MaryJane51
Member
So for years I've seen interest throughout different forums about people seeing what kind of lighting can be produced through Fiber Optics and I've now decided to start with a small scale test of this to see just what can be achieved by this method. If I see results small scale I will ultimately decide to move up into larger scale lighting.
This is by no means new technology, more advanced buildings are starting to use this as their daylight lighting by either using natural daylight or using one large light and spreading the fiber optic cables throughout the building- essentially turning one light into multiple light sources via the fiber optic cables.
I have some concerns about this working as I feel the technology will be very similar to LED's but is still rather pricey to buy. For example, We know that LED's create little to heat, use a ton less energy and are cheaper to run because of this. That being said it's argued that they don't produce the same light penetration as well as lacking the light to really fatten up the buds "as much" as a MH(Metal Halide) or HPS(High-Pressure Sodium) would. I personally believe they can create close to but not equal to the same yield as traditional growing lighting and because of that have my doubts about how it will transfer to small scale when I start using the cable to light the grow space.
A few other concerns that I have is how will lumens transfer via the cable? Will Polymer cables transfer lumens better, or will traditional glass fiber optic cables work better? Will daylight provide enough brightness or will additional lighting(LED Illumintors) be needed? I also have a feeling that the light will go directly down from the cable instead of spreading out, therefore giving less light coverage as well as less penetration to lower level branches.
I have a few cables I've looked at that I think I can work with to create suitable lighting for plant life. I went small and bought 18ft of 3mm diameter cable. I plan on using 1 foot sections filling 1cm squared so that will take approximately 9 x 1 Foot cables. That will give me two 1cm(3/8") squares that I can do testing on. Things I will be testing are light penetration, how natural sunlight compares to LED illuminators, and see what a 1cm square of cable can light. I'm expecting no more then 4cm squared(approx 3/8") to be lit by this amount of fiber optics but only time will tell. Below is an example of the first test, which is followed by another test idea that I will be testing second to see what possible pros/cons there could be.
I've also found this cable which apparently lights up the entire cable quite brightly(at least according the picture). This will be of interest if the initial concept of lighting an area with just fiber optics works because this would serve a great purpose as either side lighting or possibly undergrowth lighting. IF it were coiled up along the walls and lit properly it could provide plenty of light. This will definitely be part of my next purchase if the small scale goes well, the question will be whether this will light up this well from natural light or whether it only produces such nice bright light from illuminators. Here is a quick drawing I did to give you a rough idea of what the small scale will look like.
First Test:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I have personally never seen anything like this done yet, and i'm mostly doing this out of interest. I am going into this with very little expectations and just trying to explore more options. If you have any suggestions just let me know. Feel free to drop by and say whats up, but please try to keep on topic. Also, if you know of other tests that have been done like this, please link me to them(or pm me).
Cheers
This is by no means new technology, more advanced buildings are starting to use this as their daylight lighting by either using natural daylight or using one large light and spreading the fiber optic cables throughout the building- essentially turning one light into multiple light sources via the fiber optic cables.
I have some concerns about this working as I feel the technology will be very similar to LED's but is still rather pricey to buy. For example, We know that LED's create little to heat, use a ton less energy and are cheaper to run because of this. That being said it's argued that they don't produce the same light penetration as well as lacking the light to really fatten up the buds "as much" as a MH(Metal Halide) or HPS(High-Pressure Sodium) would. I personally believe they can create close to but not equal to the same yield as traditional growing lighting and because of that have my doubts about how it will transfer to small scale when I start using the cable to light the grow space.
A few other concerns that I have is how will lumens transfer via the cable? Will Polymer cables transfer lumens better, or will traditional glass fiber optic cables work better? Will daylight provide enough brightness or will additional lighting(LED Illumintors) be needed? I also have a feeling that the light will go directly down from the cable instead of spreading out, therefore giving less light coverage as well as less penetration to lower level branches.
I have a few cables I've looked at that I think I can work with to create suitable lighting for plant life. I went small and bought 18ft of 3mm diameter cable. I plan on using 1 foot sections filling 1cm squared so that will take approximately 9 x 1 Foot cables. That will give me two 1cm(3/8") squares that I can do testing on. Things I will be testing are light penetration, how natural sunlight compares to LED illuminators, and see what a 1cm square of cable can light. I'm expecting no more then 4cm squared(approx 3/8") to be lit by this amount of fiber optics but only time will tell. Below is an example of the first test, which is followed by another test idea that I will be testing second to see what possible pros/cons there could be.
I've also found this cable which apparently lights up the entire cable quite brightly(at least according the picture). This will be of interest if the initial concept of lighting an area with just fiber optics works because this would serve a great purpose as either side lighting or possibly undergrowth lighting. IF it were coiled up along the walls and lit properly it could provide plenty of light. This will definitely be part of my next purchase if the small scale goes well, the question will be whether this will light up this well from natural light or whether it only produces such nice bright light from illuminators. Here is a quick drawing I did to give you a rough idea of what the small scale will look like.
First Test:
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I have personally never seen anything like this done yet, and i'm mostly doing this out of interest. I am going into this with very little expectations and just trying to explore more options. If you have any suggestions just let me know. Feel free to drop by and say whats up, but please try to keep on topic. Also, if you know of other tests that have been done like this, please link me to them(or pm me).
Cheers
