Most useful lighting for highschool greenhouse

[Aaron]

The new greenhouse will soon be completed (15 x 57) not including a 15x57 "prep room" in the second floor of my high school. We are planning on a Murray-esq flood drain system with a raisable double bunkbed system. I thought the T5 HO lights would be best for the widest variet of plants and best for not burning students. I'm interested in the communities thoughts on the subject.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Aaron, how far away from the planting beds will the lights be?  And do you have any flexibility with the wattage of the lights?  And since you can get ballasts will they let you get switchable ballasts so you can use both sodium and metal halide bulbs?  Sodium is generally used for the fruiting stages of plants, and MH for the vegetative stage...which includes greens, and young fruiting plants.  You might be ok depending on some of these answers...

[TCLynx]

Seeing as it is for supplemental lighting and for lighting when people might be working in the greenhouse after dark, having them mounted in the peak will help avoid having them block the natural light to the plants.

 

Now switchable ballasts would be nice but I kinda doubt that anyone is really going to want to mess with it that much seeing as it really is just supplement, you are in a greenhouse after all and have the real sun light.  (However, perhaps some of the students will later manage to get some funding to do some advanced experiments to test out which lighting might be more effective in different situations, but let the Juniors and Seniors work on the proposal writing for that one This is supposed to be for education after all.)

[Aaron]

Thanks everybody. As I am low man on the totem pole I will probably not be privy to all the "minor" details like distance, watage, etc.. Today I did A LOT of research with temperature, pricing, effective distance, etc. Tomorrow I make a case to my supervisor who decides where to go with this. Wish us (students too) luck;)

TCLynx said:

Seeing as it is for supplemental lighting and for lighting when people might be working in the greenhouse after dark, having them mounted in the peak will help avoid having them block the natural light to the plants.

 

Now switchable ballasts would be nice but I kinda doubt that anyone is really going to want to mess with it that much seeing as it really is just supplement, you are in a greenhouse after all and have the real sun light.  (However, perhaps some of the students will later manage to get some funding to do some advanced experiments to test out which lighting might be more effective in different situations, but let the Juniors and Seniors work on the proposal writing for that one This is supposed to be for education after all.)

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Good luck, Aaron and students!

[Aaron]

Well, I created a packet of info of why t5ho is better showing a concise comparison of price, effectiveness, energy usage and most importantly temp. I gave it to my supervisor who will give it to the principal. Cross your fingers.

Sylvia Bernstein said:

Good luck, Aaron and students!

[Aaron]

Well. It's official. 8 600w hps lights installed at 7 or so feet

Aaron said:

Well, I created a packet of info of why t5ho is better showing a concise comparison of price, effectiveness, energy usage and most importantly temp. I gave it to my supervisor who will give it to the principal. Cross your fingers.

Sylvia Bernstein said:

Good luck, Aaron and students!