How do you do winter light?

Decided to do some research. Found this article, and this paragraph pertaining to CFL. My reason for preferring this type of light is based on price of bulb, energy costs, and most importantly, the bulbs stay cool, which IMO reduces fire risk.

http://web.uconn.edu/poultry/poultrypages/light_inset.html

Fluorescent lamps produce light by the passage of an electric current through a low-pressure vapor or gas contained within a glass tube. The ultraviolet radiation given off by the mercury-vapor arc stream produced along the length of the tube is absorbed by the phosphor material coating the inside of the glass tube, causing it to fluoresce at wavelengths that are seen as visible light. The wavelengths emitted depend upon the phosphors used in coating the tube. The new CF lamps all use a special triphosphor coating, resulting in light emitted in discrete wavelengths from each of the primary colors, red-orange, green and blue, giving an appearance of balanced white light. There are several styles of the CF lamps, including twin, quad and spiral tubes. They come in 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 22, and 28 watt sizes with efficiencies of 50 to 69 lumens per watt and rated lifetimes of greater than 10,000 hours. Recent research has demonstrated that some may last more than 20,000 hours under poultry house conditions. However, these lamps will decrease their light output by about 20 - 30% over their lifetime, (Darre and Rock, 1995) and this must be considered upon initial installation. All fluorescent lamps require a ballast. The CF lamps have been used successfully in all types of poultry operations, including caged layers, (Darre, 1986) breeder flocks, growing broilers (Andrews and Zimmerman, 1990; Scheideler, 1990), growing pullets and turkeys. Research by Widowski, et al., (1992) indicated a preference for CF lamps over incandescent lamps by Leghorn layers.

Guess I'll have to go get some leghorns!!!
 
I like the rope light idea. And blending it with other peoples suggestion of not too much white or harsh light..... what about a rope light that is all red lights? Anyone tried this? Do you think those red lights would be in the right nm range?
 
I like the rope light idea. And blending it with other peoples suggestion of not too much white or harsh light..... what about a rope light that is all red lights? Anyone tried this? Do you think those red lights would be in the right nm range?
We went to Lowes last night. I wanted to check the nm range of some of the common light sources. They had some CFL in the appropriate range, as well as incandescent. I prefer to use a bulb that doesn't put out as much heat as an incandescent. Bought a 6 pack of 9W LED, equivelent output to 60 W incandescent, warm white, 750 lumens, 3000K which is the top range in the spectrum recommended for layers in one site that I read. I think most lighting should give you the specifics of light output, and the K range. IMO, that should be your deciding factor.
 
Not sure a purely red light will work....
....having a spectrum that contains more red is not the same thing as a red bulb, I don't think.

Here's a pretty good article on supplemental lighting.
 
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I like the rope light idea. And blending it with other peoples suggestion of not too much white or harsh light..... what about a rope light that is all red lights? Anyone tried this? Do you think those red lights would be in the right nm range?

The rope lights have a zillion tiny bulbs in them. I doubt they can be easily exchanged, if at all. But the light appears to be a very soft white with a slight rose cast, probably indicating a lean towards the red end of the spectrum.

It's my belief any light will do, except for florescent light, which is terrible for any living thing.
 
I use a CFL....works fine. Kind like they way they start up slow.

Old fluorescent tubes had a maddening flicker rate, drove me nuts when I had to work under them for years.
The newer ones have way, way higher flicker rate....supposedly doesn't bother birds.....sure don't bother me as much.
 

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