Re: [APD] Fw: DIY reflector?

[Donald Hellen <donhellen at horizonview_net>]

On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:51:40 -0700 (PDT), "S. Hieber"
<shieber at yahoo_com> wrote:

>But know that you are getting simple magnetic ballasts that might audibly hum as the bulbs turn on and off 120 times per second (some folks claim they can perceive the flicker), narrow spectrum bulbs (probably using calcium halophostate as the "single phosphor" -- the plants won't care but the viewers might)

You're right on the perspective form the
plants--Walstad claims that the plants won't care. Some
of the cheap shop lights have the mounting of the
ballasts set up to prevent the hum from being audible.
That seems to be the case with mine. If they're
packaged well, they won't hum, at least not until they
are a few years old. That's when some of them become
audible. I think some of the cheap ones, though, do hum
even right out of the box. We've been fortunate so far
with the brand we've bought.

The phosphor in some bulbs seem to smooth out the
flicker also, but I've seen some that don't do a good
job of that. 

If these had a hum problem, I would take them back. I
do expect them to hum eventually, and that's when I'll
move them to the garage where I need more light. Then I
can buy some with electronic ballasts that will last
more than 5 or 10 years. 
--------------------------------
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
   -Albert Einstein

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