Re: [APD] The little tank that could!

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Just for the record, I didn't suggest the conversion
factor. The energy effiiciency between incandescents, which
run about 3% to 6%, and fluorescents, which run about
30-35%, depends on a number of factors, including how much
is useful to plants. Since fluorescents produce a lot of
green light that the plants don't take much advantage of
(this fact is reflected in their color), a comparison isn't
straigtforward. Fluorescents are tremendously more
efficient but I wouldn't use 7 as a rule of thumb
conversion factor for growing plants.

4 or 5 is much more reasonable, imo, but I wouldn't often
try to compare at all; I wouldn't use incandescent bulbs
with aquariums, even little ones. Even on a 3/4 gallon
tank, I use fluorescent lighting. Incandescents just give
off too  darn much heat and there's a wide range of
incandescent bulbs avaialble.  I recently picked up some 7
watt candelabra base fluorescents in a very compact package
made for chandelier bulb replacement.

But tastes vary,
Scott H.

--- Gwmangen at cs_com wrote:
> . . .
> I was using an incandescent to flourescent conversion
> factor of 4.62 instead 
> of the 7 recommended by Hieber.  .  . 

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