Inexpensive Grow Lights / Lighting?

[GpsFrontier]

Thanks for the link to the information. I have not had time to go through it fully yet though it seems that it generally doubles the power to a particular light, but at the expense of eliminating a light. I am not sure how that would help unless space is of dire importance.

Also the diagrams refer to a exterior ballast. With cfl's the "C" stands for "compact" otherwise it's a Florescent light (FL, not CFL)The ballast in a CFL is sealed in the fixture, that is what the word compact refers to, and an exterior ballast is not compact as far as I know. Best as I can tell for tight situations where space is important, it may be useful but not with CFL's because they have sealed ballasts.

[Amigatec]

I have 5 4ft shop lights and just bought 12 ballasts from ebay to overdrive with. I plan to set up 3 of these up over an E&F system and grow lettuce and greens in. They don't need a lot of light, I will be using T8 6500k bulbs in these fixtures.

[GpsFrontier]

Originally Posted by Amigatec

I have 5 4ft shop lights and just bought 12 ballasts from ebay to overdrive with. I plan to set up 3 of these up over an E&F system and grow lettuce and greens in. They don't need a lot of light, I will be using T8 6500k bulbs in these fixtures.

So you are using florescent tubes in a shop light fixture and simply adding an extra ballast to each tube/light in the fixture, sounds good. By the time it is all said and done what did it cost you to complete each fixture, and how many tubes are in each?

[Amigatec]

The ballasts are 4 tube ballast. I will have to mount them on top of my Walmart ShopLights. I have 3 of them hanging in a 2X4 shelfing unit. The other 2 I have behind the E&F unit in the Hydroroom. I plan to overdrive all of them.

Here is a picture with all 5 of them hanging. I have since covered the back of it with mylar, and have redone it some.

[Amigatec]

I plan to move this into my Hydroroom this spring. I am going to redo the whole room, and maybe room year round inside.

[GpsFrontier]

I wish I had a place to grow inside. Both bedrooms are being used, the den is used everyday, and the kitchen living room and dining room are all basically one big room. There is space in the garage but I think it would be pointless, the air temp in the garage is about the same outside during the winter and about 10-15 degrees higher in the summer. I get all that free sunlight outside, so basically it seems pointless to spend the money to run lights and still need to deal with the weather to grow in the garage.

I have plans to build a greenhouse, though not any time soon. It will be easier to heat during winter, and I will build it in a way that it wont get hot from the sun in the summer. So hopefully one swamp cooler and one window ac unit will be enough to cool it during the summer, of coarse that depends on how many square feet I build it. I will still be able to use natural sunlight year round, maybe some supplemental lighting during winter.

[Amigatec]

It gets cold here, so I have to grow inside in the winter. The room is about 10X10, I plan to build a platform about 1 foot high along one wall, and set a few Waterfarms on it for tomatoes.

I also will be moving the grey shelfing unit into that room and setting it up with my E&F on top and another system on the bottom. The E&F will be for lettuce, spinach, and greens. The other system will be for peppers. I have yet to decide what it will be. I will probably use CFL's for this, I am leaning toward a Drip system of some kind, or maybe Bubbleponics.

I also would like to buy a Light Mover for the 400 watt CMH light. I have LOTS of plans for the room. I am going to use my garden space for growing Giant Pumpkins, with a strip of land for outside tomatoes.