There is a whole forum dedicated to this topic (the Growing Under Lights Forum) and there are many complex issues, but, for plants I grow under artificial light, I have shelves/benches with T12 fluorescent shop fixtures (Home Depot sells them cheap) placed side by side as close as they will go without modification. I use a combination of 4100K and 5000K bulbs (there's more that goes into calculating the optimal wavelength than one might think, but I've found something around 4500K works best for most of my indoor growing applications). If you need a large amount of growing space or have special requirements, you may need something a little more fancy, but the T12 fixtures are pretty cheap, the bulbs are pretty cheap, and everything is very easy to source.

Oops, 5000K is not a brand, but a color temperature. Let's start over. Take a look at some color temperature information at other web sites. Pictures can help. Incandescent are really quite yellow and have a color temp between 2700 and 3300K. Horizon daylight is about 5000K and overcast skylight is about 6500K. They look quite blue when you put them next to a more common fluorescent that falls between incandescent and daylight. If you are doing things that require good color judgement in there, you want a high CRI. You can look at it as a measure of the richness of the color spectrum. CRI is what, among other things, allows you to easily tell the difference between black and blue socks, or tell what your makeup will look like. Incandescent and daylight have high CRI. Other technologies struggle to reach that standard. You often have to spend more to get a good CRI out of fluorescent and LED lights. Look at a little more information and maybe go to see a display at a store. Above all, go with what you like and don't worry about what other peoples' rules. It is your house.

There are warm white CFL and led bulbs. All fluorescent lighting will take time to come up to full brightness. Led bulbs like the Philips L prize winning bulb can be dimmed and do not have the delay associated with fluorescent lighting (CFL included). Halogen bulbs run far hotter than the typical incandescent bulbs and would require the appropriate fixtures.

What great ideas! There are geniuses on the forum! Fluorescent lights laid on their backs! (Sounds of me smacking my head) Wow! I would love the ambient lighting that would create! And since I plan on having some art objects on the top, that would silhouette them as well. That reminds me: I have a roll of white rope lighting in the basement for a project that fell through. I wonder if that creates heat? I will have to find it and see how much light it puts out. The wall-mounted swing out lamps too. We have one in the room now: maybe IÂll get another. I will look into the piano lights too. We actually do have plenty of outlets in the roomÂexcept that once the bookcases are in and loaded we wonÂt have easy access to any but one. ThatÂs why I have to plan this out in advance. We will have to put extension cords in each outlet and drape them over the top of the cases and make sure they donÂt fall back! bronwynsmom, your library is very beautiful, and much like I would have liked to do in my room. But building soffits and installing hardwired lighting is not in our future. Your library has many wonderful features, maybe I can use something. I love the lighting inside the bookcases at the top and the overall feeling of the room. IÂll save it for an inspiration. My original plan was much more ambitious. With 2 kids in college/med school next year, I have to do this project as inexpensively as possible. The bookcases alone were over $600. But after months of poring over CL and trolling resale shops and not finding enough (or in good enough condition), we had to buy new bookcases. Things like the chairs and tables will be coming from elsewhere is the house. I was originally going to customize the bookcases, but my husband nixed that idea. He wants to see a room actually finished within a reasonable time frame (what a strange conceptÂ) ! So I need to get the feeling of what I wanted in a simpler, less labor-intensive way. Thanks for all the ideas!