide benches. > > The aluminum extrusion used for a housing is a great heat sink and > dissipator. No problem at all with starting after a cold night with > temps below 40F. SHZLUX also makes regular 5000k fixtures with the same > design if you'd like to follow the recommendations of Steve and others. > > Regarding the other option of changing fluorescent tubes to LED, I'd > recommend against it. The price for a pair of LED tubes is comparable to > a single new fixture like I got, and I don't think the performance is > nearly as good. I had a terrible experience inside my house with > replacing fluorescent tubes with LEDs in the kitchen and other rooms. I > jumpered out the ballast as recommended. I went through bulbs from 3 > different manufacturers, finally sending over 20 back for refunds. > Problems were mainly noise, a terrible buzz and hum that made them > unbearable indoors. Others died after a couple of weeks, some flickered, > lots arrived damaged, and some were just weak. Realize up front that the > heat dissipation from a tube is much worse than an integrated fixture. > > Finally, take a look at the attached picture of a happy Eucomis regia. > This was from early January, and it's just starting to come into bloom now. > > --Roy > NW of Boston > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: Eucomis_regia_010822.jpg > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 1304834 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
