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Old 03-28-2011, 11:00 AM
hydrophotobio hydrophotobio is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cable24601 View Post
Its time to begin expanding to more hydroponics systems and in doing so I need to add more lighting. I spent quite some time looking in to possible solutions. I really like the idea of the low power consumption of led but the high cost would keep me from expanding at the pace that I want. I was almost ready to buy a T5 HO setup and then I saw something called induction lights.

There were a few of these on eBay but they were still a bit out of my price range for an unproven technology. Further google serches turned up a $150 50 watt model from Hydroponics Hut and after looking at the specs I was sold. At the $150 price point would allow me to buy 2 lights but after one last web search I found a source that sold just the bulbs at a third of the cost. For only $59.99 each InductionLamps.com: Your source for all Induction Lamps and Fixtures offer the same light excluding the plug and hood. I already had a socket and hood curtsy of some old photography equipment. I ended up ordering 3 lights. These are said to be equivalent to a 90 watt LED ufo or 200 watt HID.

I will have them in a test grow soon but until the here are some pictures.
I have a couple of those as well. One regular, one with a specialized phosphor blend. Both manufactured by Anko Solara.

Sadly, it cannot come close to the photon flux output of LED, even after warming up. I've got a LARGE 200w induction lamp, you can't get near 2,000 umol even one inch away from the light.

This induction tech has been around for ages. There's a reason it's been pretty much relegated to industrial lighting, and that's due to the photon flux output.

Maybe in the future, induction will be quite usable. But with that overly-large tube, no means of refocusing EMR back to the tube, and without a proper reflector, the induction lamp isn't going to do very much.

Lettuce, Spinach, sure it'll work. Not enough output for really good tomatoes or peppers. My research shed in the UK uses induction for human lighting, nothing else. We've got everything from M-land to e-bay discounted induction lamps, the only ones in use are the ones that let us see normally. The M-land sits 100% unusued, still hanging where we originally placed it for an initial test.
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