Other purchases this week included a new plant light set up. I purchased two years ago, a pretty robust heavy-duty light (which if a part broke I could ACTUALLY replace it unlike those other expensive gimmicky lights many stores sell). With the help of a friend, we shopped around and found a 4 tiered metal shelf on sale at Office Depot and 2 shoplights with Sylvania plant bulbs (4 total). This expenditure cost me a total of 80 bucks. I initally wanted to build my own, but my woodworking skills never evolved past 7th grade and I wanted to be as space efficient as possible.
We had originally looked at PVC pipes to build a light (total cost would be about 15 bucks each without the light fixtures and bulbs), but you can't stack them and they are made of PVC (which I am not enthusiastic about). The particular pattern we were following only allowed for 1 light fixture with 2 bulbs. My current light holds four and I didn't want to go back to 2. Therefore, the math went like this:
3 PVC stands: 45 dollars 4 tiered shelf (72x18x48): 40 dollars
3 2-bulb light (T12) fixtures: 30 dollars 3 2-bulb light (T-12): 30 dollars
6 T-12 bulbs: 30 dollars 6 T-12 bulbs (T-12): 30 dollars
Total: 105 dollars Total: 100 dollars
A five dollar difference doesn't seem like a lot but I save a lot of space on the tiered set up (note that I also bought the metal stand on sale and with a coupon, I found the same type of shelf priced between 50 and 80 bucks at various hardware stores). Plus, I can put two light fixtures on a shelf (4 bulbs total on each shelf) vs. the stand that only holds one. I am sure you can make a PVC stand that holds two and it may be cheaper, but it would involve some structural modification.
Here is the link to the PVC stand instructions:
