My friends on the forum know what I have been going through with my collection due to my inability to purchase the needed lights to maintain my extensive CP collection. I have been worried about how to maintain the collection this winter, since I need some 30 grow tubes to be able to maintain my plants.
Well. thanks to Andy Wilkinson in the UK, I thought I had the problem licked: Andy has loaned me the needed funds to purchase bulbs for my HID lighting system.
The system is made by the Sunlight Supply Co. in Vancouver, Wa. Purchased 3 years ago, the unit failed after the initial season: only half the ballast functioned. The product provides an excellent source of light....when it works.
Last Feb. I returned the ballast to the company under warantee, where it was ostensibly repaired and returned to me. The folk involved were very helpful and acted in a timely matter.
Since the plants went outside for the spring, and since I had no new bulbs for the unit, I did not have a way to check the repairs. Now, with the cold weather onset and Andys loan, I purchased the bulbs.
Upon checking the unit, the ballast remains as when I sent it in: half functioning. Now I am in a real JAM since the money is spent, and the plants still have no light source. There is no way I can maintain them without a light source, and no way I can purchase another unit. Many of these plants are virtually irreplacable. They are rare and expensive species: material donated to my for maintenence from botanists the world over for my research.
I am now trying to contact the company, and I will be asking that they express ship me a functioning unit to act in the interm while my unit is properly repaired. I will let you all know how the company performs in this regard. I feel that the mistake is theirs: their repair was ineffective. I am hoping that they take this view as well.
Its tough being a "little guy" with no money. Many of you know of my research and efforts to preserve these endangered species. Lets hope there is a happy ending here, or it is all going to come to an end, and fairly quickly. I need that ballast YESTERDAY.
Well. thanks to Andy Wilkinson in the UK, I thought I had the problem licked: Andy has loaned me the needed funds to purchase bulbs for my HID lighting system.
The system is made by the Sunlight Supply Co. in Vancouver, Wa. Purchased 3 years ago, the unit failed after the initial season: only half the ballast functioned. The product provides an excellent source of light....when it works.
Last Feb. I returned the ballast to the company under warantee, where it was ostensibly repaired and returned to me. The folk involved were very helpful and acted in a timely matter.
Since the plants went outside for the spring, and since I had no new bulbs for the unit, I did not have a way to check the repairs. Now, with the cold weather onset and Andys loan, I purchased the bulbs.
Upon checking the unit, the ballast remains as when I sent it in: half functioning. Now I am in a real JAM since the money is spent, and the plants still have no light source. There is no way I can maintain them without a light source, and no way I can purchase another unit. Many of these plants are virtually irreplacable. They are rare and expensive species: material donated to my for maintenence from botanists the world over for my research.
I am now trying to contact the company, and I will be asking that they express ship me a functioning unit to act in the interm while my unit is properly repaired. I will let you all know how the company performs in this regard. I feel that the mistake is theirs: their repair was ineffective. I am hoping that they take this view as well.
Its tough being a "little guy" with no money. Many of you know of my research and efforts to preserve these endangered species. Lets hope there is a happy ending here, or it is all going to come to an end, and fairly quickly. I need that ballast YESTERDAY.