I do believe it would be fantastic for orchids, although I haven't actually tried. MY favourite lamp is any warm or cool white with the most lumens. I am currently using 3000K Phillips 3100 lumen lamps, with optional overdrive to 5000 lumens. I recommend purchase of Lithonia 1241cw fixtures while you can still get them, they are a discontinued item.
Paul Mozarowski.

Here is a link that might be useful: My indoor garden set up with T12 fixtures modded to overdrive T8.

Neons? I'm not sure quite what lamp you have. Surely not actual neon lights which are just use for pretty coloured sign writing. Do you just have straight fluorescent tubes? 55W, but T12 or T8? HO or VHO? Six foot or eight foot?

Anyway, the first thing to realise is that the amount of heat you get is very closely tied to the amount of light you get, so a 55W plant light of any type will generate roughly the same amount of heat. A 400W plant light of any type will generate roughly the same amount of heat whether its ten 40W fluorescents or a single 400W metal halide.

The envirolite type compact fluorescents are very inefficient compared to other lighting types in the same 125W-250W power range. It is preferable to use a metal halide or straight fluorescent tube. Even a 125W metal halide is a much more efficient choice than a 125W envirolite and produces nearly 50% more light. The only benefit is low starting price, choose them for a quick and dirty solution that you will not use for more than a few thousand hours, or perhaps when you don't have to pay for your electricity and don't care about the excess heat generated by your inefficient light source. Choose long straight tubes if you can fit them in and don't mind having enough fixtures to give you the necessary light, go to HID lights for intense light from a small area or as a convenient single source at 400W and upwards.

The high power double or quad tube "power compacts" are slightly less efficient than long straight tubes, four foot or more, but more efficient than envirolite type compact fluorescents or straight tube fluorescents of the same length. Choose them for compact areas where you don't need as much light as a 400W metal halide would give you.

Hi,

sorry, I don't think I made myself clear...
My current set up is 4x55w straight fluorescent tubes..........they're philips and around 2 feet long each.....
I'm ashamed to say I have no idea what a T8 or a T10 is.......!! Or what HO or VHO means............apologies!!
I do however understand what you mean when you talk about heat.........yes it makes sense...........I was under the impression that fluos generally gave off less heat..
I would opt for metal halide or HS lamps if my plants had thier own living quarters, as it stands, they're on a shelving unit I craftily constructed in my living area and its already way too bright, I've had to attach a roller blind to the front of the shelves to block the light......
Anyways, as I don't have much space in terms of height I don't want to risk burning my plants if they approach.........
I cureently have one orchid flowering within 5 cm of my fluos and it doesn't seem to mind..............would it be scorched if this were a HS or a MH bulb?

Hope this clears up any confusions......

Am I right in thinking then that you believe these envirolites to be a waste of time compared to regular neons??

JOhn

I believe it would scorch, the HID lamp gets quite hot. Plants can go right up and touch a fluorescent, but an HID
is just too INTENSELY hot, as opposed to diffusely warm fluorescent. Paul Mozarowski.

Sounds like double tube power compacts, basically a fluorescent tube bent in half with both ends connected the a little square socket?

An envirolite type of the same power would give you considerably less light than your existing tubes (assuming you replace them regularly before they dim to the level of a candle!), but would create just as much heat. A single 250W bulb may be more convenient for you, but if you want a single 250W bulb get a metal halide.

A metal halide of 250W would create a comparable amount of light to your existing setup, maybe a little more depending on the exact specs, but no more heat. You would have to place the lamps further from your plants because the single bulb putting out 250W gets pretty hot and also because metal halides radiate quite a bit of that heat at the plants. So you would need to get a decent reflector system to make sure the light gets onto your plants from several feet away.

If you are really looking for more light then the next step up is a 400W metal halide. You can achieve the same level of light by adding another four of your existing lights, but the main reason for using the bent-tube power compacts is to get a lot of light from a small area. With eight of them (even four) you would be far better off getting a system of straight tubes to the same power level. Efficiency of the straight tubes is better (if you choose good ones of sufficient length, not little two-footers), lumen maintenance is better, and lifetime is better, but mostly the initial cost is lower.

Thanks for your responses............
Based on the fact that I don't have much space to spare I think I'll probably go for another set of fluorescents rather than the compact fluorescent such as envirolite.....
And yes, your'e right, bent in half square socket neons are what I have........
I would go for Metal Halide but I just don't have the height to create enough distance between the lights and the plants.........the poor things would be frazzled if I were to place them at the same level with a metal halide.....

Thanks again though,

John