Cfl Lighting! ensure safety...

Heres the hypothetical question at hand.


If simply used is one regular 60 watt cfl light bulb in a 9 foot by 4 foot closet. A newly germinated seed is placed in its starter pot about a foot away from the light. The pull string for light is in fact that, a string. Clothes are hung a good 3 feet away from the light, as the shelf above holds the pot. Other items ie. Books and papers and other miscellaneous items also reside on shelf all a good foot or more away from the light.


How likely in your opinion is danger of fire? My opinion is that there is very little to no likelihood for fire as the bulb is cfl and produces minimal heat. I wish to remain stealthy from family members therefore opinions are greatly desired. Id like to sleep easy at night while light remains on in closet. How close is this to being 100% safe?


thanks in advance for your responses.


any further questions feel free to ask.

It's perfectly safe. You'll generate 30%(?) less heat if you use LED lightbulbs.

In massachusetts and grandma is canadian. Stays relatively cold in home, so a little heat is probably beneficial to the cause.


Pay mind im in no rush. May use a splitter to make it 2 cfl bulbs. I once had pleasing success starting this way in a smaller enlosed cabinet. I assume understanding larger space offered by closet will most likely result in elongated stem and slow growth. I would simply replant and bury stem encouraging strong root growth. I have great patience. Mostly this is for achieving zen by simply growing something rather than nothing at all. Still safe using a splitter? Would be worth effort of using a splitter?

again thanks for input.

CaptainOtwayBurns said:

Still safe using a splitter? Would be worth effort of using a splitter?

Click to expand...

Sure. It depends on how much heat and light you need. You could put the CFL in a reflector and that's about equal to 4 unreflected CFLs. If you were fighting heat, you'd use reflectors. (If really fighting heat, you could use LED lightbulbs for even more light from fewer watts/bulbs.).

The clamp-on reflectors work well. I mount them to other things, shown in that link.

Would splitting one outlet to two only disperse the same amount of lumens through two cfl lighers over a broader space or will it actually supply more lumens?

If you have a smartphone you can google for "light meter lux android" to find free light meters. Then you could see the difference (how it affects coverage vs intensity). (The Dr. Meter Lux meter might be a better meter if you get into it.).

Also, posting in the CFL section is a good place to start. B-)

Had posted there already also, thanks for suggestion though.