Doug wrote:
I did some light meter samples yesterday and found that I'm actually getting
about 1/3 the light I need regardless of where because I've arranged the plants
based on their light requirements. Yikes!!

*********** I'm not surprised. 400 Watts isn't very much for the size
of room you described. On the other hand, you don't need to reach the
full light strength that you see recommended for greenhouse growing. As
they say, there are no cloudy days under your lights. One of my grow
areas has only a 400 W MH light and I can bloom almost anything in the
5x5 foot area under it. I do have 2 yellow Catts with mostly high light
species in their background that bloomed rarely under the 400 watt area
but did better under the 800 watt area.


A 1000 watt bulb would be about right. But I can't imagine living with just the
sodium color. Yuck!


********* I'm with you on that. It took me a while to get used to my
newer light that was half HPS.


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So now I'm looking at a Sun system 7 to run both. Be nice if it had separate
on/off switches for either light but I don't think so.

********** My newer light is the 800 W version of the Sun system VII.
Even though the 2 ballasts are enclosed in a single box, there are two
lines going in and 2 coming out. Each of the 2 bulbs has its own cord
going to it. You wouldn't want to pull a plug at the ballast box but
there is nothing wrong with unplugging one back at the wall outlet (or,
more likely, at the timer).

By the way, I turn off my lights for the summer and the plants go
outside. (the few plants that I feel are too tender to go out spend the
summer near some windows.) My outdoor season is 3 months at the most.
The orchids have to endure a few, sometimes several, nights in the 40s
to stretch the season that far. In fact, we usually have a few nights in
July that are in the 40s. The plants put up with it.

Steve