SAD Lights

[nightcrawler13]

I bought myself a second hand Litepod off ebay after reading about how good they can be for energy levels, I'm currently basking in it's extremely bright glow whist writing, and I feel about three times as 'awake' as I did 10 minutes ago....

this could be a placebo, but if it's one that works then I don't really care

anyone else dabble in fake sun light?

[eFestivals]

anyone else dabble in fake sun light?

I used to about 20 years ago. But for something entirely different.

[Spindles]

I certainly get seasonally affected, but for me it isn't the slow drift into being a bit down that is the problem so much as springing to life again around March/April

I've not tried the lights. What temperature are they in Kelvin? I, like mr E, have a bit of a history of knowing about lighting from hobbies of the past and may have the right temperature bulbs kicking around. I'd be interested in trying the light thing out to see if it helps manage my mood better.

[lost]

my mum used to have one. I tried it and don't think it did much good. Now if it could create more bank holidays between now and Christmas and also get rid of 90% of the extra traffic which seems to appear when the schools are back I'd snap one up.

[nightcrawler13]

my mum used to have one. I tried it and don't think it did much good. Now if it could create more bank holidays between now and Christmas and also get rid of 90% of the extra traffic which seems to appear when the schools are back I'd snap one up.

[5co77ie]

my tropical fish and plants like fake sunlight - my new bulb http://www.jbl.de/en/aquatics-freshwater-products/detail/3132/jbl-solar-ultra-color lights up half the street outside when it's dark even with the curtains closed! Sitting near it is like being in Hawaii!

[eFestivals]

I've not tried the lights. What temperature are they in Kelvin? I, like mr E, have a bit of a history of knowing about lighting from hobbies of the past and may have the right temperature bulbs kicking around. I'd be interested in trying the light thing out to see if it helps manage my mood better.

It's not the temperature which matters, but the 'colours' of the light that are put out.

I've no idea what is needed to combat S.A.D., but I do know that a standard incandescent bulb puts out mainly blue and red light, which is very different from natural sunlight and doesn't have the right colour spectrum to combat S.A.D.

[Spindles]

The temperature is the colour. eg: 2700k is red spectrum, 6500k is blue spectrum.

[eFestivals]

The temperature is the colour. eg: 2700k is red spectrum, 6500k is blue spectrum.

except you can get all of the same spectums without the heat.

[Spindles]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

I don't think you get what I'm saying, the colour of a light is measured in temperature, not how much temperature the bulb gives off, but the temperature range of the wavelength of light.

Anyhow, I'll just google SAD lights and find out the colour temp for myself.

[Spindles]

..and 15 seconds later, any bulb with a colour temperature about 5000k works (blue spectrum).

I've got some 65w CFLs in 6500k, I might try this out over the winter.

[eFestivals]

http://en.wikipedia....lor_temperature

I don't think you get what I'm saying, the colour of a light is measured in temperature, not how much temperature the bulb gives off, but the temperature range of the wavelength of light.

ahhh, got you .... it's not a way I've ever looked at light. I've come at it from a different technical angle, as a result of my past-life as a sparky. I'd have gone with the wave frequency of a particular colour of light.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Oh the irony of having a sad light. Lights are usually such happy things.

[Spindles]

Even better news, I have 2 65w 6500k's. I think I might have a little play later this evening.

Best put the blackout curtains up, wouldn't want the neighbours thinking I'm turning a bedroom into something naughty.

@mr E. It's not unsurprising. If your hobby years were more than very recent it would have been before the advent of high power CFL's and most likely relied on sodium light for the red and metal halide for the blue. It is only really quite recently that things such as focussed spectrum lighting has come around. High kelvin ranges are good for reptiles, tropical fish and the vegetative cycle in plants, low kelvin ranges are good for increasing the yield of fruits or flowers.

I'm really into LED lighting (enjoyed a workshop on it at glastonbury some years ago) and NASA, ESA and quite a lot of "home entrepeneurs" are getting great results from incredibly low wattages (and also coming with the advantage of much reduced heat output, making temp control less of an issue). Light is a fascinating thing, when you learn how it works you realise that all energy works in pretty much the same way and that fluid dynamics can be applied to pretty much any material (even solids)

[nightcrawler13]

Even better news, I have 2 65w 6500k's. I think I might have a little play later this evening.

Best put the blackout curtains up, wouldn't want the neighbours thinking I'm turning a bedroom into something naughty.

@mr E. It's not unsurprising. If your hobby years were more than very recent it would have been before the advent of high power CFL's and most likely relied on sodium light for the red and metal halide for the blue. It is only really quite recently that things such as focussed spectrum lighting has come around. High kelvin ranges are good for reptiles, tropical fish and the vegetative cycle in plants, low kelvin ranges are good for increasing the yield of fruits or flowers.

I'm really into LED lighting (enjoyed a workshop on it at glastonbury some years ago) and NASA, ESA and quite a lot of "home entrepeneurs" are getting great results from incredibly low wattages (and also coming with the advantage of much reduced heat output, making temp control less of an issue). Light is a fascinating thing, when you learn how it works you realise that all energy works in pretty much the same way and that fluid dynamics can be applied to pretty much any material (even solids)

[eFestivals]

@mr E. It's not unsurprising. If your hobby years were more than very recent it would have been before the advent of high power CFL's and most likely relied on sodium light for the red and metal halide for the blue.

it was 20-odd years ago ... and I actually cheated and used domestic fluorescent light bulbs (the ones that are standard nowadays) .... cheaper to buy the lights, cheaper to run them.

Sadly, that also results in a cheapened (smaller) crop, so it wasn't actually a great result - tho the fact it was a one-off hobby meant I hadn't spunked a fortune on lights.

I'm really into LED lighting (enjoyed a workshop on it at glastonbury some years ago) and NASA, ESA and quite a lot of "home entrepeneurs" are getting great results from incredibly low wattages (and also coming with the advantage of much reduced heat output, making temp control less of an issue). Light is a fascinating thing, when you learn how it works you realise that all energy works in pretty much the same way and that fluid dynamics can be applied to pretty much any material (even solids)

I'm aware that LEDs are the new craze, tho I've also heard that a person needs to be very careful about what they buy and where from - cos only some of the lights out there which claim to be up to the job are actually up to the job.

A friend showed me a webpage a while ago of an online spat going on between two different light suppliers, where each were slagging off the others lights as useless .... tho as far as I could tell from the tech specs there was naff all different about either set of lights, so gawd knows how someone is meant to work out which are worth buying.

[Spindles]

Absolutely on all counts. Light is a fascinating thing when you start to learn about it

Standard home bulbs will indeed grow roses, oranges or other hobby indoor gardening items, however as energy from light falls off at a rate which is the inverse square of the distance (get your head round that i=sqrt(d) ) the smaller the initial amount (in watts or lumens) is the shorter a distance it will travel before there is not enough energy left of any use, however with a bit of knowledge of physics you are able to create grids of light where the corresponding falloff meets the next in the grid and thus stops falling off and increases intensity. Among people on other forums who spend a long time arguing about light this is not well understood, even among those who use lights for a living

It can be an expensive hobby to own reptiles or whatever and need the bulbs, however thanks to modern CFL's it has never been cheaper to purchase bulbs which have both the power and the spectrum to keep your lizards happy. The caution is, like you say, there are plenty of cowboys out there who just want to cash in on a growing hobby

With CFL's its a ballast (starter) combined with either spiral or u-tube gas containers, some UK businesses are buying these parts in from the far east and building them here themselves, the quality varies (they are all just jars of gas with current running through, the colour temp is actually defined by the colour of the powder coating on the inside) according to how well they are sealed at the connection to the ballast and how well the tubes are secured (particularly in the u-tube variety) is the main factor (also cheap ass bayonet fittings, although e40 is the real standard)

I messed around with it a few years back, learned alot in the reading I did at the time, still do a fair bit of reading because I got really into the science (particularly the physics, but I found I like biology too)

[Spartacus Mars]

A friend showed me a webpage a while ago of an online spat going on between two different light suppliers, where each were slagging off the others lights as useless .... tho as far as I could tell from the tech specs there was naff all different about either set of lights, so gawd knows how someone is meant to work out which are worth buying.

[eFestivals]

LOL - I'm guessing I read the exact same thread on the exact same forum. :-)

it wasn't a forum, it was the front pages of two led light suppliers, each calling the other fraudsters.

[AcademicPistol]

anyone else dabble in fake sun light?