"Doug Kanter" wrote:
Light is one of the problems here. It's been incessantly
cloudy, and even though the plants are in the best window
in the house, it's still not enough. I'm considering a plant
light, but at the same time, I'm trying to keep the utility bills
down.

Flourescent lighting uses very little wattage so electrical costs of
having such lights is low. If you add one or two four foot full-spectrum
flourescent over your plants, that'll be as beneficial as a "grow light,"
but the full spectrum is healthier for humans &amp not as annoying as the
blue glow of a Grow Light; the full-spectrums are nice to live, read, &
work by. A full spectrum light makes good overall light for the whole
room, so you could leave off a couple of the other lights if price of
electricity is a question. Since the other lights in the room are apt to
be incadescent using three or four times the electricity per bulb, you'll
actually be SAVING electricity to use a full spectrum tubes. Full-spectrum
flourescents take many years to burn out, but should even so be changed
each spring because it looses its full spectrum of light as it ages &
becomes more blinky & no loner ideal human lighting, but changed annually
it's way closer to natural light & reportedly even helpful for "winter
blues" that afflicts people getting too little sunlight. There are also
full-spectrum incadescent bulbs but they wouldn't save electricity, though
you could put them in a floor lamp & aim that at your plants as a stop-gap
method of getting them more light during overcast days & short-day
winters.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com