Do these so-called SAD lamps eg
Just buy a suitable SAD bulb.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember dave saying something like:
This is a regular query, every year. Fwiw, I have a couple of diy SAD lights, based on office 4-way ceiling fittings, one of 4x4ft tubes, stuffed with eight tubes, and one with
4x2ft tubes. I keep a mixture of daylight and warm white in them.It seems to work :)
I just take cod liver oil. And eat lots of smoked mackerel Pate.
Cheaper. Tastes better.
It doesn't look powerful enough to be useful for SAD to me. I would think 70+W metal halide would be better.
Current medical thinking is that a lack of Vitamin D contributes to many such conditions in these northern climes. Even the south of France has inadequate UV from the sun from early November to late February to give the vitamin D required, and that gets significantly worse if as you get beyond 60.
I live 6 miles from Carlsberg brewery - no problem!
And the best solution, unless you spend a lot of time out of doors with a lot of flesh exposed and no sun block on it, is vitamin D tablets. Really strong ones.
I was given a Philips LED-based SAD lamp. I expected it to do nothing at all but I was completely wrong. It made me feel really terrible - like the onset of migraine. :-(
Sunny Northampton eh?
nah that's for period pains, we need Vit D!!
Jim K
Go and buy a 4-tube modular ceiling fitting with a prismatic polycarbonate diffuser (if you can still get them), as the polycarbonate will absorb the small amount of UV which escapes from the tubes. Used to be under £20 new from an electrical wholesaler. Might want to get a spare diffuser too, because they will go yellow and brittle over time, due to absorbing the UV. These modular ceiling fittings are often found in skips outside office refurbishments too. (I have a couple I got that way, which I hang on picture nails whilst painting/decorating as they make excellent supplementary working lights.)
Because you'll want it close, I would try to find one which has electronic control gear, to avoid tube-end flicker which might otherwise be visible on occasions when you're up close to the tubes. This will be more expensive though.
These units aren't very deep, and you could hang one on the wall like a picture, and it will feel like you have a frosted glass window there. (Actually, I've seen this done in bathrooms with no external walls, and with curtains gathered up either side, few people would give it a second thought other than a window.) For SAD, this needs to be positioned near you.
It doesn't matter a scrap what colour tubes you use for SAD - most effective will be the most efficient for highest light output. Many SAD lights come with difficult to obtain tubes and/or high colour temperature, to generate some mystique to justify an extra high price, but that is all it's doing.
Hunslet ?
Thats so funny it's untrue.
Wouldn't recommend anbody suffering from S.A.D. to go and live there. Methinks it would soon become S for suicide.
Derek
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