il Mon, 10 May 2004 16:54:24 -0600, "tmtresh" ha scritto:


What's CF? And would they be ok for propagating lights? Or reading
for that matter.

Compact Flourescent. Very energy efficient for the light output (14 watt CF
= 60 watt incandescent) . I use them all over my house. I have no problem
with reading by them. I use them for plants requiring full sun in my house.
I haven't tried growing anything from seed under them, but I have propogated
a few plants by cuttings. They work really well for me. And they screw into
regular incandescent type sockets. Most around the house are 8-14 watts. For
the plants, I use three 25 watt bulbs. They also have the advantage of not
getting as hot as incandescents for the light output, so for applications
such as plants you can put the highest wattage CF bulb you can find, and not
have problems with the fixture getting too hot.

Downsides: insanely expensive ~$5 per bulb. They are touted as lasting ~5
years, but I've had several burn out after only a few months. Some brands
are better than others. Some of them come on quicker, others are dim for the
first few minutes, though most are pretty good. Because they contain
mercury, they should be disposed with your local hazardous waste site.

We may have a similar product, but they're called energy savers.
Could be what I need.

--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]