CF Retrofit

[Greg Turner]

Awhile back there was a discussion about compact florescence bulbs for use in the regular incandescence hoods.  

Did anyone find a bulb that has good plant spectrum (5000K-6400K) at about 15W to 25W?  If so, please let me know I'm interested in retrofitting an old hood.

[dpatte]

Do any of the manufacturers post the spectrums of their CF bulbs on the web?

If people let me know the manufacturer and model numbers of some CF bulbs, I'd be quite willing to track them down and get answers from the manufacurers.

CF bulbs (compact flourescent, screw-in replacement for incandescent bulbs) are definately a 'best buy' for lighting.

[nbirkett]

I stumbled across this Texas site which gives CF bulbs with 6400K spectrum in various wattages.

http://www.specialtyoptical.com/compactfluorescentlamps.htm

Along the same lines, can you get adapters to permit the use of 2/4 pin CF's in regular incadescent style screw sockets?

[Greg Turner]

Thanks for that link... I'll look into that manufacture to see if there's a Canadian retailer.  

As far a converter for the 2 pin bulbs, I'm not sure.  But the converter would have to have a ballast to power those bulbs because those CF bulbs have no built-in ballast.

For a more elaborate retrofit you should check out:
http://www.ahsupply.com
I got a kit from them and it was great.  GREAT price, service, and delivery.  And with this high CDN $ you can't find a better deal.

[dpatte]

CF bulbs have no built-in ballast.

As far as I understand on 2 pin florescents, the ballast is used to change the voltage in order to make the flourescent bulb work correctly

CF bulbs either have a small ballast built into each bulb, or they dont need one, because they run at source voltage 120V - a different voltage than two pin flourescents require.

[dpatte]

Standard Sylvania CF bulbs are only 3000K, betwen warm white and cool white (quite yellow). I expect, though cant confirm that these are the bulbs sold at most hardware stores.

The minimum people would want are daylight, and i think superdaylight would be even better.