Metal Halide for SAD?

[drizzle]

I am interested in setting a room aside to be sort of a sun room to help me with my winter blues AKA Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I was thinking of getting one of the metal halide set ups that are sold for growing plants. They put out a lot of light and seem to have pretty good spectrum coverage and as a bonus I could put plants in the room too to make a nice sort of tropical paradise room.

What I'm wondering is, are these lights safe to be close to for extended periods of time? I don't think I've ever heard of them being recommended for SAD and I wonder if that's only because of the expense.

And, in case anyone's wondering, I would not be using them to grow illegal plants. There seem to be plenty of places to get information about that.

[Sub_Umbra]

Here's an interesting page on SAD lights.

http://www.topbulb.com/find/sad.asp

When you get there, if you do a page search for halide it brings up a paragraph that may answer your questions.

I looked at some of these light boxes a few years ago and was amazed at how pricey they were. I ended up putting a big white reflector in a south facing window and reading there for 1/2 hr a day.

[winny]

Sounds like a terrific idea! I'm using metal halides myself for cheering me up during the dark times.

The amount of UV from mordern MHs are just about as much as from incandescent, very little that is. The only saftey concern is that thise lamps operate under high pressure so they should be kept in close luminaries.

If you like to buy some 70 W Mastercolor MHs with electronic ballasts (220 - 240 V that is), I can give you a fair price. They are excelent, at least IMHO!
Drop me a PM if you are interested...

EDIT: Oh, I forgot. What you use them for in your own home is no one but your own buissniss. I couldn't care less if you grow illigal tomatoes.

[drizzle]

Thanks for the replies. That was a good article about SAD. It sounds like from the article that the metal halide won't necessarily be any better than fluorescent. I may just rig up the room with several fluorescent fixtures instead. It will save money I think and also be less of a fire hazard.

[winny]

Originally Posted by drizzle

It will save money I think and also be less of a fire hazard.

Not if you have to pay for your own electricity...

[drizzle]

Originally Posted by winny

Not if you have to pay for your own electricity...

No? I guess I'll have to run the numbers. I thought fluorescents were more efficient than metal halide but just not as high output.

[winny]

No no no! The highest CFL I've seen produced about 55 lm/W (please prove me wrong, I love efficiency increases) with ok color. New metal halides reaches over 100 lm/W (system efficiency) with extremely nice colors and color temperature.

[brickbat]

Originally Posted by winny

...please prove me wrong, I love efficiency increases....

Can't pass that up!

70W Philips CMH Lamp – 4950 Mean Lumens; 71 lumens/W

http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/...tds/cdm002.pdf

36W Philips PL-L CFL – 2610 Design Lumens; 72.5 lumens/W

http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/...pdf/p-5768.pdf

I had to do 2 things, though to tilt this comparison in favor of the CFL. First, I didn't compare initial lumens - CMH lamps are better in this regard. Also, I picked a 'long' non self-ballasted CFL - they're the best of the CFLs in efficiency.

[drizzle]

hehe, well the metal halide is still a lot more efficient than I thought. I thought they put out a lot of heat too. I guess not.