What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Air cooled reflector testing with Digital footcandle meter

darthvapor

Active member
Pico. I have acess to a few diff hoods. I will be able to test the pl and silverstar as soon as my light meter gets here. Still trying to find a bell hood. I will be testing 1000's. Maybe a few 600's but I dont have a 600 pl or bell hood only 1000
 
If anyone has access and the means to test a Sunlight Supply SunGro reflector it would be greatly appreciated. Pico and everyone keep up the fantastic effort, may you all have many safe, lush, bountiful harvests. :yes:



Thanks
GG
 

darthvapor

Active member
ganja guerilla I can do one of those for ya but only in 1000w. My light meter should arrive in the mail wed or thurs.
 
darthvapor said:
ganja guerilla I can do one of those for ya but only in 1000w. My light meter should arrive in the mail wed or thurs.

Darthvapor, thank you for the help, I look forward to seeing the results. K+ to you and grow safe.

GG
 

SuperLarry

Member
im looking forward to seeing the cooltube results, because i think the cooltubes are pretty bad reflectors. good air coolers. i have a cooltube running now and with an eye hortilux that is only 3 months old, i think the bulb is bunk. it is averaging 1800 footcandles at the canopy at 12" from the cooltube glass (directly under the bulb). the tube is clean. does that seem low to anyone else? its a lumatek digital ballast. i think ill get a supersun2 and i've heard maybe the agrosun bulbs work better with the lumatek ballast. any ideas?

thanks pico for your work and information!
 

pineappaloupe

Active member
pico: yeah more data = more fun in my geeky science world

oh man this would be killer:
same points in 3 dimensions. have one sample every 6", and each point has 3 "depth" readings. its kinda overkill (no it actually IS overkill) but it would really demonstrate light penetration.


any thoughts on adjusting the position of the filament in the reflector?


peace
 

clowntown

Active member
Veteran
pico, have you moved yet? If so, I can loan you my Daystar AC.

That PL AC hood looks interesting, and I'm sure does a nice job of spreading light but all that turbulence... more than a few lights would cause a lot of drag and loss of velocity / pressure in the duct system.
 
Last edited:

clowntown

Active member
Veteran
swordfish said:
i hear these are the best hoods on the market.. anyone have any input on these before i buy some?
Kinda funny how the charts on their website compares their "hood" style reflectors to parabolic reflectors. :no: :pointlaug

pico said:
i am not sold on those myself, but I really can't say that from any sort of experience or testing. I just think they are designed more for suplemental lighting in greenhouses. If you look at the figures they are testing them over a 3meter square at a height of 3 meters. If they had some more testing under actual indoor conditions it would be nice. I also think that their design for aircooled reflectors is mediocre at best.

Keep in mind I have never seen one of these in person. Just telling you what I think from their website and photos they provide.
I'm with you on that, word for word. I'm really looking forward to your test results. Thanks for taking one for the team. :yes:
 
Last edited:

darthvapor

Active member
if each light draws its air from a plenum then each light gets fresh cold air. each light also exits into a plenum which exhaust the heat via inline fan. Plus the pl and bell lights are aluminum which has a great heat transfer rate and they dont have the huge holes before and after the bulb which leaks light. Thats probably why the super sun 2 reflectors do such a great job. the vents are to the side of the bulb and the new design is even better.
 

pico

Active member
Veteran
heh, no man. just ben busy. I have not received the bell reflector yet. It is in the mail. I will test it when it shows up.

I am building myself a room right now and trying to get that all pimped out. I will start a thread maybe this weekend. 8 lights, lots of coco, some all organic dirt.....Should be a good show. I have all the lights up and most of the plants are situated. Just need to get my plenum built and spray foam all the cracks so the co2 doesn't get out. Another fully sealed room.


pinappleloupe- ok lets not get too crazy :) I like numbers but too many numbers and I will go crazy. I can see how maybe the 600w bulb pushed over another couple inches might be good. Hard to say without testing. The 1000w looks pretty well centered in there.

clowntown- Yep, I moved. I might take you up on the daystar when things get a little more situated here. I need to get my room up and cracking first before anything.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and being interested. I will be up and rolling soon enough.
 
G

Guest

Pico, there be "Beer Cans" a growing, AGAIN, wall to wall, TY for all of the info. The Super Sun II's with 600W enhanced spectrum HPS, all 6 of them ,are doing their job with excellent results. The last run was 3.1#, this one looks like 4.5# or better. The colas were so tight and gooey that even after snipping the buds from the stem I still had to carefully pull them apart, a solid mass of intertwined Ass Kicking Crystal coated smoke. I have a 7th SS II with a 1K MH handling initial veg. Hindu Kush is the strain.

I appreciate your reflector evaluations, spot on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ty-Stik
 

pico

Active member
Veteran
Glad to hear things are working out well for you. Once you get your strains dialed in I am sure you will start getting closer to 1# per light. Sounds like you got plenty of good smoke these days.

cheers
 

DELTA_3/504

New member
Thanks for all the time, effort and ducats you invested in this comparison study. Now I've definitely narrowed my choice down to the SS2 or the Hydrotek Silver Star [I know you didn't test the Silver Star, but I hear good things about them]. Take care, be well and stay frosty, pico.

DELTA_3/504
 

Mt Toaker

Member
This is a fantastic thread, I've just skimmed some of the material here but I will be back as soon as I am able to grow again, one of the sacrifices I needed to get a college education.
 
Top