Hey guys, I've been reading and admiring everyone's efforts on this site, but am still a bit perplexed on a few issues. I've seen it both ways so I'm torn

CFL bulbs are more effective oriented horizontal, as more light emits from the sides, correct?

Is a hood or reflector on top of CFL bulbs better than nothing?

I've seen lone cfls over plants, upsidedown roasting pans, cut soda cans, flange piping painted white and actual hoods. Which works best, what would you guys recommend for my bulbs, the first four are quite large.

I have:
2 125w 8000 lumen cfls 6500k
2 85w 6000 lumen cfls 6500k
2 42w 2700 lumen cfl 2700k
1 40w 2200 lumen cfl 6500k

Closet grow operation 4'x2'x6', undecided how many plants there will be, but SCROG. How should I set these lights up. I was thinking the three smaller bulbs as supplements on the side, but am unsure of how to arrange the other four bulbs. I have emergency sleeping bags lined on the walls. I cut an intake into the subwall and have a 6 inch inline fan. I'm working on putting an exhaust into the ceiling by replacing the porcelain light fixture with an 4 in exhaust hole. I want to do this so its less to fix at a later date. I have ona gel for smell and have made a carbon filter that processes air within the closet, considering hooking up to exhaust.

Yes.
Yes.

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Thanks Tea tree Oil, what arrangement would you recommend for how to setup the 4 larger bulbs?

Here's 2'x4' blueprint.

Basically the idea behind this is, the black points are where the sockets should be orientated, and the glass bulb part where the wattage numbers reside.

You could drill a hole where the orange dot is and hang additional lights off a cord on Y-splitters, or whatever.

The green dots are holes to drill for wires.

You could get a lamp-type fixture to hand the bulbs off of. Or you could also use the orange dot for some twine to hold the bulbs parallel to the surface.

Basically you get 63w/sq ft. One 125w over 2 sq feet. Then the 42x2 and 85x2 = 254. So that's ~64 w/sq ft over the middle four sq feet.

Attached Images

lightcheck.jpg (8.0 KB, 10 views)

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I like the blueprint Tea tree thanks a lot, I guess I never thought to put the 125's on the outside. So are you suggesting like a piece of plywood or something flat to mount the fixtures to or like a hood? If plywood, I could also line the plywood with emergency blanket, that would lower the ceiling of my grow room to increase light effectiveness right? If i do that option I'm a little bit concerned about heat build up.

I'm pretty stoked all the lights finally came in, now I just want to get them set up right. I should have plenty of lumens to have a strong yield. Just gotta get everything configured right, working on ceiling exhaust outake today. Will post pictures when I have progressed futher