Comet Fluorescent Grow Light Fixture Review

The Sunleaves Comet compact fluorescent grow light fixture will accept the Sunleaves 95W, 125W, or 200W grow lights. Where a 100W equivalent standard compact fluorescent bulb will put out around 1750 lumen's, the 95W vitalume bulb puts out 7500 lumen's, the 125 W grow light puts our 10,500 lumen's and the 200W puts out 13,000 lumen's. The Comet fixture is very well made and solid, it is light weight because it does not have the ballast built in, the ballast is built into the Vitalume light bulbs. The cost of the fixture itself depending on where you purchase it is typically around $135 - $150 and the bulbs typically range from 60 to 70 dollars. The 125W bulb in this fixture is good for a floor coverage of about 3 X 3 feet.

Inside the Sunleaves Comet fixture is a reflective metal that disperses the light from the sides and top of the bulb in a way to give full coverage with minimal light loss. On the top of the fixture on the ends are two metal lips with two holes in them and the light comes complete with metal hangars for hanging the light. The bulbs even though large, are not very heavy so even a typical closet rod can handle the weight of the fixture and bulb also. If you want, you can also get the optional clear plastic lens that covers the area where the bulb is to prevent the plants from growing into the light itself' We did not purchase this option and we have had plants grow to within an inch or two of the bulb, without being burned, (we are using the 125 watt bulb). they do get hot, but nowhere near as hot as your typical household light bulb, I can touch the light without getting that instant, "This is very hot" feeling.

The Comet fixture and light are great for your budget in comparison to the older grow lights. For most grow light situations people have heard of these expensive Metal Halide lights or High pressure sodium lights which are high intensity high wattage lights. Those were days of the past. Today the technology in fluorescent lighting has improved greatly and a wide variety of fluorescent lights are now available in the different spectrum ranges. Just a few years ago, you could get aquarium lights and small grow light fluorescent bulbs, but these were very low wattage and very low lumen bulbs. (lumen's is a measurement of brightness).

Today we have what is called compact fluorescent light bulbs and these fluorescent bulbs rather than being one long tube, they have incorporated the neon sign ingenuity and have taken the long fluorescent tubes and fold them over back and forth to compact a very long tube into just a few inches. You may have seen many of these in your hardware store or Walmart stores that are made to replace your 100 watt light bulbs at the cost of 27 watts. (there are a wide variety of wattages, this is just an example). Now this same technique is used for fluorescent grow lighting and you can buy 95 watt to 300 watt compact fluorescent bulbs with large screw in bases for special grow light fixtures.

You might be wondering about the ballast. The ballast was always built into the fixture, but since standard lamps do not have a ballast in them because they were for incandescent bulbs, what they have done is put the ballast in the base of the bulb itself. This is part of the reason why they cost so much more than an incandescent bulb, but the life span and wattage requirements of the compact fluorescent bulbs outweighs the cost of the incandescent bulbs in the long run. Everyone has probably noticed that incandescent bulbs need replacing on a regular basis because they do not last long, but the typical compact fluorescent bulb equivalent to the 100W incandescent bulb has a life span of 8,000 to 10,000 hours. This means you can run this bulb for 10 hours every night for nearly 3 years, and most lamps are not ran that long. Typical usage would probably be more like 5 - 10 years per bulb.

The Sunleaves Comet fluorescent grow light fixture is a very nice and economical way to enter into the indoor gardening arena. Today with all the pesticides and chemically grown veggies, indoor gardening is a way to insure healthy vegetables without the high produce price.