Affect of artificial light on Orchids

[newflasker]

Hi Ocelaris,
The price of Ushio bulbs is much cheaper than Philip. I never try this brand so don't know it's good or not. I got bulbs from "Light of America" and they last only few months. I hear people said that after 6 months the bright of bulb go down so instead of buy one from a good brand name like Philip buy 2 from a ok brand name like Ushio. What do you think? Did you or anybody try Ushio?

[Ocelaris]

I think you are generally right... better well know brands are in general better because they have a reputation, and usually they have a bit better research that goes into it. But that is not always the case.

I compared 3 company's bulbs. Philips, Ushio, and EiKo

First Philips, 150w @ 4000k 80 CRI = $46.99

MHN-TD M81/E 150W/842 RX7s 1CT

Sylvania, 4000k 80 CRI = $45.69

Ushio, 150w, 4200k @ 80 CRI = $30.40

Euroflood™ - Metal Halide - General Lighting - USHIO

and EiKo, 150w, 4000k @ 70 CRI = $29.42

Eiko-Ltd.com Products


Yes, you will get a bit better bulb for the money, as a lot of these bulbs are not intended for the home grown gardener with discerning tastes, but the commercial and industrial lighting uses where people don't care so much.

I have used Ushio in the past, they make some good bulbs, bad bulbs, and great bulbs, you just have to check the specs. I believe they can make every bit the same bulb as philips, sylvania, or GE, but you have to watch the specs, as they are not all equal. I am currently using a Ushio bulb. I have never used Eiko.

Be careful though, I have had some cheap aquarium Metal Halide Bulbs last only 2 months! Now I think they were not rated to be hung upside down... but still, really really cheap you want to stay away from, but I have had good success as long as I read the specs carefully, I was not always that way. My rule is: "If it doesn't say, Stay Away!" If you find a bulb in home depot and it doesn't say the specs, don't even consider it... it's likely to be the furthest away you can get from what you want.

the only experience I have with "Light of America" was the home depot/lowes store compact florescent built in flood lights which have the ballast built in. That is a seperate issue if those are the bulbs you're referring to, as the built in ballasts are usually the problem not the bulb. I have not had any luck with home depot or lowes lights because they just have junk lights, CRI in the 60s, and color temp either too warm or too light.

I am a firm believer in that you get what you see, if it has a high CRI (80-90%) and color temp of 4000-5000k then and life span being equal of the other comparable bulbs from GE, Sylvania, and Philips and it's half the cost, then I WOULD go for it. Just because they're big names doesn't mean they are THAT much better, probably a bit better, but we don't really have any good way of measuring or comparing fairly.

[Ross]

I've had super good experiences with Full Spectrum Lighting and Light Therapy and have only had one small CF bulb turn bad in short time. The others have gone at least a year (maybe 4000 hours or so). I use them for all our reading lights and other lamps in the house that are not on dimmers.

[Pinkcat]

I know this is a little late but for what its worth I have both phals and paphs spiking under 3 foot florescents I bought at Home Depot. I didn't even check to see if the bulbs were cool or warm, they are both the same.

[demosthones]

I'm new here, but I just noticed some people have a lot of knowledge about lighting. Currently I'm growing under a 400 HPS.

I was curious as to whether anyone is knowledgable about CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide)? I haven't used one of these bulbs, but I understand that they are made for 250 and 400 watt HPS magnetic (apparently a BAD idea to use with a digi) ballast. Supposedly they have terrific light spectrum, etc.

Any experience or thoughts?

Demosthones

[Ocelaris]

YES!!! I just bought 2x 250watts, Philips HPS Retrolux They come in 250w and 400w, horizontal and vertical, so 4 total models.
see here:

http://www.prismaecat.lighting.philips.com/ecat/Light/AdvancedSearch.aspx?fh_eds=%C3%9F&fh_location=//prof/us_US/categories%3C{fnppla}/status%3E{act}/countries%3E{us_US}/categories%3C{c_0002fnppla_1830_np01lmp}/categories%3C{c_0052fnppla_1854_up_d}/commercial_family%3E{fnppla_D_HPED18}&fh_reffacet= commercial_family&fh_refpath=facet_79214709&fh_ref view=summary&mode=facetsearch&left_nav=us_en&

They are awesome, ceramic metal halide is THE future, they're basically just pulse start metal halides that are fitted for HPS ballasts. I got my 250w Horizontals for 50$ from Voss Lighting, they were a good price, and with 20,000 hours, I expected to pay about that much for a good bulb.

You are right about the electronic ballasts being bad for ceramic metal halides, I have blow up 2 ceramic metal halides that way. Quartz is the normal, and what pretty much all older bulbs and MV bulbs are made out of .

Here is an overlay of the chlorophyll absorption spectrum of the 250w Retrolux Philips bulb that I bought...




This version is the 150w ceramic metal halide that rated 3rd of all for PAR (photosynthetic Active Radiation) here:

Aqua Botanic-light bulb comparison

So if the below is one of the best, you can see the above is pretty close, lots of red, and plenty of blue as well... Plus it's a nice color 4000k and 85 CRI, so you can stand to look at the light!




I spent WEEKS researching this... this is for a lighting chamber that is in the bedroom, so it has to be nice looking, and I wanted something with as much PAR as possible. Funny you asked at the time you did!

[jehane]

what about vanda's and brassalovas? we have to tubes set up for our phals, and are wondering what and where to mount lights for the others as they seem to need more light...am I correct?

[Ross]

Originally Posted by jehane

what about vanda's and brassalovas? we have to tubes set up for our phals, and are wondering what and where to mount lights for the others as they seem to need more light...am I correct?

Maybe. Also keep in mind light energy to the plant leaves is cumulative. This means that if the plants sees low light in morning, increasing to highest light maybe at noon or a bit later, diminishing to low light at night - compare this to modest light for entire day period, or longer. I still contend that 1800 foot candles over 12 hours beats a varying regime up to 3000 at max light but down to 200 or less FCs at low light. What this means is that your vandas and Brassavolas (which seem to want more light intensity) may want either closer lights or longer light periods. Never go to 24 hour light periods if you want blossoms, though. I would limit light at 16 hours.

[jehane]

Thanks Ross - we're currently setting timers for constant light to augment our angled eastern window exposure (not direct eastern) We get good inderect am lighting.
We're not sure whether to mount new, brighter lights for the vanda and brassavola, so we'll go with your info from before and measure what we've got before setting up another light mount.

unless you think thats crazy. I just don't want the phals to get too much light.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by jehane

Thanks Ross - we're currently setting timers for constant light to augment our angled eastern window exposure (not direct eastern) We get good inderect am lighting.
We're not sure whether to mount new, brighter lights for the vanda and brassavola, so we'll go with your info from before and measure what we've got before setting up another light mount.

unless you think thats crazy. I just don't want the phals to get too much light.

For what it's worth (I know, not much ) my south facing box-bay window has three supplemental CF florescent lights that run 12 hours every day, sun or not. They always run. Hope this helps. The sun is soooo much brighter than just about any light I can imagine. So I doubt you are doing any harm.