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Sun, Jun 26, 05 at 15:21
| New here, and had a question about lighting, it seems to be the greatest expense. What is your opinion on installing a couple of solatubes in the room directly above the area where I want to start growing? According to the web site, the 21" is the equivalent to 60% of a 400 watt Metal Halide light. I primarily want to do this in the winter, my other concern is the length of the day. Thanks for your time.
Pat |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| If you want to grow in a controlled environment year-round, HID or other lighting source is a better idea. The solatubes have the same problem as the sun in the winter, it's only out for a few hours and it's very low intensity and will be much less light than 60% of an HID lamp. That 60% claim assumes full sunlight in the middle of summer. Solatubes will work if you only want to overwinter the plant and don't expect fruit. |
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| We have smaller (21" is for commercial apps I think) Solatubes in a bathroom and our laundry area. I will sometimes set seedlings on the cookbook shelf in the laundry area to get some filtered sunlight, but I don't think you'd grow more than an indoor houseplant in a spot like that. It provides pleasant light but it's not particularly intense. |
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| I looked into these and talked with several companies. The best claim any of them made was that a larger one would equal 10,000 watts of incandescent light. One rep was very nice but I was surprised in that they had never taken before and after light meter readings, just photos (which can be photoshopped to make it look much lighter). Mike |
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