My 168w CFL cupboard

[ScrubNinja]

I remember somewhere that a phillips 36w ballast delivers 32W to the bulb. So thats about 90% efficient, and that's pretty damn good for a ballast.

Hi DI, I'm not an expert on pll's as you know but I was researching this in relation to CFLs. I think you're referring to the "power factor" (pf). The bulb should still get 36w because that's what it's rated as and you're just not allowed to fudge figures where electricity is involved. The rating takes power factor into consideration.

Take the 48w veg CFLs I used. 48 (actual) watts not equivalent. They are one of the rare CFLs that list their PF right on the bulb. Anyway, it's 0.6 pf. They are 0.33 Amps. If we do the old law of whatever it's called: Watts = Volts x Amps...

240v x 0.33a = 79.2 watts! (Sacre bleu!) If we take 60% of that we end up back at 48w (well, 47.53). So basically there is overhead but the bulb itself gets 48 watts. And 36w I'd imagine in your example. Please correct me anybody if I have this wrong. I still don't understand it 100%

Edit: also the page error has been happening for a long while. You need to hang around more!

 

[D.I.trY]

hehe, thanks scrub for the explanation. I wasnt really sure about it myself. perhaps someone who is can help us out...

 

[ScrubNinja]

My bad, it seems you were right dude - from knna on another forum:

The one i use (Phillips HF-B II, 2*55w, consumes 107w for two lamps, included the ballast, and feed each lamp with 50.5w (measured; but it match with manufacturer specs). For a total of 9600lm~26 PAR Watts~119 uE.

 

[qulimax]

Hey guys, i painted my box, but i didn't noticed that the white color is mat. Does it matter if the color is gloss or mat ? Does the mat white still reflect the light ?

 

[ScrubNinja]

Matt or flat is the type you want so you did well :smile:

 

[CaptainStoner]

BLT direct lighting in the UK sell pl-l lamps as do lampspecs. one of them sells 6400/6500k full spectrum tubes. They also sell the Philips HF ballasts for them. nice and cheap too.

Nice to see a fellow UK PL-L convert

 

[D.I.trY]

ahh thanks scrub for clearing that up, yes it would have been knna that i read a while back that gave me that information.

 

[Melkor420]

I think you will get some good ideas for ballast placement and pl-l lights from my grow. I am using 12" pl0l lights that are 24w and1800 lumens each right now, I am going to add more lights as I can afford them. Personally, I prefer the pl-l tubes because the cfl lights just take too much vertical space for my micro conditions. Good luck with your cab bro.

 

[qulimax]

Hey Melkor420 ! I'll check your thread definitely !
So the paint job is done. There is no interesting news, because i don't want to drill holes in my box or make any other stuff, cause I'll move to a new place, and i will need to reconnect all the parts anyway.

 

[qulimax]

hey guys ! I wanted to ask, what do you think about this fan ? http://multi.gnt.lt/pages/brochures/Titan/TFD-12025M12B.htm
I dont know a lot about the fans, but I think this one is quite good comparing the cfm's. What does that mm-h20 mean ?

 

[Aerohead]

That fan would be perfect for blowing air across the canopy but it won't cool those lights hardly at all.
mm-h2o is a measure of how powerful the fan is under load such as when connected to a scrubber, 2.83mm h2o is a very weak fan and wouldn't perform at all if it was restricted in any way. Check out ScrubNinjas thread on PC fans here, there is some great info there.

 

[qulimax]

So, i'm done with the painting works. Here the cupboard before painting

And here is how it looks now

But i made a stoner mistake...

I'm stopping this project for some time. I will reconstruct my pc case, and i will try to put in some pll's or at least a good ventilation.

 

[ScrubNinja]

But i made a stoner mistake...

You actually made two.... can't see the pics :

 

[ScrubNinja]

They work now, mate

LOL, I can't believe those handles, haha! Oh man...It reminds me of my first pc case - I glued the floppy drive in upside down...doh. But it looks pretty cool otherwise. Why you stopping work on it? Couldn't you find a suitable fan? Good luck with whatever you do.

 

[qulimax]

Well i'm moving to another place soon and i'm not sure if the person i will live with accept's my possession to growing cannabis. So if he wont, the second plan is to keep using my pc case and make it better and stealth more than it is now. But if he accepts, i will use that pc case for vegging or cloning
I didnt thought about this before i started this project, so sorry guys.
About the fans. I found one, but it's not a pc fan http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-120mm-pwm-fan-ultra-quiet.htm and i dont know if it will fit into my box perfectly. I can't find any very good pc fan for the outtake in my country.

 

[ScrubNinja]

That is actually a computer fan. So you had this in mind for the cupboard? It's not really a great fan for the job. I forget if the plan changed with the PLLs but if it's still 200w or so then that fan's not gonna work.

 

[qulimax]

shit, sorry, that's not the right link. This is the fan that i'm looking to http://www.limot.com/uploads/media/pdf/Einbauanleitung_TURBO_BS.pdf
But it might be noisy. I read about a mufler thing. Might that work for me ? Because this cupboard is going to be in the room where i sleep.

 

[ScrubNinja]

That fan is very quiet bro. I'd say extremely quiet. The specs are close to the Thermaltake I use, same pressure, slightly lower CFM. The difference is that a computer fan is going to be 45 decibels or so. This fan you linked to will do all that at 18 decibels and that is pretty freaking quiet. A baby could sleep next to it. Seeing how you have a very limited choice for fans available to you, this is definitely the best fan for the job in my opinion, as you already know. You could mount it on top of the cupboard and use a cardboard box to cover it from view. Just make the box look like storage.

 

[qulimax]

Hello guys !
So the project is moving on, sorry, i'm very slow with it, because i don't have proper tools to work with in the new place.
There are a bit of change in the project. I'm not going to use pll lamps, because for now it's very expensive for me, so i bought 10x 21w 2700k spectrum osram cfl's i got them with 70% discount (for 38$), that's why i will use them (210w pll's would cost me 110$~). So I have the lightning I thinhk it will be like this

The next problem is ventilation. As you all know, i think i'll use that turbo ventilator or w/e it calls. But I need more pc fans to move the air inside, and to make the inline holes. That's the problem right now. Will 2cm be enough for that ventilator to suck air ?

I can't make more space, so i need your advice with this.
To move air inside i think i will use nexus fans :
80mm http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-80mm-pwm-fan-ultra-quiet.htm
or 120mm http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-120mm-pwm-fan-ultra-quiet.htm ??? I'm planning to use 4 80mm fans there or 3 120mm. Which setup is better ?
Oh btw 1 nemesis and 1 power plant yesterday peeped out from the ground in my pc case
(sorry for the quality)
P.S how to change thread's title ? I want that people see that this is CFL, not pll project

 

[ScrubNinja]

and to make the inline holes. That's the problem right now. Will 2cm be enough for that ventilator to suck air ?

Yo qulimax that is wikkid bro! Good to see you advancing and it's very interesting to see you overcoming challenges.

In the above quote, do you mean you want to have your intake hole/s, with an intake fan/s, on that right side wall? If so, then let's see.... This will be very confusing to you but I want to post it instead of just telling you the answer. This is how I do it after advice from Hoosierdaddy

Your Turbo 100 is 10cm diameter. If we use the rule that your intake size is twice that, we will need two fully flowing 10cm holes for intake. One 10cm hole equals 78.5 square cm. So double that is 157 sq cm. We need this many sq cm of unrestricted flow.

So let's see how just one intake hole is going to go with only 2cm clearance. A 10cm hole has a circumference of 31.4 cm. So the total area of unrestricted flow available to that hole is 2cm x 31.4cm. That's 62.8 square centimetres where we need 78.5.

So to answer your question, yes, this is a restrictive environment to place your cab, but you should be able to get around it with more intakes. How many more? Well, we need a total of 157 sq cm unrestricted. 157 divided by 62.8. That equals 2.5.

Mwah ha haaaaa! TWO POINT FIVE! You need at least 2.5 x 100 mm holes for intake! (and the .5 doesn't mean a 50mm hole).

Let's just call it three to be on the safe side because even though I used a lot of numbers, it's by no means dead accurate. But a very close guide. If it was my own cab, I would make 4 holes. But 3 should be okay, as the numbers show.

I know nothing about intake fans and I don't think you need them if you are a smart cookie.

Very nice computer case by the way. Rock on.