What's the magic about 76F? You must be thinking of rooting temperature for rose cuttings, need 70-80 degrees, generaly growing is fine even up to 90. (K) Cuttings prefer higher temperature, about 80F. I was referring to general growing. For that, 76F is optimal generally speaking. Of course, for some species from the topics, higher temps might work better. But for tomatoes/hot peppers, 76F is best. Air conditioning isn't usually the best method for lowering temperature. Generally that is best accomplished by lowering the amount of power used, and ventilation. You can compensate for the lower amount of watts by increasing the quality of the light. Generally full spectrum is best. Also use more lower-wattage lights, which will improve light distribution by increasing the number of points of light. The only way to detect the lowered production at higher temperatures is to measure the dried weight. Because at higher temperatures, the leafs will become thinner and increase surface area, in order to increase transpiration and lower temperature. So at, say, 85F, you will see a lot of green and think everything is OK. The leafs are also more water-logged, so once you weigh the dried mass, you will detect the lowered production. Also hot, dry conditions are ideal for spider mites.

Hi Like mike I use a conversion bulb, works just fine for me too. All that humping boxes in and out sounds oh so familiar to me..LOL...I used to do a lot of that. "If I start growin in January and get one 400 watt hps how many plants do you think I can grow big. do you think that is better than twice the number of small plants." Thats depends on what you mean by big!!! If its just for say twelve inch plants to go outside, the 400 watts will cover effectively ten st ft maximum in theory. I use mine however over a larger area of about 15ft sq (3' x 5'), an oblong with shade lovers furthest from the light in back (pubescens, tepins etc). The results have always been fine for me. I can fit about a hundred (4"-6") pots in there and have benn known to practise a two shifts of 12 hrs system, but thats just like lumping boxes in and out again. The 12 hrs is not enough continuous light per day for best growth of the plants either. If you are wanting to grow plants and mature fruit indoors you will get a lot less plants under the lamp perhaps six to eight would be OK. If you can plant out early June then I guess its best to start in January, for chinenses and baccatums in any case..perhaps the pubescens a bit earlier still and annuums in the first half of February. It depends what you want to grow. All the best Guy

So I got a better bid today from a different dealer for the 126B 3 1/2 ton A/C. And the reason it was better is they measured the coil case and figured out they could put the new coil in the existing coil case (with a Bryant cover, not a Carrier cover) and save 3 1/2 hours of labor vs. removing the newly installed furnace. Does anyone see any problems with that? I kind of liked it as the furnace is working fine and I don't want it messed up. Also, the original dealer thinks we should get the 4 ton 126B since our old 3 1/2 ton A/C had trouble keeping up on hot days. Here is the AHRI #6364408. It is a generic listing, not for our furnace like the 3 1/2 ton is. Does that matter? They say they are confident it will work with my furnace, but does that impact the SEER, etc? I still have not heard anything re the new model that may be on the way, but the Bryant rep is at a training conference in Oregon so isn't as easy to get a hold of right now. I would appreciate any thoughts you guys have on these two proposals. Thanks, Cindy

Hey guys finally got the HVAC plans to our builders AC guy. They ran a j-calc and did cost comparisons for the units we specified. The calc shows that we need 3.88 tons including ventilation air. first, we looked at conventional units. Between 14 and 16 seer, there is a $2200 difference in equipment cost. 14 SEER = $10893 & 16 SEER = $13,100 b/c they buy so many 15 seer trane systems, they get the 15 seer system at the same price as a 14seer. For our home, there is only a $90/year difference in operating cost between 15seer and 16seer. so the payback would be 6.7 years to go from 15 to 16 seer. we would pick the 15 seer unit in this comparisson. Air source heat pump in the same range isn't even worth looking at. it only saves an additional $10/month. Again, not a big jump from 15 seer conventional gas. however, the dealer did mention that we would probably have to install a fresh air system if we go with gas heat -- this is due to foam spray in our attic and the corners of our house. we may need to rethingk a few things if we go with gas. this is where it gets interesting. we looked at geothermal. 1. the dealer sells all types of systems and manufactureres -- geothermal, air source heat pump, conventional ac... carrier, trane, frigidaire, water furnace... etc etc. 2. he assured me that he has hundreds of units in each system type installed in the local area. 3. there are two other geothermal companies in town, so should he and their whole company get hit by a bus tomorrow, there is still knowledgable geothermal service in the area. 4. I was initially interested in a closed loop system, but we do have a potable water well on site. a/c guy swears that in over 20 years he has not had a problem with open loop geothermal units on a potable water well in our area. local water quality is very high compared to other states where they have installed them. also says that the temperature in a closed loop varies b/c ground temp changes. says open loop is his preference due to consistent water temp from ground well. 5. top of the line Envision system from Water Furnace is $21,495 but the tax rebate is $6,449. 6. geothermal costs half as much to operate. operating cost for the three units is as follows... 15 seer unit = $142/month = $1708 per year 16 seer unit = $134/month = $1610 per year Geothermal = $ 61/month = $ 732 per year 7. we then put the units into a 6.5% interest loan scenario VS the monthly savings to calculate the investment payoff. Pay off for geothermal VS 15 seer is 4.1 years. Pay off for geothermal VS 16 seer is 3.8 years. 8. an installation tech showed us the geothermal loop piping. they use an iron to fusion weld the piping to the fittings. makes for a solid and thick joint. 9. hot water biproduct from geothermal can be used for hot water in our home. all comments are welcome. please shoot holes in all of this. thanks again!!!