I went out and bought a glass candle holder from walmart for 16.99$ canadian and it has 2 open ends so theres absoultuely no need for cutting glass. It fits the round 250W MH bulb and the skinnier 250W HPS nicely. It's 6" around so it will perfectly fit 6" ducting which I will pick up tomorrow, and at that time I will complete this tutorial with step by step instructions on how to rig it up. Happy growing! (This could possibly be used with larger bulbs I just don't have any on hand so I can't measure)
Not really seems like solid glass it was meant for big candles so I'd imagine it could handle the heat of a 250 with a 6" inline fan connected at 245cfm (or around there). I kind of rigged it together just don't have my phone to take pictures (left it at a friends the other day..) I'll post pictures and before and after temperatures + grow space dimensions and any other relevant information once I get the chance as I'm sure this will save alot of people alot of money. (people that have access to a Walmart and hardware store atleast). Happy growing!
Let us know how it works out, kapt. Also, do you have pics to share? Did you use a reflector with it? Do you have ideas about attaching such a reflector? Thanks for a great idea!
Be careful as hid lighting tpically runs at 300 - 600 degrees C depending on wattage and bulb design. Any glass other than quartz glass will melt down on to your lamp causing some kind of lamp failure, maybe catistrofic. Quartz also acts as an ir filter, meanung it will filter out some of the heat that is emitted b hid lighting. the higher quality the quartz is the better the filter. ther are also specialized coatings used to obtain different filtering ranges of the light spectrum.
you sure this is true? Im not smelter but I was pretty sure glass melted at a MUCH higher temp than 600C???
You can go to ask.com and they will tell you 200 degrees F. I encourage you to check this out for yourself. I have worked with Hg vapor lamps for the printing industry. they are basically the same lamp.
That being said. I would uuse only use quartz glass for a cool tube. As it is can handle the heat put off buy the bulb and it will help filter out some of the IR (heat) that your plant will see(feel). We use quartz glass as IR filters in the UV industry.
So even though you say: and: You still believe that the glass is going to melt???? Edit: for those that don't know, 600 degrees Celsius is 1112 degrees Fahrenheit
reread. You are misunderstanding You originally said it would mealt and then gave info saying it wouldnt but now you say it will
The point I am trying to make you understand is that there different types of glass. Each has it's own properties. Quartz glass is pure silica and has a working temp of around 1500 degrees F and a very low coefficent of expansion. I doubt very much that the glasss tube from Wall World is going to hold up tothe heat. If it was meant for a candle its proll pyrex at best,Which I can get hot enough to work over my gas stove.
Sorry I am WRONG about not being able to use pyrex for your cool tube. I just went to the cool tube web site and it did sat that they used high quality pyrex and it would handle a 1000 Watt bulb. Sorry to be the cause of so much confusion.