DIY Supplemental Blue Lighting (1 Viewer)

[jamesw]

Well, I found my "cheap-guy" DIY solution. I purchased 2 24" 4-bulb over-the-bathroom-mirror light fixtures (8 lamps total) and 8 of these:

http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-F...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

$40 for the two light fixtures and $60 for a 12-pack of lamps.

I bought one and tested it out w/ a "clamp light" over the tank and it adds a decent amount of blue to my 10/14K MH with a bit of flourescence. If I need more I can always add one or two of these:

Cheers
James

 

[trb]

Colored CFL bulbs! Neat! Does it show up well in pics?

If you had asked about some of the over the mirror fixtures that hold the round bulbs, I would have given you some. I have like 2 or 3 sitting in my garage that we replaced with nicer ones. If anyone else wants them, I can pull them out.

 

[jamesw]

Well dang - I wish I'd have known!

These are the ones I ended up getting - they are wood, so easy to screw/mount in my hood:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KKHS64/

Cheers
James

 

[trb]

Mine are identical, but in chrome and 6 lights I believe.

 

[merkurmaniac]

I am planning on supplementing my solartube skylight with a couple of these bulbs.

5 watt GU10 base.:

http://www.plasmaled.com/mr16_led_light_bulb.htm

In a fixture kind of like this:

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=468370

These will end up quite visible in my house and will hopefully end up pretty nice looking.

 

[jamesw]

Wow, those are quite nice Mercur!

These linkable fixtures inside a hood would work quite well:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs..._mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D27X-_-202024449

Cheers
James

 

[merkurmaniac]

Yeah, but "halogen" is latin for "heat". I plan on not running a chiller in the summer, so I want to cut any heat inputs that I can, so for me it will need to be LED's or fluorescents. I should have a light meter this weekend, and I plan to test the output of the 3watt and 5 watt GU10 LED's to see how they do.

 

[jamesw]

Right - I meant to use those fixtures w/ the LED lamps.

Cheers
James

 

[merkurmaniac]

Probably easier to find that style of fixtures with LED's. The ones that I linked to are complete units that need no power supply, since they run on 110V. I will report how much light they put out. My concern with them is short lifespan, since they are probably MADE IN CHINA garbage.

Oddly, I wonder if this summer, I will still have my heater clicking on/off all the time. I put a good amount of heat into the water, and I wonder if I save electricity using LEDs, only to spend it on heaters anyways.