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Re: Re: Vitalite useable life?
Neil Frank said...
>Perhaps the vet was talking about the ultraviolet light that vitalights
>are known to emit. Even if he is correct and 'full' spectrum is lost, I
>would not worry about it.
I read the same post and got that impression. People have been
buying the Vitalites for their herps for the added UV. This may
not be proper etiquette, but here is a copy of the post from a
Christina.
"The other day when I was at the vet, I heard the vet talking to a guy
who was there with his reptile (a lizard of some sort). The lizard (sorry
guys, but I know absolutely nothing about lizards and such), had a skin
fungus. The vet said that full-spectrum light or exposure to sunlight
would prevent that. Then they started talking about vitalights. The
vet said that a vet in California (I am in Texas) just wrote a paper
that he presented at a conference on full-spectrum lighting.
What the paper said: Vita-lights loose their full-spectrum capacity after
30 days. Some fancy german brand of full-spectrum lighting that
is more expensive than vitalights lasts 60 to 90 days. When this vet used
vitalights and changed them every 30 days his lizards grew twice as fast
as those lizards raised under vitalights that were not changed.
No, I don't know the names or anything. If anyone is really interested I
will go ask my vet.
Ugh, stuff like that panics me. Aren't there alot of breeders out there
who have birds that are kept indoors and only receive light from old
vitalights? Is this a problem with birds?
Christina ..."
Re: MH and Fluorescent efficiencies
For the MH175/U/5K (5200K) that Venture makes the mean lumens/watt
is 51 when burned vertically and 43 when burned horizontally in a
typical hood. The 3700K to 4300K lamps are a bit more efficient, as
are the 250 and 400 watt versions of the 5200K lamp.
Some horizontal high output metal halides have mean outputs of
80. These require a special socket. There are also regulated lag
ballasts that deliver 90 plus lumens/watt from those bulbs designed
to run on them. In addition there are vertically oriented lamps
that operate on the regular CWA ballasts that get as much as 90
lumens mean output. All of the above are 4000K lamps and have much
higher life expectancies. Is this what you are running Steve?
The SPX50 T-8s provide what, maybe 90 to 100 lumens/watt? Compare
that to 43 or 65 from the MH. A MH ballast uses about 35 watts and
a electronic ballast less than 17 (actually I think its a lot less)
for the same wattage.
Cost comparisons will depend upon the size and shape of each tank,
as well one's ingenuity at sourcing the components. If it is a
choice between 16 T-8s and 2 MHs I guess that I'd go with the
latter.
--
Dave Whittaker ac554 at FreeNet_Carleton.CA
Gloucester, Ontario dwhitt at magmacom_com
Canada