I used CFL's in NY over winter. I used inexpensive floor lamps with CFL's and they worked well for many of my orchids. Catts and Oncids need good light over winter also, so don't worry about that.

I bought octopus floor lamps in Home Depot or Target which hold 5 bulbs which can be pointed in various directions. I used the highest wattage CFL's, usually 100 or 150 equivalents. Just look at the label of the bulbs.

Thank you, those lights look good. I need a shelf like that too. Did you leave those lights on all day? Since my orchids are near the window I was thinking I could just turn the lights on in the evening when I'm home, since they will be getting some light while I'm at work. Just wanted to make sure I won't be disrupting any blooming cycles since that would increase the number of daylight hours. I might try putting orchids under them all day next summer. My oncidiums and cattleya from a previous post never lightened up enough outside but finally started getting sunburned I think, so I recently moved them back to my shady porch. Then discovered one has a spike!

The photo above was in a room which was warmer than the rest of my house. I only put a few orchids in there which required warmer temps than I could provide in the rest of the house. In that room, the lights were on all day until midnight. I used various inexpensive shelves. The metal one is a microwave type cart that I picked up in one of the Big Box stores. Similar type light

This photo (below) shows part of my livingroom which had large SW windows. As you can see I grow a lot of orchids and used the octopus lamps there at night. They were on timers so they came on at sunset and shut off around midnight.

All my plants spent the summer outdoors. I would leave them out until temps dropped into the 40's consistently. The higher light plants went close to the windows and got the lights at night. I was able to flower Phals, Dendrobiums, Cattleyas and Oncidiums using the lights.

Today they sell better lighting but I did well with standard CFL's.

Little embarrassing looking at my living room back then, but I only needed the lights for a few months to get the spikes and growths to finish. Lights came on at dusk.

Today I live in Florida so don't have to deal with it!