Seeking advice on single indoor grow light bulbs. I hope to find one that I can just use to replace the light bulb in my existing table lamps. I want to help supplement the medium natural light in my family room for my succulents during the upcoming fall/winter time. LED or CFL? Any advice? Specific brand names welcomed.

Either an LED or CFL will work. Find one with a k rating of 5000 - 6400, the higher the better - they will be labeled 'daylight' bulbs. Two important considerations: If the bulb is too large, it will burn down your paper lamp. Second, the paper is going to diffuse too much light for your plants to be happy, no matter how much light the bulb gives off.

with @DaisyI

Succulents will also need a lot more than medium light + artificial light given off by a single LED E26 bulb. In my experience, most succulents either need high light for almost all day or at least a few hours of direct sun a day. It will depend on the specific succulents, though.

I am growing some succulents and cactus under lights. I use Sunblaster T5 HO grow lights rated to 6500k. There are two 2-ft bulbs, on for 12 hours a day and 10 - 12 inches above the plants.

I would view "medium natural light" as low light, as far as indoor succulents are concerned, something to be replaced by artificial lights and not supplemented by them. Anything other than a direct (or barely filtered) line to the sun, for at least a couple of hours a day, will start to adversely affect most of them.

The outcome may not be as pretty as a decorative table lamp in the family room, but something like what Daisy's got going on will probably give better results for most succulents. Or a position right in front of a sunny, southerly-facing window, if you want to go the natural route.

Some indoor succulents are not nearly as demanding about light as others. These would include the holiday cacti and some other epiphytic cacti, but not desert plants or most high altitude plants. If you can tell us what succulents you've got, then maybe we can provide specific input on this subject.

Right now I have a Chinese Money plant (pilea peperomiodes), snake plants (sanseviera laurentii and trifasciata) and xerographica tillandsia that I am most concerned about.

I don't think those plants are particularly needy about light. Strong light will be helpful but I don't think they have anywhere near the same requirements as desert cacti.

Is there a requirement for how close they should be to a plant? I've read as close as possible, 6 inches, 1 foot. Just verifying what I've read.

None of the plants you mention have high light requirements.

If aesthetics are a concern I feel the same way as I have downsized to a small house with much smaller windows than I had before. Recently I have come across images of people using very pretty fish tanks with built in overhead space for bulbs. You can't see the actual bulbs. And they have room for your everyday indoor plants (the ones you've mentioned) underneath. Not sure about the other two but snake plant would do fine under there if it's not too tall.

It appears they keep grow lights on during the day and in the evening when they want ambiance they switch to a softer light that is useless to the plants.
Just a thought I was looking into.

You guys might let know if this is a viable option for some plants or is it a gimmick?
(I clipped the picture so it doesn't link anywhere)
For tiny spaces might it be useful for coolmom1016

I see no reason to buy different special light bulbs for each flower. So you have to shell out a lot of money when you can do much more economically. I also have many plants at home, and I know that everyone has different lighting preferences. However, I found a simpler solution. I replaced all the regular light bulbs with a color changing light bulb. Depending on the plant, I adjust the light and brightness. This is very convenient in my opinion. The plants are doing well, look good, and grow beautifully. In addition, I adjust such light bulbs not only for plants but also for my mood.

Hastarot said: My succulents grow well in normal daylight.

That is great! However, the subject of this thread is about what are good grow lights when you cannot provide enough daylight for them to grow well.

... and it is from 2019.