Diy CFL reflector hood, did I f it up?

Discussion in 'Grow Room Design/Setup' started by Funtogrow, Apr 15, 2016.

  1. Okay, so after doing some reading and realizing that cfl's give light off the sides instead of the ends I'm thinking my custom CFL hood I made isn't doing a lot of good. I mounted 6 ceramic light fixtures (ran out so the last 2 holes are temporarily being filled with a couple clamp mounts without the reflectors), but they point my lights straight down except the 4 that have doublers in them. Should I put doublers in all of them to get better side light? I used an old 4', 4 tube florescent light fixture, gutted it and cut it down to fit my cab (hood is approx 3' x 22"). The lights actually hang where the base of the glass is right at the bottom of the sides of the hood, so basically the bulbs are hanging below the sides of the reflector. The hood/reflector is white, which is the color it was as the original fixture and I know white is a good reflector, but am I just waiting the light coming off these cfl's? See pics below.

    This is unfinished, just getting an idea for the layout:
    IMG_20160411_212948.jpg

    This is it, mounted with the girls under it:
    IMG_20160414_172329.jpg

    Here's a shot from the top:
    IMG_20160414_172341.jpg

    I don't want to have to completely remake a hood, but I have a few old fluorescent fixtures so I suppose I could. I have doublers in 4, giving me 12 23w cfl's under there, the 4 doublers are: front row middle back row middle, and both in the center row. Would I get enough light if I just put doublers in the ones without (giving some side angle) or should I make a new one with fixtures that mount sideways so the bulbs would be completely sideways thus putting side light straight down, and up reflecting back down. Any advice/ideas would be great.
     
  2. The sides of the bulbs are emitting a lot more light that the tip so you would get better coverage if the bulbs were setup like this, but I can see if you don't want to redesign at this point.
    [​IMG]
     
  3. #3 Funtogrow, Apr 15, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2016
    I could always fab up another reflector like that one, short of the fixtures, and when it's time to put them to bed it would only take me five minutes to pull out the original one. That would give me six hours to get the fixtures and wiring all done up and just put it back in the morning when it's time to wake the girls up. I'd rather do that than keep wasting all the light shining it everywhere but on them. Just another sleepless night full of coffee to get er done :coffee:

    And thanks for the input. I'll put up some pics of my solution, won't be getting done tonight though as I only have a little over an hour before it's night night time for the girls and I have about 45 garden starts to get transplanted since I started them all too early and I really don't want them to die off before I can put them into the garden.
     
  4. If I was you I would not bother redesigning your setup. It looks solid to me. Also, I read somewhere yesterday about how cfls do not actually produce more light from the side and actually the most comes straight down off the bulb.. There was a graph and everything, I'm bout to try to find the link.. I'll report back if I do.


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  5. Cool, thanks for the info. With my current reflector the bulbs are hanging down too far and I'm losing a lot of light due to lack of reflection so I may redesign just on that issue alone. Also have decided to let a friend take my girls for now as I live off grid and my inverter won't run the cfl's as I thought it would so I was having to burn way more generator gas than what was expected and thus making it not cost effective. I've learned a lot and am going to start over once I can get the LED's that I want, and I'll be able to just take clones off my original plants so I'll know I'm not waisting time and energy on boys as none were sexed yet. Also work is getting ready to pick up and I'm likely going to be gone for long periods of time, which with the LED's won't be an issue cause they'll be on timers and running off batteries and inverter and I should be able to go several days before my batteries need charged. So for now, my girls are going to a better home where they'll get lots of love and be nice and healthy and I can go visit them anytime I want.
     

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