I'm far from an expert but until some expert wanders by I'll offer what help I can.
First, if I were you, I'd decide how large of a planting you plan to have indoors and if it will be year round or only in winter.
Decide if you plan to use your southern windows for additional light or if you plan to grow plants in a darker area.
Next, you should think about how much you want to spend on lighting. You can go the economy route with shop lights and long fluorescent bulbs or fork over more money for high wattage compact fluorescent bulbs and fixtures or go for the even more expensive large LED light setups.
After you've narrowed some of these questions down, take a whirlwind tour through Youtube searching on "grow lights" and you see all sorts of cheap to expensive setups.
I'm just reviving my growing under lights interests and setting things up again on a smaller scale with one four shelf 5 foot high indoor greenhouse rack. I'm lighting it with 3 lights per shelf (one 65 watt compact fluorescent and two 45 watt compact fluorescent bulbs) for a total of 12 bulbs. That came to about $75 for the lights and dome reflectors and power strips.
Good luck. I know it's overwhelming at first but the first time you see seedlings springing up and plants putting out blooms under lights, you'll be hooked!

I actually am an expert in indoor growing so let me clear this up for you.

If you are only trying to keep them alive/grow small plants, you can get cheap shop lights from home depot, the 4 foot long kind that uses 2 32 watt tubes.

I, however, strongly recommend a high pressure sodium light. They are great for flowering plants and will show you the true potential of your plants. Large, healthy leaves, huge blooms. The secret is in the quality and quantity of light used.

A 600 watt high pressure sodium light will run you 200$ and make you addicted to growing under controlled conditions like you never thought possible.

Youll find them at your closest hydroponic shop :)

Khaled

One reality about the sodium lights is that the quality of light is not terribly pleasant -- rather yellowy and overwhelming, if it's in your daily living space up close, and another thing is that the best ballasts, the magnetic ones, do make a constant buzzing noise.... Mister K, another poster was saying that MH lights contain many of the same "reds," as the HPS, but not vice versa, so they recommended those -- have you used MH, or both at same time, what do youthink?

Ys absolutely, mh also is a great light spectrum and much better if the light will be in your living environment. It also grows plants very well! Dual spectrum ( hps and mh) is always best but not necessary.

To muddy the waters more I switched from HPS and MH to T5HO's. I find them easier to manage with as good results.

SCG

T5s do pretty well, they are indeed easier to manage as they put out less heat. They wont grow large fruiting plants like tomatoes or peppers.. Actually they will, but yield will be awful.

Try indoor growing, its amazing :)

In farm shops and livestock barns I can use less lighting wattage by simply painting walls,rafters and overhead equipmet white. It can look hillbilly but recycled aluminum foil and chrome pieces fixed to reflect light onto task areas partly replace's task lighting. Which brings us to my question. How much does reflectors benifit growing under light? What about sitting pots on reflective surface?

MisterK - I do garden indoors and also grew tomatoes. I am just rebuilding my grow room to start a new season :)

Hello all, new here. I'm going to piggy back the original question with my own. I've read and done my due diligence on a grow light system and I've come to the conclusion that a T5 system is best for me. The thing I'm stuck is whether to go with four or six bulbs. I'm currently growing tropical plants (dragon fruit, Goji Berry, Coffee, Pineapple, pomegranate) my plants are in a 3'x4' grow area. I know my plants aren't getting enough light as they are getting leggy. Would a six bulb set up be "better" as far as coverage?

Whitty_08 - I use an 8 bulb over a 2x4foot area. So yes a 6 would be better. I am not sure what you have now but I would use it to supplement what you decide to get.

IMHO the size of a fluorescent fixture determines the size of your grow area especially since you want to keep the lights near the plants.

SCG

SouthCountryGuy, thank you for the advice. I'd like to supplement with natural sunlight, but unfortunately the only place I have room to grow is in the basement of my place. I was looking at a 4' fixture with 6 bulbs. I've noticed that most 6 bulb fixtures are about 20" wide which is just slightly smaller than the area I have my plants.

Home Despot lists a T5 fixture that fits in 2 1/8th " of width. It is $40, holds 2 54W T5 bulbs - which you can also get at Home Despot in lots of 10 for $60 - MUCH cheaper than buying them individually at $11 a pop!

I would get as many of those as you can afford to mount over your plants. If your grow area is 36" deep you could fit 17 of them in that space. You wouldn't HAVE to - but you could. You can definitely get more than 6 bulbs in the space you have!

They don't have reflectors but it isn't too hard to make something to act as a reflector. Just look on any medical marijuana growing forum (all perfectly legal, of course!) for ideas for guerrilla reflectors that will work safely but not cost you an arm and a leg.

I'm pretty sure you can buy reflective "hoods" to mount behind your lights as well, though I wouldn't know where to look for them.

Just make sure you have enough amperage on your circuits to run however many lights you end up with. And don't forget you will need fans to handle heat issues, as well as for other good reasons.

$40 Dual 54W T5 fixture just 2.125" wide

6500k 54W T8 bulbs in package of 10

I bought 5 of these today:

2.75" wide dual T8 32W fixture

Turns out they are direct wire and I'll also need to buy some lamp cord and plugs. I didn't get them tonight because I hadn't planned out what I would need, and the store rep tried to sell me $90 - I am NOT KIDDING, NINETY AMERICAN DOLLARS worth of overkill for those 5 lights.

So go prepared. I don't know if those T5 fixtures HD has are direct wire or have plugs wired in to them. It isn't a big deal to wire a plug on and it shouldn't cost you almost as much as the lights - I'm pretty sure all I need is about $15 worth of stuff to wire my five lights up. About $5 worth of lamp cord, another $5 in plug ends, and maybe $5 for strain relief clamps or whatnot.

Please. $90 worth of stuff you could run a radial arm saw through is not necessary for 5 lights that draw 800 mA max each, LOL!

Zensojouner gave some pretty good advice. Most house hold circuits (at least here) are 15amp which means you have a total of 1800 watts before you max out the circuit and trip the breaker. I prefer to stay at about 1500 watts as I don't like running electrical circuits at their max. I also highly suggest putting in a GFI between your lights and electrical panel. Since you are dealing with water and electricity it is always safe to protect yourself. You can buy inexpensive GFI's that simply plug into your socket then you plug your lamps into it.

Another thing to note with fluorescent tube bulbs is that using a good reflector actually doubles the intensity of the light. That is partially why I went with the 8 bulb fixture. For the best results on tube bulbs the reflector needs to come down to at least the mid point of the bulb.

If you are going to wire your own lights I highly suggest using a wire heavier than lamp cord, especially if you are going to daisy chain lights together. To thin of wire causes the wire to heat up and is why there are so many fires from Christmas trees, too many watts being used on to light a gauge of wire. If running multiple lights off one circuit I highly suggest using at a bare minimum 16 gauge wire, preferably 14 ga. You can buy wire to make extension cords by the foot or you could simple buy an extension cord and cut it to lengths you need. I wire mine with 14/2 lumex (romex for you folks in the good ole USA) it is the wire most commonly used to wire houses. It isn't as flexible as extension cord wire but since I don't move my lights around the room it is the cheapest way to go. Which ever wire you choose make sure you use a sleeve to protect the wire where it enters the fixture. You don't want that sharp edge rubbing on the wire.

SCG

Edit - The wire gauges I suggested are probably way heavier than needed since the distance to the source is short. But using a heavier wire is a cheap upgrade for safety.

This post was edited by SouthCountryGuy on Wed, Nov 19, 14 at 11:27

Puchinita - For what you are doing , T8 fluorescents will be fine. I have in fact successfully overwintered jasmine indoors with only the light from a small south facing window in the Midwest - though I don't recommend that. It survived - but that's about all you could say about it, LOL!

Your African violets should do fine in a south facing window without any additional light. I wouldn't keep them there in spring/summer, but over winter they should be fine. They do need more light than many people think - but not by a lot.

The viola odorata should also do fine in the south facing window without additional light - though I have never heard of growing these indoors.

Sensitive plant may also do alright in the window without additional light, but if not, it'll be easy to tell - the leaves will just fold up if its not getting enough light. They'll fold up at night, which is to be expected - but if they don't unfurl during the day, they aren't getting enough light. Put them under the fluorescents.

If you have old windows, it may very well get too cold in the windows. If you have newer double-pane insulated glass - it may be alright, depending on room temp and how efficient the windows are.

Yes, the fluorescents WILL provide some heat, but its hard to say how much. Mine are getting about 85ish under 4 bulbs hung in 2 fixtures, each about 7" wide and 4' long, in my room on the north side of the house with the heating vent closed, if I don't run the fan. However I doubt it gets or stays nearly as cold here as in Chicago. It would help to heat up, but may not be enough to keep the plants warm enough, depending on how efficient the window is.

Yes, the lights must be hung. I suggest buying a 4' long wire shelf - you can get them for under $100 at Home Depot and Lowes - as wide as you can afford. Mine is 18" wide because that's all the space I had for it. 2 flats will not fit front to back on these shelves. I recommend 24" wide shelves if you can manage the space.

A 3' long wire shelf will also work but you still need at least 4' of space because the lights will stick out 6" on either end, being they are 4' long. You'll just use the chains that come with the lights to hang them from each shelf. Make sure to leave enough space between shelves to raise and lower the lights as needed.

If you're even minorly handy, you can build a set of shelves pretty cheaply from 2x4s. Do not use particle board or composite for shelves! Both will melt if they get wet. Use plywood or set in 2x4s spaced 4 to 6" apart.

I've attached a link to instructions for a pulley system to raise and lower the lights, which I hope to implement here soon myself. This is how my dad did it back in the 50's and 60s for our very extensive grow area in the basement. I never knew how he hooked those pulleys up and he's gone now, so I was really glad to find these instructions.

You CAN find and buy shorter fluorescents but they cost more.

You probably CAN use the lights under your cabinet, and they would probably be fine for the low-light violets and maybe even the mimosa - but it won't be enough for the jasmine (not sure about your other plants). You would need to leave them on for 14 to 16 hours per day, which is easy if they plug into an outlet - just put the plug into a cheap timer.

You can also build a tabletop contraption to hang a fixture out of 2x4s and/or plywood.

If you have an empty closet you could also hang a fluorescent fixture from the clothes rod - but it needs to be more than 4' wide and you should remove the doors so it doesn't get too hot or humid. And don't hang any clothes anywhere near the lights. Better safe than sorry. It will also require a fan.

You need to keep the tops of the plants as close to the fixtures as possible (except the low light plants, they should be fine, but if they show signs of needing more light, put them on a platform of some sort - upside down box or what have you - to get them closer to those undercounter lights). I aim for 1 to 2", others go for 3".

So if you have plants of various heights, adjust the light for the tallest and then put the others on upside down pots or plastic boxes or what have you to raise them up closer to the lights.

Here are some specific lights you might consider.

2.75" wide dual T8 32W, Lowes @$25

These lights are very narrow profile but you must wire in a plug. I just got 5 of these because with these lights I can get 10 bulbs per shelf compared to the 4 I can manage now.

Use this if you need to wire in a plug:

$4 15 ft TV power cord

It is rated for 10 amps and the above ballast will only draw 0.8 amps peak. It will have power, ground, and neutral wires which is all you need. If you cut it (roughly) in half and add a 3 prong plug, you can actually get 2 cords out of it. You might need a pair of wire strippers though you CAN do without with a little care.

Any polarized (3-prong) plug rated 125V will do. Here are 3 possiblities:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-125-Volt-Double-Pole-3-Wire-Grounding-Plug-Black-R50-3W101-00E/205165472

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pass-Seymour-15-Amp-125-Volt-NEMA-5-15-Dead-Front-Straight-Blade-Plug-5276BKCC15/202664499

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pass-Seymour-15-Amp-125-Volt-Armored-Plug-PS515PACC15/202664524

EDIT: I forgot, you will also need a strain relief clamp for each fixture, like this:

Strain relief clamps

I'm not sure if that's the actual correct size without eyeballing it, but that's the type of clamp you will need. It will go into the knockout at the end of the fixture where the power cord will come out and holds it so it doesn't crimp or cut over the sharp edge.

Also, if you want to get away without cutting cords or stripping wire, look for a cheap power strip with a 6' or longer cord. If you disassemble the power strip you should be able to remove the power cord and it will already be stripped and you can just wire up the fixture with it pretty much as-is.

I prefer the regular straight plugs so they will plug into a power strip (which I then plug into a timer) without running in to each other - some of the angled plugs will cover up nearby outlets on a power strip.

You will also need wire nuts to make the connections. Electrical tape is no longer recommended for use with most modern wire nuts.

You can also go to monoprice.com or cablesforless and get almost any polarized standard computer cord for this use. 6' cords can be had for under $2 each.

6' polarized cord at Monoprice

END EDIT

This light would be suitable for your needs and comes prewired with a plug.

5.5" wide dual T8 32W, Home Despot @ $15

These are the bulbs I use. You can of course get just 2 - I have enough lights hanging that I buy them in the 10 packs. They'll cost a little more per each. 3.33 per each in the 10 pack, about $5 per each in the 2 pack. Lowe's carries a similar Sylvania bulb that comes in a 12 pack for about the same price per each.

$33 Pack of 10 - Phillips 4 ft. T8 32-Watt Daylight Deluxe (6500K) ALTO Linear Fluorescent bulbs

$10 2-pack Phillips 4 ft. T8 32-Watt Daylight Deluxe (6500K) ALTO Linear Fluorescent bulbs

I also listed some T5 fixtures Home Despot carries that you would have to order into the store (which is free) in a previous posting. I don't know if those come prewired with a plug or not. Fixtures and bulbs both cost about twice as much but if you're only buying one or two lights maybe that's worth it. Those do not come with a reflector (neither do the narrow profile T8 fixtures from Lowe's) but you can rig up a guerrilla reflector for one or two lights if necessary.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pulley system to raise and lower fluorescent strip lights

This post was edited by zensojourner on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 18:33

@South Country Guy: 18/2 wire (with ground) is more than sufficient for a single ballast for these types of lights - T8 dual 32W bulbs on one ballast will draw less than 1 amp, usually around 800mA (0.8 amps). I probably shouldn't have used the term "lamp cord" because actual lamp cord does not include a ground even though it is also an 18/2 wire. You need the ground for fluorescents (3 prong instead of 2 prong plug).

The 18/2 power cord listed above at Home Despot is SVT/CSA which means it is rated for 600V, indoor/outdoor, has power, neutral, and a ground, and will carry 10 A safely. Trust me, this wire will NOT overheat when carrying a measly little 0.8 amps unless you drape it across a stove burner while it is on, LOL!

You can also buy a cheap power strip with a 6' cord for about $5 (or less sometimes) and just disassemble it to remove the power cord to get a plug for a direct wire fixture - you shouldn't have to even do any wire stripping then. These are usually 14G and are rated 15A - so also more than enough for this purpose.

There is no need to go to anything heavier unless your ballast is rated above 600V.

I prefer to go by amperage rather than wattage. If the ballast draws 0.8 A peak (which will be listed on the ballast) and the circuit is already in Amps, there's no reason to convert back and forth between watts and amps at all.

Also if you overdrive the lamps, wattage changes - but current draw does not. An overdriven ballast will actually run below its rated power specs but it will still draw the same current, and the bulb to which it is attached will perform about 50% higher (eg 32W will deliver about 48W instead). But the ballast will still only draw 0.8A peak.

Current = Watts / Voltage

However supply voltage in the USA varies. It is nominally 120V, can be as high as 125V, but usually is delivered at 110V and sometimes a little less.

A ballast regulates current to maintain a somewhat even light level, regardless of the supply voltage actually being delivered vs the nominal 120V its supposed to be. There are of course limits to how much it can moderate for these effects, but within the normal operating range of somewhere between 105V to 125V this is fairly effective.

Ignoring issues of actual supply voltage, power loss and startup, a 32W bulb needs (nominally) 290mA to operate - assuming 110V supply voltage. A ballast intended to run 2 such bulbs will be attempting to regulate the operating current at about 580mA to supply both bulbs. When we overdrive, the ballast will still be attempting to supply 580mA - but now that will all be going to a single bulb.

Note that this is BELOW the 800mA peak rating of the ballast. Regardless of whethere there are 2 bulbs or one being driven by the ballast, the current it draws will be about the same - but power it is using to supply that current will be about 15% less.

So nominally, when overdriven, your 32W bulb is now behaving like a 48W bulb - but its still drawing the same current as when it was driving two bulbs at 64W total.

So count ballasts, count amperage, and forget about wattage. The peak amperage has enough slack built in to it already that you really won't need to worry about getting "too close" to the "safe" load of 12 A on a 15 A circuit, if you go by the peak rather than the normal operating amperage - and peak is what is given on the ballast.

With an instant start it will draw peak amperage only for a few seconds at start-up, then drop to a lower operating amperage. With a rapid start ballast, it will draw a higher amperage and then maintain that as long as the light is on. It's a small amount, like 5% or something over what the bulb actually needs, but it can ad up with a lot of bulbs and over time.

Programmed start is a different fish altogether and can't be overdriven, to my knowledge. Magnetic ballasts also cannot be overdriven but you will only see those on the old style T12 lights, which hopefully nobody is buying new to use as plant lights! I think in early days some people were thinking that some Rapid Start ballasts also couldn't be overdriven, but it seems to me somebody figured that out. If you're thinking of overdriving a Rapid Start ballast, I'd suggest sifting through all the old postings about overdriving to check that.

Anyway.

Rapid start is better for a light that is being turned off and on in multiple short cycles (less than 3 hours at a time) but for our purposes an instant start ballast is better because the light will be on for 14 to 16 hours at a time - we don't need to cycle these bulbs but once a day.

My old Lights of America ballasts are Rapid Start, but the ones on the narrow profile fixtures I bought the other day are instant start. Both ballasts are rated at 0.8A peak, but the instant start will likely run more efficiently than the LOA rapid start ballasts.

The point I am trying to get to is that if you have a bunch of instant start ballasts, they will cause a power spike when you first turn them on, then settle down to "normal" operating current. Especially if you overdrive because now you will have twice as many ballasts coming on at the same time.

To get around that surge when you turn things on, if you have a lot of lights, put each bank of lights on a separate timer, with each timer slightly shifted so only one bank of lights comes on at a time.

Thus - just go by peak current, don't load any circuit to the max, remember to count anything else you have on the circuit, and time-shift your light startup times if you have a lot of lights to smooth out startup spikes. You shouldn't be getting anywhere close to maxing out your circuit if you do all that.

Hehe, I agree. My comment was more about daisy chaining them together and 18/2 is only one size smaller than I suggested :) I always wire things with the heaviest gauge I would ever possibly need. When I started my grow room I used 18ga wire. Two years later I had to rewire it all because I suddenly had 13.8 amps when all lights were chained together. Typically with grow lights I wire them with both a male and female plug allowing me to daisy chain as many as I want with only one cord needing to go to the source. Less wires running everywhere and much easier to run timers without having to use multiple power bars.

Reason I use wattage is because that is what is marketed to us as consumers. People don't know how many amps the heater will draw but know it is a 1000 watt unit or they know 10 32w T8's will draw 320 watts. Your absolutely right we should go by the listed amperage but some people have problems finding the information and reading it properly off labels, including start up spike info. Voltage fluctuations are also the reason I said 1500 watts maximum.

With electricity I error on the side of caution as I have seen too many disasters.

Please people don't forget the GFCI It could save you and your loved ones lives

SCG

I actually considered daisy chaining them that way - with both male and female plugs on each light - but then I got a load of what those parts actually cost these days! Somewhere they must exist at reasonable prices, but not at either Lowe's or Home Depot. Between the wire (which is overpriced even when you buy it off the giant rolls by the foot) and the connectors, that is what was going to cost me an extra $18 per fixture.

Using those TV cords mentioned above, I can fit up all 5 fixtures for about the same money as it was going to cost me to fit up ONE fixture for daisy chain.

I really have lived beyond my time I guess. A plug end ought to be under a dollar. I guess nobody really does this kind of thing much any more - they just throw things away instead of taking 15 minutes to replace a lamp cord or a switch. The plug ends were $5 and $6 apiece at Lowes!

I thought about different ways to daisy chain them and finally decided there are advantages to plugging each bank of lights into its own power strip. All the power strips can be mounted above the lights so accidental drips won't get to them, and you can plug each powerstrip into a separate timer and shift the power-up sequence. I don't need to worry about drips getting into the wiring for the daisy chain. It makes it easier to keep track of what is on which circuit. And, its just way frickin' cheaper!

No longer germane - illness-induced bad advice removed!

This post was edited by zensojourner on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 18:42

OK I think I am confusing myself - and possibly everybody else as well.

I have always gone by amp draw to determine what size power cord to use.

But the guy at Lowe's insisted I needed "special" SVT rated power cord to wire a fluorescent fixture because the ballasts are rated at 600V.

But the more I think about it the more that does NOT make any sense. Because those power ratings on portable cord (extension cord, power cord) are for SERVICE voltage - aren't they? Isn't there a step-up device in the ballast to convert 120V supply to (up to) 600V start-up voltage for the bulb(s)? So that 600V is created AFTER service voltage enters via the power cord, and has nothing to do with the power cord - does it?

I am not seeing how the voltage rating on the ballast really has anything to do with the voltage rating of the power cord. I think that guy was talking through his hat - but I still have a cold and I'm having trouble thinking this through.

I'm thinking I had this worked out properly the first time - BEFORE I talked to the Lowe's guy - and that the ONLY thing I need to worry about is having 2 conductors and a ground that are capable of carrying the 800mA peak current. Which is basically almost anything, given that 18g will handle 10 A.

So who's right, me or the guy at Lowe's?

This post was edited by zensojourner on Mon, Nov 24, 14 at 23:43

I checked with others and I was right the first time - you don't need SVT rated cord for this. Any 18/2 wire (with ground) will do.

In fact the cheapest option I've found is to just buy 6' polarized power cords for computers from a place like Monoprice.com. I can get them there for under $2 each.

Monoprice 6' polarized computer cord