Indoor Lighting and Types of Artificial Lighting for your House Plants

 Indoor lighting is essential for the healthy growth of house plants, however, certain factors may lead to a lack of sufficient sunlight in a household. These factors are defined as obstructions and may have different effects on the amount of light in your home. Therefore, if you have any obstructions in your home, you need to learn how the lighting in your home affects your plants. These obstructions affect lighting indoors from both within and outside the house.

Outside obstructions include buildings and trees which limit the amount of sunlight that comes through to the house.

The indoor obstructions include furniture and large plants that block the window and diffuse the sun rays entering the house. 

The size of your windows also affects indoor lighting; however, you can place your plant near larger windows that allow light to shine through and by positioning your plants farther from the window which in turn allows the plants to get the sufficient light it needs. In as much as plants affect indoor lighting, some specific plants are best suited and fit to be indoors under minimum or low light. These plants can make a significant difference in the environment they grow in making it more appealing. Additional examples of these plants include the following.                                                                               

White Bird of Paradise

This plant requires a lot of sunlight to grow properly, to ensure the plant grows appropriately, you should place the plant near an east or south-facing window as this reveals the beauty of the plant and exposes it to enough bright light.

Areca Palm

 This Plant is very beautiful; it adds a tropical splash on building entrances and makes the building or environment it is grown in very beautiful it requires a lot of light to grow well and grows best in open spaces with direct access to sunlight.

Types of Artificial lights appropriate for your houseplants.

Incandescent light

This form of light is a rich source of red light but a poor source of blue light. It produces excess heat that may be harmful to most plants and if used, must be located some distance away from the plants. This reduces the intensity of the light the plants receive. An Incandescent bulb takes about 1000 hours in its span of lighting.

Fluorescent tubes

This form of lighting produces one of the best artificial light sources available for your home plants. This form of light energy is, therefore, less expensive because it converts electrical energy into light energy. Fluorescent tubes produce little heat and emit both red and blue light. Fluorescent tubes are long-lasting and come in many sizes and shapes.                                                                                                                                                    

High-intensity, or gas, discharge (HID) lights

this form of the light consists of sodium-vapor or metal halide and is frequently used in greenhouses where supplementary light is needed. They are efficient in that they produce light and also convert electrical energy into light energy. Bulbs under this form of light are long-lived but release a lot of heat They are large, bulky, and are relatively expensive.

In a nutshell, if your house has poor lighting, you can opt for artificial sources of light in order to maintain your plants. The above-suggested types of artificial lights work differently for various plants.