You get what you pay for. Shop lights.

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by feldon27

I repurposed my fluorescent lights to grow lettuce. I was surprised at how good the results were. [/url]

So, does the lava lamp help also? (pic #1)

dcarch

[feldon30]

LOL. Every little bit of light helps.

[Puregoodtomatoes]

For the record we just purchased 6 lights at W-M. I only had 2 work!!!!! They are so cheaply made and should be taken off the market because they are junk. They also cost me alot of time and caused me alot of stress. I then went somewhere else and bought a different brand and every one worked. I fear they are not even safe.

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by Puregoodtomatoes

For the record we just purchased 6 lights at W-M. I only had 2 work!!!!! They are so cheaply made and should be taken off the market because they are junk. They also cost me alot of time and caused me alot of stress. I then went somewhere else and bought a different brand and every one worked. I fear they are not even safe.

They are definitely not safe and should never be sold here. I am glad that you have gotten others instead. It's amazing that whoever does the buying for WM will allow these to be sold, at any price.

Thank you for posting your unhappy experience to confirm mine and others.

dcarch

[gardenscout]

I bought the cheap version at walmart (Lights of America brand, made in USA) and it has no switch whatsoever. Does everyone else's have a switch and mine is an oddball?

It seems fine for now, but I will upgrade next year.

[tomatoguy]

Speaking of ham radio operators, I am one. I have never noticed any RF issues from my lights. I have 3 Home Depot fixtures with Gro-Lux bulbs and a 175W Metal Halide integrated lighting system. For a chuckle, go to http://www.qrz.com
and type NY4T in the callsign search window. That would be me. What does my callsign mean? Nice Year 4 Tomatoes, of course.

mater

[gardenscout]

Originally Posted by dcarch

So, does the lava lamp help also? (pic #1)

I see I am not the only one who looks around the room when people post pics.

[gardenscout]

Couldn't resist... LOL.

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by tomatoguy

Speaking of ham radio operators, I am one. I have never noticed any RF issues from my lights. I have 3 Home Depot fixtures with Gro-Lux bulbs and a 175W Metal Halide integrated lighting system. -----------
mater

Depends on what frequency of RF and what mode you operate. Digital has little interference, FM is not bad, AM is terrible.

It was a problem to have magnetic ballast near a color CRT, it would mess up the color. Remember the degauss button?

dcarch

[miniedmo]

What are the best bulbs to use? I spent the extra bucks and bought the grow bulbs. Are the normal bulbs just as good?

[dirtdigging101]

gee i am feeling guilty i have 32 loghts from walmart and they all work fine , paid 7.92 for them and they are lights of america who i know have had quality problems with other lights in the pas, most of mine have no switch but q rfew have black cords and a pull chain some of the lights are 4 years old and yess i have pressed a few of temback together a few times

i use 40 wat bulbs, and always buy the dame ones in fact i save the box to e sure
el cheap o but it works good next year seedlings will be under the lights less then ito a cool green house at about 3 or 4 weeks

this year i needed 800 plants for the main green house and have about 1200 ready to plant in about 10 days the extras get potted up bigger and given away and sod to lower the cost of starting seeds/plants

[tomatoguy]

dcarch,

I was operating SSB and CW on HF and FM on VHF. The lights were in close proximity to the station the first couple of years. The only serious problem I had was when the next door neighbors bought a new electric blanket that was really trashing the HF bands. Took me a lot of sniffing and almost a month to figure that one out.

gardenscout,

I thought I would just do a light workout that day.

mater

[peppereater]

miniedmo...
"What are the best bulbs to use? I spent the extra bucks and bought the grow bulbs. Are the normal bulbs just as good?"
The conscensus seems to be that standard flourescents do fine. I have great results with them, and others state the same. The grow bulbs aren't worth the extra expense, 'though some use them in combination with the regular ones.

[feldon30]

The "consensus" is half "Cool Whites", half "Daylight".

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by tomatoguy

---- The only serious problem I had was when the next door neighbors bought a new electric blanket that was really trashing the HF bands. Took me a lot of sniffing and almost a month to figure that one out.------
mater

Sound like they have a fancier blanket which has a pulse width modulated (PWM) solid-state temperature control, and the resistive heating element length in their blanket is a fractional/multiple wave length of your antenna. Buy them an auto-transformer.

dcarch