The lamps that don't exist

[Mama Bear]

This is amazing.

I just bought a fixture with three grow light tubes in it that say on
them:

Industrial
F32T8/GL/NS

That's the entire painted label on the glass.

The NS is apparently for narror spectrum.

Yet if you do a Google for that number, they won't show up. They
apparently don't exist, on the web at least. What's the deal?

 

[Victor Roberts]

This is amazing.

I just bought a fixture with three grow light tubes in it that say on
them:

Industrial
F32T8/GL/NS

That's the entire painted label on the glass.

The NS is apparently for narror spectrum.

Yet if you do a Google for that number, they won't show up. They
apparently don't exist, on the web at least. What's the deal?

Obviously the lamps do exist since you told us that you read
the designation right from the lamps themselves. The
fixture manufacturer used lamps that were available to him,
probably from some small supplier who uses a non-standard
designation. In fact, these may be normal lamps that are
re-labeled as GL/NS with the goal of increasing their retail
price.

Where was the fixture made? What is the name of the
company? I bet you can buy replacements from the fixture
manufacturer for a nice price premium

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
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[Mama Bear]

Obviously the lamps do exist since you told us that you read
the designation right from the lamps themselves. The
fixture manufacturer used lamps that were available to him,
probably from some small supplier who uses a non-standard
designation. In fact, these may be normal lamps that are
re-labeled as GL/NS with the goal of increasing their retail
price.

Where was the fixture made? What is the name of the
company? I bet you can buy replacements from the fixture
manufacturer for a nice price premium

Yes exactly. If I can't locate who actually sells them, I'm stuck with
the fixture seller. But he's reasonable, he gets about $9.50 a tube for
them.

 

[Mama Bear]

Obviously the lamps do exist since you told us that you read
the designation right from the lamps themselves. The
fixture manufacturer used lamps that were available to him,
probably from some small supplier who uses a non-standard
designation. In fact, these may be normal lamps that are
re-labeled as GL/NS with the goal of increasing their retail
price.

What's odd is that they do exist but no one is selling them as grow
lights anywhere. If I had lights like this, I'd be pushing them as grow
lights all over the place. Yet try to find T8 grow lights. I couldn't.

Where was the fixture made?

Apparently this one Ebay seller makes them up or something.
http://tinyurl.com/pl87k
He has a messy auction page, and a hodge podge of text, but the fixtures
are actually polished aluminum with a mirror finish inside and the
lights are that characteristic grow light purple ( blue and red? ) that
we're used to?

What is the name of the
company? I bet you can buy replacements from the fixture
manufacturer for a nice price premium

As far as I've been able to find, this guy is the only place to find
such polished mirror fixtures and these T8 grow lights with them.

 

[Victor Roberts]

What's odd is that they do exist but no one is selling them as grow
lights anywhere. If I had lights like this, I'd be pushing them as grow
lights all over the place. Yet try to find T8 grow lights. I couldn't.


Apparently this one Ebay seller makes them up or something.
http://tinyurl.com/pl87k
He has a messy auction page, and a hodge podge of text, but the fixtures
are actually polished aluminum with a mirror finish inside and the
lights are that characteristic grow light purple ( blue and red? ) that
we're used to?


As far as I've been able to find, this guy is the only place to find
such polished mirror fixtures and these T8 grow lights with them.

One of the things you may want to consider is that no
information is provided about lumen maintenance. Old T12
lamps used halophosphate phosphors which had lumen
maintenance that was OK to poor, depending upon the color.
When T8 lamps were introduced by the major lamp companies
they used mostly rare earth phosphors which have much better
lumen maintenance in spite of the higher wall loadings
(watt/unit area) in a T8 compared to a T12. (For any given
phosphor lumen maintenance goes down ad the wall loading
goes up.)

I don't know why none of the regular lamp companies make a
T8 grow lamp, but one possibility is that they have never
bothered to formulate a rare earth blend for the grow lamp
SPD and know that their current halophosphate phosphors
would have poor lumen maintenance in a T8 lamp.

The lamps you pointed me to on eBay are apparently high
output T8 lamps, which would have very poor lumen
maintenance unless rare earth phosphor was used. I would be
cautious in the absence of any maintenance data. You could
ask the seller for maintenance data, but I doubt he will
provide any.

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
To reply via e-mail:
replace xxx with vdr in the Reply to: address
or use e-mail address listed at the Web site.

This information is provided for educational purposes only.
It may not be used in any publication or posted on any Web
site without written permission.

 

[Mama Bear]

One of the things you may want to consider is that no
information is provided about lumen maintenance. Old T12
lamps used halophosphate phosphors which had lumen
maintenance that was OK to poor, depending upon the color.
When T8 lamps were introduced by the major lamp companies
they used mostly rare earth phosphors which have much better
lumen maintenance in spite of the higher wall loadings
(watt/unit area) in a T8 compared to a T12. (For any given
phosphor lumen maintenance goes down ad the wall loading
goes up.)

I don't know why none of the regular lamp companies make a
T8 grow lamp, but one possibility is that they have never
bothered to formulate a rare earth blend for the grow lamp
SPD and know that their current halophosphate phosphors
would have poor lumen maintenance in a T8 lamp.

The lamps you pointed me to on eBay are apparently high
output T8 lamps, which would have very poor lumen
maintenance unless rare earth phosphor was used. I would be
cautious in the absence of any maintenance data. You could
ask the seller for maintenance data, but I doubt he will
provide any.

Probably true.