I have several indoor plants, mostly jade plants and three Christmas cactus. I don't get enough sun in the house since we have large oak trees which create a lot of shade around the house. So I want to get a plant/grow light. I'm not a fan of LED or fluorescent lights but I doubt there are any plant lights that are not LED or fluorescent. What is the safest plant light that will give my jade and other plants the light they need? I figure if I get one with an automatic timer, I can have the light on at night for a few hours and then during the day, I can move my plants by the window to get some natural light.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

By far and away, your best bet it high intensity T-5 tubes rated at 6,500 k.
I am using these tubes to grow orchids. See images.


In this first image you will see part of a three tube shelf. This was taken in early March. By know I have additional orchids and some random succulents which are loving these lights. They are on 15 hours a day from 7 am until 10pm, twelve during the winter.


This second image shows a cart with two tubes per fixture. The succulents like that just as much.
I have 18 tubes running on three carts. Electricity is about .80 cents a day.
A site like Gardeners Supply in Vermont has all types of lights, fixtures and carts. Just google Gardeners Supply.
I am 100% positive that this is what you need. You can keep them under them all the time. This would not be supplemental light. Moving plants from here to there is not really a good plan. You could tip pots over, drop them etc.
hopefully this gives you some ideas.

Thanks so much Bill for your wonderful photos and response. I agree moving my plants around to try and get some time in the sun is not practical and that is why I finally decided I need to get some plant lights!

Thanks again!

You are very welcome.

Within the Orchid Forums on this site, we have a thread/sticky about growing orchids under lights. I started the thread but I thought that you might be interested. Not because you are growing orchids but because I make several posts there, as do others, about growing orchids under lights. But we also talk about other plants as well and that might be another place that you could find some very helpful information.

Thanks again Bill. I'll check out that thread too!

I'll second the recommendation for T5 high-output fluorescent tubes for grow lights. I have several home-made units, and use them to
start seedlings in late winter/early spring, to nurse frost-sensitive plants along until they can be put outdoors safely, and even to grow
tasty vegetable crops indoors during the winter. Inexpensive timers from any hardware store work fine and are easy to use.

Thanks kreemoweet for your valuable input!