[APD] RE: Actinics and other things to darken (or lighten) your life

[Bill Wichers <billw at waveform_net>]

> I know MH is awful in many ways but damn, it's cheap. And as a source of
> just red and blue a cheap HPS and cheap  MH should work very well for very
> low cost.
Arg, I had a typo in my last post. I meant to say MV (Mercury Vapor) was 
not very efficient, and that MH (Metal Halide) was much better. Looks like 
you followed my typo perfectly :-)

MV is inefficient, and IMHO is an ugly tank light (but not as bad as sodium 
vapor). It should also be noted that the very ORANGE security lights are 
low-pressure sodium vapor, and the more yellow lights are HIGH pressure 
sodium vapor (HPS) lights. They are not the same.

BTW, MH is much cheaper when you DIY... Aquarium stores and the 
aquarium-specific manufacturers seem to think they should be able to charge 
a *lot* for the things, and apparently a lot of people are willing to pay it...

> We aleady know each of them work by themselves and together you'd get
> pretty close to white light (yellow plus blue = white when you're
> adding light)

Depends on the spectrum though. Adding narrow-spectrum lights together may 
look OK normally, but does not render colors accurately. There is a lot of 
info on this published by Pantone (makers of dye and color standards for 
the printing industry), where color consistency is very important. They 
even make little units with special lights in them so that you can see what 
colors will look like under particular kinds of lighting.

     -Bill


*****************************
Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator

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