Well, the joke was great, but I am not planning to grow weeds. Although I do have some house plants that could benefit from some good light in winter.
I was hoping to be able to use them in my garage. I often work in it and would like to have very bright lighting there, somewhat approaching daylight. It makes things pleasant. I have some fluorescent lights there, but would like even more light. Hence my question.
Essentially, I would not mind a visit from the cops all that much, I have nothing serious to hide. I cannot see, though, why they would decide to visit, but that's all beside the point.
The questions are, essentially, are they suitable for garage lighting. Do they emit harmful UV and is their light pleasant for eyes.
There have been a couple of incidents around here (Portland / Lake Oswego, OR) recently where Halide lights in school gymnasiums (ok gymnasia to the Latin /reek scholars) had cracked outer coatings. The lights emitted a_LOT_ of bad UV stuff; several students and teachers apparently suffered serious and permanent eye damage. The exposure was over a several month period, AIUI, and there was no obvious indicator that the bulb outer coatings were cracked.
Me, I'd stay away from them in the home / garage / workshop setting.
And I say that living in an area where from about now to mid April where our "daylight" is usually a cold wet grey cloudy dim mess. I like "bright", but won't take unnecessary risks.
Thanks. You raised a great issue and I would not want to take any eye damage risk. Would it make any sense to enclose them into some appropriate (rated for heat input) glass diffusers of any sort? Glass is a UV filter, right?
It looks as though going with more regular fluorescents may be more sensible though.
Alot of buildings Might use them maybe HD lowes menards etc, go ask what they use and see how bright it is, pointed up it may be ok, but bright im sure there are UV lenses available or built in now as standard in interior fixtures
I have no idea what, if anything, filters (or absorbs?) UV output from the halide lights. More you filter it though, seems to me the more you cut down the lumens / sq. ft. on your work surfaces. If you filter the Halide output enough, you might as well be using regular fluorescents. The captal cost on the fluorescents has got to be lower than the halides plus additional filters. And the fluorescents adhere to th KISS principle.
I'd recommend the fluorescents for several reasons entirely aside from potential UV emission.
- MH bulbs are _hot_. In a smallish area (a garage would qualify), the directed heat will occasionally be uncomfortable.
- MH systems are expensive.
- Used as overall lighting in a relatively low-ceiling space, MHs will have intense hard-to-miss super bright spots, which will have you stumbling around with purple spots in your eyes.
- I'd rather not have MH bulbs in a workshop, where accidentally hitting one will let stuff out that you don't want...
- MHs are somewhat more efficient than ordinary incandescents, but not nearly as good as fluorescents, and as such, going with a lot of MHs to get a lot of light is going to cost a fair bit to operate.
Your best bet is to use fluorescents as overall lighting, and use floods or spot lamps in work areas where you need it.
I've built my shop with several 8' fluorescent fixtures for overall lighting, and used a variety of quartz halogen fixtures mounted on the ceiling for task lighting. In order to keep costs down, I've used a few 150W and 300W rectangular QH flood lamp fixtures (long skinny QH bulbs) - they're quite cheap. Even cheaper are simple flood lamp holders with PAR30 QH bulbs (45-60W), tho you can up 'em to PAR50s (up to 300W, but I'd stay below 100W because of heating issues) if you wish.
Note that these fixtures are not normally indoor ceiling mounted, and you need to be aware of the fact that they do produce a lot of heat. The ceiling of my shop is drywalled... The inspector didn't question them either.
Note also that I have to be careful not to run into them with large pieces of lumber. Pot fixtures would be nicer, but they're not as flexible. In 10 years or so, I've not broken one yet....
You certainly can, they're excellent for indirect lighting applications, use them in a fixture that throws the light up at the ceiling for very diffuse, low-glare lighting. I used to have a 400W halide fixture for my cathedral-ceiling living room -- a huge, dramatic wall sconce at one end lit the whole room with light bounced off the wall and ceiling.
I worked for a time in an architect's office that had 240W halides throughout, bounced up off the high ceiling, it was beautiful lighting for that work, almost no distinct shadow when your hand moved over a drawing, since there was light coming at it from all angles.
You need the right fixture, and a Metal halide ballast, and cooling for both.
Metal Halide bulbs are used quite often for horticulture, so check in the indoor growing area. 175 and 250 watt would be more common, as they throw a LOT of light, and a 400 watter would light up a warehouse.
For example, the local box store has the smaller bulbs on the shelf.
Chris, just what is involved in having a "MH system"?
The lightbulbs seem to just need light sockets. I would suppose tat they need robust switches, maybe 0 crossing solid state relays. What else is involved, especially with indirect lighting?
Yes. If I go ahead with them (doubtful at this point), I would use them for INdirect lighting.
Thanks. My problem with fluorescents, is that there "never seems to be enough". I already have 4 fixtures with 8 4 foot bulbs, and that is barely adequate. I want to be able to feel great about the amoun tof light that I have.
"Essentially, I would not mind a visit from the cops all that much, I have nothing serious to hide. I cannot see, though, why they would decide to visit, but that's all beside the point. "
Homes with abnormally large heat blooms in the structure, or on the power pole (transformer) are a signature of someone using lots of lights (often MHAs!) to grow marijuana.
That is way too expensive. They sell the bulbs in HD for around $25. I collect light bulbs and can tell you that its too expensive. You will need a ballast though.
There is no danger from UV if the glass outer shell is intact.
There IS a danger from explosion, and those bulbs must be encased in a fixture that can contain them. Occasionally the bigger ones (1500W) will pop at a stadium and you can hear them go from across the field. The quartz in them is red hot. But I think they only blow when they get near the end of their life time.
The 400W is the cheapest of the lot. The smaller ones are more expensive, as are the larger ones, as 400W is the most common.
I think that as a law abiding citizen in a country under the rule of law, it is not a good reason to avoid lawful activity just because it has a heat signature similar to unlawful activity.
Worst case is, I get a visit from law enforcement, and if they have a search warrant, I would gladly show them my MH lighting.
If they do not have a search warrant, I would tell them that I use MH lighting in my garage, and politely tell them to get a search warrant to enter my house.
If burglars break into my house at night, I will shoot to stop.
Besides, that ligting will see intermittent use, only when I am actually working in a garage. It is unlikely to be running at all hours of the day. So, I question the premise that use of MH lighting for illuminating a garage, would truly arouse suspicions any more than, say, use of 1 kW spotlights such a the one I have.
There could be good reasons to avoid MH lighting such as
- cost
- comfort
- eye safety
- fire safety
etc. Visits from cops are not a good enough reason.
One more downside to MH is that once you turn it off, you have to wait for it to cool down before it will re-start. And they take a minute or so to warm up, so its not for a room in a house.
I like them for a workshop though - plenty of light and little heat (compared to tungsten bulbs).
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