DIY Dual CFL Bulb Reflector/Hood?

I'm a bit of a newbie here, but I was beginning my newest grow and I have settled on using those large CFL's in the range of 150-250w, but my question is this. I have seen dual bulb reflectors and hoods for air cooled bulbs, like MH and HPS setups, but my question is has anybody ever attempted to construct a dual bulb reflector for CFL's? It may be that it's just not efficient enough or generates too much heat without help from ducted cooling, but basically, I'm building a small cabinet, about 2.5 ft high, 2 ft wide, and a foot deep, about 2 sq ft in terms of light footprint. I estimate that even just buying a single lamp and reflector and calling it a day I'd still be just under 5000 lumens per sq. ft, but with two 125's, or 1 250w I can be well over 5, almost into the 7500 range. It's about 4.5-5 cu ft. give or take so my plan was to cut holes for an active intake system, and doing a diy carbon filter for the exhaust using small computer fans, I'm not entirely 100% on the efficiency of those types of DIY setups, but I've seen multiple threads on other sites of mixed reviews on whether the system works to harvest or not, depending on strain, and cu ft of the grow area, if anybody has any insight on this I'd welcome any, but failing that I plan on installing a few of those odor eating CFL's towards the top of the cab just to be on the safe side, and if I have to go even further using ionizers (Also, not a whole lot of experience using those anybody have any tips or info, fell free to chime in). In lieu of the fact that I have very little space to work with, I may have to end up routing the carbon filter and exhaust up into the drawer above it to save on space. Plan on doing a simple soil grow, with organic nutrients and this will be my first attempt at scrog, wanna try three, but I'm on the fence on how many due to the nature of scrogging. Thanks in advance for any and all advice, and even flaming. If diagrams or writeups would help, I'm in the process of making some up, just to help my own organization and planning.

Happy Gardening

 

Dual 250's? or 2 125's for a total of 250? Did you do any topping to that? and did you construct your own reflector? or did you just say to hell with it and just make a rig to raise and secure the lights? I assume you lifted the light for the picture but that looks amazing, looks like little to no stretch? I'll be honest I have never had to much worry about detection and was never really serious about my growing but as I did more research I got more interested and now I'm really trying to put all that to work. If this works out I am going to try to build a larger version for a better scrog. I didn't have a chance to source a cabinet that was DEEP enough I wanted, height is honestly kind of negligible and that's kind of the whole point of scrogging anyway, thanks for sharing.

 

Very, very nice. I was going to try to do the two, only because in the math they are more efficient and squeeze a little extra light to boot, but having to build my own it doesn't seem that hard all it has to do is secure the sockets and bulbs, I almost thought about buying a single bulb and reflector kit and trying to modify it into a dual bulb, I was just curious to see if it had been done or attempted before I went about it. How did you go about odor control and exhaust system in a small area? There are two tropes of people, one that swear you need a fan that would look more in place in a grow ROOM, like larger than a few cubic feet than a cabinet. And then you have the other who swear by DIY methods of varying degrees of confirmable, or non confirmable success.

 

Thought I'd give you an update on the cab, I jumped the gun and germinated before I had everything setup so initially I was fighting temperatures to stay under even an 86, but now I get high 80s on the high end not the low end. anyhow, I just caved and went with a 250w vivosun cfl, and a reflector. I still don't like the fact that I can't get under am average of 80 degrees with the lights on, but it's also been a factor of light proximity to airflow factors and failings on my part. you can see of the three I got germinated only two survived and one has a very small stem, the other that did survive got what looks to be light burn and that was totally my fault. probably a week and a half old now. I plan on building a filter out of two speed controlled fans designed for video game cabinet cooling and hopefully be able to better mitigate the temperature that way by amping up the exhaust to two fans. any input would be welcome this is only my second grow and first grow in a cab that I had to worry about smell and security at all. thanks.

 

I'm still having trouble lowering the Temps depending on how close I get the bulb as it is, I got a 4"hole cut finally and stuck one of my four fans up there for the hot air to go there finally, but until I get the set of double fans I plan on installing there, I feel this is the best I'm gonna get, I didn't really expect the high Temps until I got it in there, I'm already looking at designing a larger cab with a double chamber for options for a perpetual but walk before you can run right? I haven't been able to get the humidity higher than say 40%, it goes up and down around low 20s and high 30s and only if I spray carefully inside.

 

As far as nutes right now I'm just using some MG for acid loving plants, it's got a decent NPK balance and I used so little I doubt it's nutrient burn, however I did try to get a 250w CFL within 4 inches inside 2 Sq ft with very poor ventilation and flow. this is all dependent on budget, I'm trying to save money here, not spend it, but the fans I am looking at have speed control and areally paired right put of the box.

 

I used a mixture of perlite vermiculite and premium topsoil but it still seems a bit hard to me, so I'm looking into a different mix next time, but for all the problems I'm having now, I don't have the problems I used to seem to have so I guess you could call that progress hahahahaha

 

No, they are small computer fans, since it was such a small space I figure I didn't need a huge fan, now I used every fan I had to try to fight the temps, the MG said half a tap per gallon so I used very little and was flushing with a bit of water anyway since it was so hot in there but I'm afraid to do anything now until it recovers a bit, since I installed the temporary exhaust I have seen it grow more and seem to come back, but I've been monitoring it carefully and trying to keep my hands off for a few days.

 

Miracle grow, but I am looking into more well known nutes when I get around to buying a pH kit

 

I cant get specs on the fans cause they are old but they can't move more than maybe 5-10 cfms, they are only 3 inch fans designed for cases, the 4 inch fan on top is bigger and feels like it moves considerably more air but it's temporary. I have one fan on the left inside wall, a USB fan I found at staples at just above plant level which would be about the bulb and reflector, and another small 3" fan right up near the the bulb pointed in the direction of the exhaust in the back right. what do you mean these fans are causing the temps? I was getting almost 100 in there before I got fans in there and I still feel like I can't move enough air out to keep it cool in there, I even turned it down in my place and we're moving into winter and the bias is not very close so I'm not sure what I'm going to do if what I'm planning on doesn't work, I may end up having to cave for an expensive fan that moves way more than I need it too volumetricly speaking. I just don't know .