'Sloppy' possibly. 'Snotty' sure. I'll try to improve. But 'tepid'? Now that one really hurt.
I'll take some minor exception to the 'glorified fluorescent' comment at least in the context of how an indoor grower would consider it. Termed electrodeless fluorescent discharged lamp, or EFDL for short, these lamps are a type of fluorescent lamp. The major difference being unlike conventional fluorescent lamps, is that EFDL lamps rely on magnets that surround the fused glass sections to excite the gasses inside the lamp. Escaping gas and carbon build up on the electrodes inside the lamp (blackened ends) reduce lumen output. EFDL lamps don't have these issues since there are no electrodes to attract carbon and they don't have a screw or pin base connection where gasses can escape.
If you're not a fan of fluorescent for indoor grow then EFDL may never interest you and you'd never give it a second thought. But when compared to HID/T8/T5/CFL lamps the long 100,000 hr lamp life, low lumen depreciation, low heat signature and steady wavelengths provide a grower with generation after generation of wide spectrum wavelengths that unlike these other lamps types, remain an EFDL constant.
Let's consider that, due to lumen depreciation, you've been trained to change out your HID/T5/T8/CFL lamps every year on a 12/12 that's 4,380 hours or 25% of the rated life you've put on a 20,000 +/- hours lamp. An EFDL lamp doesn't depreciate to even 10% of it's initial lumen output until 70,000 hours or 16 years on a 12/12 cycle. In other words on a 12/12 annual cycle you'll be changing 16 lamps out for every EFDL lamp change that you might not even wish to change then since the lumen output only dropped by a mere 10%. If you are currently relamping more then once a year then lamp replacement costs are even higher. This is not to mention all the time and expense spent, as well as the environmental impact of disposing of all of these old lamps that is required of us in the first place.
All things considered though before elevating this technology to 'glorified status' we'd have to consider the lamps value in PAR spectrums and intensities all from a single wide spectrum source, the individual growers methods while using these lamps and how they ultimately enhance the bottom line experience then it is to that end, I post.
:party0044:
