Check out my DIY CFL fixture/hood

LemonHerb · #1 04-05-2008, 03:18 PM

I made this last week to mount all my lights on, I would say it's 50% finished right now. It's 24" wide and 44" long, it cost me $15 for the PVC parts and like $2 for the cheap party store mylar. It's mostly finished right now, I need to get another power cord to run for the left side and I really need to get thicker mylar that will create a flatter surface that is less transparant. I am also going to add another PC fan to blow up from the middle, and maybe some from the ends. Other future plans for it is to just add some cheap screw in hooks and get some chain instead of mounting it with twine like I am now.

I have 18 cfls in there right now( I think) which is real close to 40k lumen, there is enough room left over to probably but at least a dozen more in there, maybe more if I really pack them in. At the end I have a window box fan setting and blowing out to exhaust and I keep a small fan inside just to blow on the plants. This is my first grow, and my plants aren't at their best at the moment because of a little bug killer problem, but I didn't expect to be perfect the first time. In a couple weeks I am builing my own hydro hut sort of thing for this to fit in, it should be cool.

Anyway, lemme know what you think. Any suggestions would be cool.

soulflyx2k · #2 04-05-2008, 05:37 PM

hey thats rly cool.

question, shouldn't the plants be raised up about 2-3 inches closer to light?

LemonHerb · #3 04-05-2008, 05:39 PM

They are actually, I just raised the fixture up some so I could get the picture. Later on I may add another row downward durring flowering if the plants get really tall or something, but I am not planning on that.

soulflyx2k · #4 04-05-2008, 05:52 PM

Height of box?
how many plants? how old?

LemonHerb · #5 04-05-2008, 06:34 PM

I have 8 plants right now but and they are right around 3 weeks old. As far as box goes I am not sure what you mean, it's in my closet at the moment but I am going to build myself a little hydrohut-ish grow tent here in the next week and that will be 54" tall, and 48"x26", the light fixture is about 14" tall, but if I want to add a row of lights on the bottom bar and then add another bar below that I can make it as tall as I like, it's just a matter of how long I cut the PVC.

Oh and I am using 1/2" PVC for this, but if someone were to make it out of little metal tubing they could make it much thinner I imagine. I also think it would work pretty well if I were to put a bunch of t5 bulbs in there.

LemonHerb · #6 04-06-2008, 07:35 PM

I added two more lights to it yesterday, I had broken some when putting it together so I wanted to get all my sockets full. having it this way is a lot easier to deal with heat then before, even though they are CFLs they can still get kinda hot.

Anyone have any idea how many I will be able to get in there before heat becomes a big problem?