Replies

1. 
   Danno | Jan 21, 2006 06:27pm | #1

   Warm fluorescents might work, but I would see if there's a way to install one of those new bulbs that are called "daylight" or "full spectrum" as they approach the color "temperature" of sunlight and also run without a lot of heat. Nextten and First Street catalogs have the daylight type fixtures and bulbs.

1. 
   user-94600 | Jan 22, 2006 04:47am | #2

   Many, many thanks.  Will check out Nextten and First Street!

1. 
   Danno | Jan 22, 2006 05:06pm | #3

   You are welcome. In the floor lamp I have, the socket is different from any other light, so to use their bulbs, you may have to install one of their sockets, which may not be availabe except by buying on of their lamps and dismantling it to get the parts you need, or maybe something like a desk lamp could be mounyed in the "box". Maybe they have a tech support line you can call to get info on how to do what you want.

   Good luck--I think it will look great if you can get one of those lamps in there--they are very close to sunlight and it will seem like you have a window rather than I light.

   Once you do it and get it to work, I would think there are lots of places where such boxes would really be nice--maybe email me and let me know the results? (Wonder if you could patent the idea? If you could work with a company to produce them, I would think there would be a market for them. Like skylights, but lots less trouble! BYW, there are solar light tubes where sunlight from a lense on the roof (like a skylight) is guided down a tube to another lense in the interior room ceiling. But those entail cutting holes in roof and so on.)

1. 
   user-94600 | Jan 23, 2006 01:24am | #5

   Again, thanks.  Given demise of Inspired House...if this site is still up when it's done, I'll post a photo for you.  Will be about 8 weeks as plumbing stuff needs to arrive & be done first.

2. 
   WayneL5 | Jan 22, 2006 10:50pm | #4

   Fluorescent lamps will produce a great deal of light with relatively little heat.  Lamps are rated in color temperature, which is a measure of the visual warmth or coolness of light.  Warm light is redder, cool light is bluer.  Candles, therefore, have very low color temperatures.  Incandescent lamps are still rather warm in color (low in color temperature).  Sunlight has a very high color temperature.

   Color temperatures around 3000K are warm.  To simulate the color of sunlight you need a color temperature of at least 4100K.  For your application anything equal to or over 4100K in color temperature would look like midday sunlight.

   If you are concerned about heat build up in the wall you could have your electrician install the ballasts in a separate location from the lamps themselves.  Much of the heat is generated by the ballasts.

1. 
   user-94600 | Jan 23, 2006 01:27am | #6

   And thank you for the thought on the separate placement of the ballasts and fluorescent lamp "math"  If not possible to find true-light lamps, will be trying a blend of warm and cool ones as plants, at least, are ok with that combo in place of grow-lights.

1. 
   Danno | Jan 24, 2006 08:52pm | #7

   I got a catalog today that I was going to cancel, but thought I'd see if they had full spectrum lights and they do--not only that, their bulbs will fit a standard incandescent base! (They have one that will fit a mogul base, which is still a screw-in base, but is larger than standard.) One of the bulbs they sell that will fit a standard base has a Color Rendering Index of 93; sunlight is 100. The mogul base bulb had a temperature of 5500 Kelvin.

   The catalog is from Growers Supply, a Division of FarmTek: http://www.GrowersSupply.com and phone number 1-800-457-8887.  These bulbs were on page 65 of the catalog I received today. Stock #'s were: 103995 for 55 watt at 9-1/2" long for $23.95, # 10399 for 125 watt and 13-1/2" long for $35.95, and # 104998 for 200 watt and 15" long (Mogul base) for $109.95.

   Not cheap, but they say they'll last longer and use less energy than incandescents (they are fluorescents). Maybe they'll work for you! Fortuitous that I got the catalog right after "discussing" this!

   Edited 1/24/2006 12:53 pm ET by Danno

2. 
   FastEddie | Jan 25, 2006 08:30pm | #8

   What are you going to use for the shoji paper?

   Last year I did some ceiling lighting for a doctors home office, andbuilt in some ceiling panels like what you are describing.  I bought rolls of polyester reinforced paper from an art supply in Atlanta, and it worked very well.

     

   "When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it."  T. Roosevelt

1. 
   user-94600 | Jan 27, 2006 07:49pm | #9

   Thank you for the ideas.  Because hope to use screens to brighten the windowless room, how much light passes through the polyester reinforced paper?