Author Topic: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?  (Read 1734 times)

Cythompson159@yahoo.com

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Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« on: January 15, 2019, 08:16:08 PM »
News has 40F coming thru Sunday am for us, yesterday it said 36F so I started preparing for my mango tress in full bloom right now. The trees are about 9’ tall and about 7’ diameter branches. I have a 10’ pvc setup to wrap plastic around the outside and will put a sheet on top at night. I picked a few 500 watt halogen work light for $10 each at Wally World. These put off so much heat I’m worried they may put out too much heat. I don’t want to buy a timer so want to turn it on before bed at 11pm  since I read under 45 will surely damage the flowers. A good bit seem to be pollinated already and I should get my first good crop of my LZ and my first mangos off of my CC (still haven’t tasted one only read how good they are) since it got some damage last year with a 30F front that come thru last year.

Please let me know if I need to stay up all night turning it on and off or can sleep sound.

buddy roo

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2019, 10:22:20 PM »
you do know it gets coldest just before dawn

SoCal2warm

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2019, 01:08:07 AM »
I just use 13 watt ("100 watt equivalent") 5000K LED bulbs, which seem to work okay for 2 x 2 foot areas (better than red+blue LED panels in my experience).

HibachiDrama

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2019, 01:29:17 AM »
Google a calculator for heating/HVAC for a 384.85 sq ft room with no insulation, or find a greenhouse heating calculator.

Also, you'll probably want plastic on top to keep it air tight, rather than a blanket.

Cythompson159@yahoo.com

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2019, 05:48:54 AM »
Yes, I know when it gets coldest, but need to keep it around 48f plus to make sure the flowers aren’t damaged.

Thanks for the hvac recommendation, I’ll try to calculate it.

C24mccain

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2019, 05:55:16 AM »
That's a pretty big space, 500 watts won't overheat the area. I use 250 watt heat lamps but my enclosures were smaller. I put an insulated lid on top and wrapped with plastic and the the temp gain was about 15*. This was last year. Those structures were about 7' tall and 5' wide. Depending on how you insulate it, will determine how much heat it will hold.

The forcasts went crazy for Monday morning the last couple days. I mostly follow AccuWeather and they went from 40* to 32* for my area and held it about 24 hours then yesterday it went to 27* so I went into prepping mode. By late afternoon the forcasts bounced all the way up to 40* and this morning it says 43*. I think we will be ok for now but the very end of January early February is looking like we will get hit. The AO is forcasts to drop big time and the NAO is moving down into the negative as well which is bad. The PNA has been positive (which is bad for us if you want to avoid cold), and looks to remain positive so with these three all going in a bad direction near the end of the month I expect some freeze shots will be coming, at least for my area in Lakeland.

C24mccain

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2019, 06:09:12 AM »
I thought mango flowers were ok above 40*. Quite a few mangoes even here in Lakeland which I see fruiting yearly and we always get shots in the 40's and even 30's in February to March when full bloom is on. Perhaps it effects the fruit set, but I have seen fruit on the trees. All four of my mangoes are just now putting out flowers but they are not yet open. I wonder if they are a little more protected in this stage? It's 40* outside right now at 6am. I'm not to worried and in fact I my tip prune them off soon to cause a later bloom and hopefully bypass most of the really cold weather I believe is coming. That's the good or bad thing about mangoes depending on if you want vegetative growth or flowers, if you prune the flowers off you will likely just get another bloom but it will obviously delay the harvest time.

Cythompson159@yahoo.com

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2019, 11:40:06 AM »
Thanks for the info, I’m not actually sure the temps, just what I read, I will set up the pvc and plastic this weekend and get the info I need for the future blast that we may get.

sunworshiper

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Re: Is a 500W Halogen light too much?
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2019, 07:51:19 PM »
I doubt it would be too hot - I use 300watt trouble lights plus a string or two of c9 lights inside a 8' plastic dome. My rule is I turn it on when temps hit 40 and turn it off in the morning when temps come up above 35. Now that m y trees are mature, I only use the trouble lights and domes if a hard freeze is predicted. For light freezes I just use c9 lights and no dome. That's fine for up to about 6 hours between 28 and 32. The full dome setup adds about 8 degrees of protection, some damage starts happening if temps stay lower than 24 for anything more than a brief dip - like 2009/2010's winter was. It is actually more likely that your dome will cook your plant during the day. My setup is great for cold, but when daytime temps get into the 60s or more the dome has to come off or the temp inside quickly spikes up to over 100. I hung a temp gauge I could read remotely inside my domes for the first few years - great way to learn. Oh and do make sure you run the calculation of how much wattage is being drawn on a single line so you don't overload the capacity of your extension cords or overload a fuse...