4' Grow Light Recommendations

Hey peeps!
I am working on my "what to do before winter" list and got to thinking about adding a grow light or two for my indoor house plants, and some spring indoor seed starting. My shelving is 4' long, and while I currently have 4 shelf levels, I'm not sure I will add lights to more than 2 levels.

My initial questions.... what are your current lights and setup like, do your lights make noise (mine will most likely be near a bedroom, so....), and if you were to change anything, what would you change?

We use 4' T8 shop lights with natural light bulbs. Our stand is homemade with two levels ,enough to start 8 flats at a time. I put inexpensive timers on it to turn on and shut off on its own also the fan turn on and off at the same time.it is a total redneck setup, but works great for our needs.

Been a long time since I've been close enough to shop lights to know if they make noise - do yours?

SweetMissDaisy said:

Been a long time since I've been close enough to shop lights to know if they make noise - do yours?

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No ours are pretty silent unless you have a ballast starting to go bad then it will hum. The fixtures were &10.00 each at Walmart plus you have to buy the bulbs separate.

SweetMissDaisy said:

Hey peeps!
I am working on my "what to do before winter" list and got to thinking about adding a grow light or two for my indoor house plants, and some spring indoor seed starting. My shelving is 4' long, and while I currently have 4 shelf levels, I'm not sure I will add lights to more than 2 levels.

My initial questions.... what are your current lights and setup like, do your lights make noise (mine will most likely be near a bedroom, so....), and if you were to change anything, what would you change?

Click to expand...

WINTER????

I know... terrible isn't it... two of my red maples have started to turn already...

SweetMissDaisy said:

I know... terrible isn't it... two of my red maples have started to turn already...

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What?
You might want to get some water on them...

thistlebloom said:

What?
You might want to get some water on them...

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Yea, I was thinking the same. I am going to check their water in the morning... they're on the drip line 3x a week for 40 min, but their mushroom cap might be disrupted.

Don't know how big the shelves are, or how much you are looking to invest... but I use a 6-bulb high-bay T-8 fixture for seed starting. The fixture has high efficiency reflectors, and puts out a high light intensity. It replaced the T-12 shop lights that I had used for years, and is a vast improvement.

@SweetMissDaisy for seed starting would recommend going with a t-5 high bay fixture using 850 lamps. yes have gone though the t-12 to t-8 fixture upgrades.
you can go to any electrical supply business bet they have a couple t-5 fixtures they would sale you cheap, since led fixtures are the rage now..... love both of my t-5 for seed starting...
now for house plants would either go with t-5 with a mix 850 and red and blue lamps or go with led lamps..

just so you know that a t-8 lamp will fit a t-12 lamp holder<but you need to change out the ballast to t-8 to make it work..>
or you can research t-8 led bulbs, but you will need to re-wire the fixture or buy an universe lamp that can use either the ballast or not.

yes it's confusing really the amps that a t-5 or led lamps use is a minimal difference in power..

@jackb how about your input on this subject......your the guru about growing plants under lights..!!!!!!!