CFLs clear PVC hung vertical *concept*

Straight to the chase on what i mean. I'm trying to get the most usable amount of light out of a spiral CFL. What i want to do is pretty much stick 2 - 3 CFLs in one clear PVC or glass tube, just like a cool tube for HID lights and then grow the plant around the lights in a wire cage. Ideally the plant would be less then 6-7 inches away from the tube, maybe even touching it (they are just CFLs anyway). I've really been putting some thought into this as well as trying to research anyone trying something similar. I've got a set up right now using two 18 gallon rubbermaids and HID lights are out of the questions, and PL-L CFL would be cool but at the moment they are as well out of the question. I really start thinkin about this because my last / first grow kind of disapointing and I really want to try to strangle every bit of usable light with what i have. If this though strikes anyones fancy, let go on in and introduce another thought, think about using a PL-L light in a tube like this around the same idea 360º of light, no reflecters and the ability to get the plant right next to the bulb

Hi St8, I have thought about this before. One thought that turned me off was that you have to have plants close to CFLs, pretty much touching, and with a clear tube there, you've introduced a manditory gap. And with the tube you've blocked lumens so if anything you will need them closer again! But you can barely get them close to touching at best.

So I'm picturing that you'd end up with a bunch of fan leaves all trying to suck in around the tube, and blocking the light getting out to the real plant. Like a shadow puppet show - if you hold your pinky finger close to the light source, you just blacked out a whole wall from getting light. So that's my thoughts, totally theoretical.

with cfl the plants can touch the bulb and not burn (on small bulbs below 50w actual wattage)

ScrubNinja - I'm actually glad you chimed in, you are def a unique thinker on this forum, I'm digging your DYI light trap louvers. I get what your saying, with the fan leaves getting in the way, but that's what the screens for, gives you a cylindrical scrog. As far as actually blocking off lumens, i can't agree or disagree with that one. There is a lot of information about lights, lumens and color spectrums but i have to go with a very primitive point of view and speculate and guess that it could not matter (and i really don't need explanation on why it would or wouldn't either) thanks for the input though, I guess i'm just more interested in the CFL being vertical to try to get every bit of usable light out of it.

Green-thumb - I do realize that, it's just that they do get hot and I'm not sure that something that's 120 - 140ºF would be to good for a plant to be snugglings up too on a constant basis with out having some decent airflow. Even so how about a vertical CFL set up with-out the tube. How do you guys think that would fancy?

Thank you pal I'm glad I'm appreciated, hehe. Not sure if I read your comment wrong but it's a definite that the perspex (or whatever) will block lumens. Plenty of stoners have light tester thingies and it's written in stone. Even glass will cut some lumens. The point about the c-scrog screen doesn't really make sense to me because then your plant matter is even further away again. But I'm liking where this thread is going. Interested to hear what others think.

I wanted to try something like this too. I was thinking a single 42w bulb in a 5 gallon bucket. I don't know if a cool tube is necessary with cfls. With the 42w bulbs you can get within 3 inches of the bulb with no protection. The closer you get to the bulb the less screen area and yield. I was even looking into making an internal reflector for the spiral bulb to bounce the light back off the inside.

This guy utilizes the micro vertical screen of green in his builds. His last one used a cfl. He is one of my mentors on this forum but he doesn't post much. Worth the time to read it all the way through. Even more fun to use an accent in your head while reading it

My Works - http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=106329&highlight=works

sinse where talking about cooltubing cfl here i mineaswell chime in.
i have a hydrofarm 600 watt hps hood..
and i cannot use the hps in my new house due to space and other things..
so i was thinking about using my hood. and puttin a bunch of cfl right on the glass part ....
my big concern was loosing lumens threw the glass. but if i can have them virtualy ontop of the plants i dont see a big problem.

any thoughts on this?

Anyway, hey guys and thanks for the input. I wan to continue this discussion more, for me to post though, might take a little time in-between you guy’s thoughts (laptop recently died). Anyway in order here we go!

ScrubNinja - Let me try to clarify something. I know a lot of micro guys use Plexiglas to separate there grow chamber from the lights, I’ve done it my self, with so-so results. With that being said, I really what to take that flat Plexiglas and make it into a tube and stick the CFLs in it and then do what Tpyn did with this screen (I know you seen it, you replied to his post a couple times *wink*) Now for the fan leave situations do what I was talking about. Tpyn had this weaved in the circle, I wanted to do the same thing !BUT! tuck the fan leaves behind the screen leaving the internodes and other bud sites left exposed naked in the sun of the CFL. Maybe a little clear? If not I’ll make a paint drawling up when I can / or get a new computer.

Grouchy - First off... your mentor................... the dots should say it all, if not HOLY CRAP that awesome! Another one of those pure master thinkers on this forum (Tpyn lots of love goes out too you over here) I read though his post, was more focused on the last part with his CFL mounted in the middle absolutely fantastic and ingenious to stick that in a can! Originally I idea upon having some CFL stuck in the middle was realistically an idea of simplicity. I wanted to have the heat coming up the tube and away from the plants but what he did with that single CFL is starting to make me reconsider a little.

Sneakinman13 - yeah... well... the only thing I can say if you can use a 600watt sun maker in the new house your in you would really need to consider your other options as well as amount of space you have. My space is limited (to pretty much two 18 gallon Rubbermaid containers) if you have the room to swing it there is other options out there for you, like floro tubes that are overdriven, or PL-L bulbs. The main interested in this thread is to get that CFL as close to the plant as possible hanging vertical to maximize space to yield

BTW to make things clear. I might be new in theory, I’ve been on this forum before and have done a lot of reading, IF you guys haven't done so yet, check out some of the guys working on OBBT set-ups (just search OBBT) it's genius and pretty basic after getting everything ready to go

i used the top of a cola bottle to surround my middle bulb on my first grow, it was a 20watter hanging in the middle, cfls still do burn plants if you dont have direct air being blown onto them or if the plant is touching them after period of time.

I have considered doing what you speak of, but my only problem would be the fact that you have space in the tube wasted by where the CFL's ballast is

if you found 2 long and large enough cfls to put them so their tips meet in the middle of the tube, i think it would work.

but like scrub said, it will eat lumens.

when i first read the title of this thread my mind was flooded with ideas as to how to pull this off right.

for top lights you could have a clear PVC pipe that is small enough to exactly fit the CFLs into. you could use foil tape on the other side of the pipe as a reflector. say for instance that you used 6 x 26w CFLs in a one meter pipe (about 3 foot), you can then aircool that pipe make 2 other pipes just like it. hang them all horizontally at the top of your cab and there is your top lighting. you lose some lumens to the pipe but you can have the weed growing up against the lights, and due to there being so many lights, all the cab will be lit.

(6 x 26w) x 3 = 468watts <---- you could be running this many watts in a very small area due to there being no heat. losing lumens to the pipe now becomes not an issue.

another option is side lighting. i like ST8DunWSociety's idea. use the same clear pipe with cfl's inside it, but dont use the foil tape. hang 3 or 4 of these pipes vertically in your grow cab to avoid having your light source blocked by leaves.

CFLs are great. they give out lots of lumens for the small space they take up and lack of heat they emit. They also come in 3 popular color spectrums.

That's a cool idea cork, with the drink bottle.

Also, great to see tpyn getting some love. I thought it was just me that read his posts in a heavy accent! The translator software really turns it into poetry.

St8, I definitely get your point. I really don't have the experience to say how well it'd work, but it's sure worth a try. I'm just a little wary about what actually needs the light on a plant. The leaves are the solar panels, so you will still have them tucked away from the light.

You can buy tubes of perspex, don't ask me where, but I know you can if you look hard enough. I have one but it's from a strange, water-filled lamp. It's 90 or 100mm diameter and probably about 400 to 500mm long. It has a great hollow base as well for a fan. I was thinking of having it inside a 60 litre or larger round plastic garbage can, with two 45w CFLs pointing towards each other in the tube. There is a really fine gap between the bulbs and the perspex - I believe this is important in reducing the lumen loss through the perspex. That's what I read anyway. It's related to the inverse square law thing.

Thanks guys for all the input on this brainstorm. Cork144, that soda bottle idea is great. I'm going to start scrounging around for "parts" in a couple days to see what I can find locally. I'm hoping I can find some clear tubes for the CFLs around my area. !!Word of caution with other people thinking about doing this!! I know (and seen it personally) that CFL and other CFLs can melt through plastic (to the personally seen it part - I have a few shop lights where the bulb holders have became dislodge and was sitting on top of the plastic holders and it did melt them into the bulbs) If anyone else is interested in trying this out post up what you can find. I will do the same or with updates at things get going along for me.

Maybe you ScrubNinja maybe try something new with your hashcan

As i know more i'll update

Yeah for sure, I wasn't entirely happy with the lighting setup in the hashcan. Only thing is, there's not much space around the tube for plants.

About the melting issue - it doesn't bother me too much as I'm confident in my ability to mount them firmly. It's interesting to note, if you have a Bunnings nearby (or any HD like place I'd imagine) in the lighting section they sell those lit outdoor pillars you might see on driveways in nice neighbourhoods. Like a short pole with a cfl and a "lampshade"/weatherproofing type setup on top. Some of them use acrylic tubing as discussed, with zero active airflow, and they don't melt, so that's my reasoning. I would rather have glass any day though.

yes i would make sure that the cfls are not touching the plastic in anyway,

ive had a cfl burn so hot it melted the glassglue i guess that holds the tubes together, that was scarey,

as you can see in my pic, there is a decent gap between the cfl and the bottle

ST8DunWSociety said:

Sneakinman13 - yeah... well... the only thing I can say if you can use a 600watt sun maker in the new house your in you would really need to consider your other options as well as amount of space you have. My space is limited (to pretty much two 18 gallon Rubbermaid containers) if you have the room to swing it there is other options out there for you, like floro tubes that are overdriven, or PL-L bulbs. The main interested in this thread is to get that CFL as close to the plant as possible hanging vertical to maximize space to yield

Click to expand...

thanks for replying ...
but i may not have explained myself well enough. i have a closet that im using now . cfl. and its just big enough for my hood to hang in there. but its to small to run my 600 wat bulb. so i was planing on puting like 12 cfl inside the hood just laying down on the glass from the hood.
does this make sinse to you??

ive been lookin at it and looking at it and i think it will work. so ima post back when i got it up n runnin.

and i gotcha ST8 , with the hanging vertical to maximize yeild. i just figured sinse we where talking about slightly similar methods.. aka gettin light close without burning...i mineaswell get some view on my idea. see if anyones done it befor maybe??
and for me this will be easier to raise the lights each day.

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are you looking for something like what I'm doing. 80 degrees on the surface of the tube. verified by my digital laser thermometer. I have other pics if anyones interested
http://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=10046&pictureid=190889

sorry Im figuring out how to attach images hope this works

i still think that glass, perspex, pvc clear tubes, if they are thick enough will be able to have 26w cfl resting on its surface and wont melt. im going to try find a tube like this and try it !!! will post results if i can track this down.