Hello GrassCity, I am a local grower that has been conducting a perpetual CFL grow,my grow can be located at the bottom with my sig. Anyhow my current hood isnt really up to par, its pieced together with fixtures that were given to me and or laying around the house. The hood itself is constructed of wood and lined with metal duct tape, with a 3" hole in the middle for an exhaust. It works well right now because temps are well cool enough to match the output of the many cfls i have, but for the summer i will need something a little better. So, PopHydroThumb(my dad) and I have begun building a hood. Most of the design is what i have come up with using professional hood designs but with my own touch to it. My Pop has shown me a couple of tricks so between him and I this is going to be fun and has been. The hood is going to be made out of a thin gauge metal and rivetted together. ill have 3 rows of 10 sockets 5 on each side of the channel. that will then be inclosed with plexy glass and exhausted with a squirel cage. Pretty simple I think. anyhow here are some pictures of what we have accomplished so far. Hope you enjoy.
update on progress, were waiting for sockets orders from the hardware store and we ordered a custom cut piece of 1/8 inch Plexiglas that will be mounted with a piano hinge and sealed with weather stripping of some sort. On the opposing side will be 4 thumb screws for maintenance. I cant wait to get it up and running.
This is pretty sweet, you did a great job. I think I Might make something similair but smaller. I already have some sheet metal sitting in my room and a ton of plexiglass.
Thanks. I think its pretty sweet too. I am enjoying the project so much, I think ill put an ad out for custom hood making. This particular hood would be 299.99 4ftx2ft 30 sockets. That's 720watts and 55,500(roughly) of lumens if you use 26watt cfls like I plan. Well worth it I think. Which is why i made it
Im really surprised by the lack of reaction. over 100 views and only 1 reply. lol Im starting to see the haterade for cfl growing. its all good in the hood haha
Nice handiwork friend! I really like a well-done diy project. I think the lack of reaction, quite frankly, is that prolly most growers looking for 55,000 lumens are going to go with a 400w HPS - less heat, less electrical consumption.
i guess. I think the cfls are better. with a hps you have to have distance between the plants and the lights. Wouldnt that mean that since i can put my hood directly on top of the plants that they receive more of the lumen? I guess because i have so many telling me cfls suck, i want to prove they dont and i have. thanks for stoppin by and actually replyin
Perhaps you have a point. But, with 30 bulbs inside a hood like yours, I don't believe that you're going to be able to put it directly on top of your plants. A hood focuses light and heat, which HID users know all too well and have to deal with. I suspect you are also going to have to deal with lots more heat radiating downward. I'm rootin' for you though, bro. Thinking outside the box and innovation are the keys to moving forward. Keep us posted!
I currently have 19 cfls with 4 2ft flouresent fixtures with no cooling on the hood basicly and have no issues. im hoping that with the exhaust and the cool air feed it should work substantially better. We will see
Ok since you have tons of views and no posts, I'll post. Your cfl hood ROCKS! I wish I could use this setup cuz from your posts its working. I don't plan on having a big setup that would use this, but your hood is super cool. I'm surprised that you don't have any heat issues with all those lights, esp without active airflow. p.s. can we get some clarification on what to do in step/picture 5
Hood is doing awesome. No problems. Temps dont get above 75 degrees in the flowering room and i still keep hood right on top of the plants. the largest cola is actually touching the plexiglass that seals the hood. Harvest day is next thursday and ill post a update with a link to my journal.
Hi! Drop in to say "Great Going, man!" I do not have the skills or equipments to make the cool hood like you made, and am very jealous of your hood/knowledge/skills: am currently growing under CFL, too,, Have fun with your new gadget! Peace,,
i never recieved notice of this post. weird. anyhow i have active air flow. the design is basicly a cfl cool tube. there are 2 3" connections on the hood and one has a 250cfm squirell cage attached to it sucking heat out. The other acts as a make up air. in the summer ill run a duct from the closest a/c vent to the intake on the hood for better cooling. p.s in picture 5 we have a good example of R&R. its simple. puff puff puff, fuck the pass. puff again
Dude, that is some good looking work. Your Dad's a good tinbender- I like the huge hood dude, but the reason you aren't turning heads is as the previous dude said- more than a few cfls and it's time to step up to HID. Regardless, that is tight work and that is to be respected. Good luck with it. One more thing about threads- and I'll put it just the way the mighty Rumpleforeskin put it to me. . . People want to see pics, lots of pics, and especially pics of fat buds. If you post that, you'll get some cred. Put the pics in the post, don't make people click on them. Anyway, looking forward to some harvest pics! -Mech
Hydro that hood is fucking sweet man! Stopping int o say hey and see what's going on...I SEE LOT'S IS GOING ON
just another hood i made. holes in first picture are for intake of cool air. Theres a 100cfm bathroom fart fan mounted to the top sucking heat out and pushing it to my attic. Its made of wood but a 400 watt fixture for under 100 bucks(not including the bulbs) is worth it to me. you tell me how you think its doing. Ill be building a second one and putting them to use in my flowering stage. I have plans for a SOG for the last hood i made.
sweet, i like, now just get those in a metal reflective hood, & youll get 2x the growth imo. if u need any cpu fans, hit me up, i got a few high output fans, 120mm, .9amp, 118cfm @ 12v, 125cfm @ 13.8v
You cant see it but there is aluminum tape on the inside of that fixture so im not losing all the light to the wood .. Im working on getting a prototype in the works. Thanks for comin by
Hey Hydro, how's it going bud? Thing's are lookign great as usual. That hood it tight man...I'd +rep ya again, but it won't let me...do you have a greow thread? I checked your stats and don't see one??
yeah bro, check out my sig, itll take you to my thread. I didnt start the thread so thats why you cant find it. But its my grow. Thanks for stoppin by bro