DIY 400W CFL hood w/ fan hookup

What's up fellow growers, I'm new around here and am looking to find ways to contribute, so i figured I'd start by sharing my light design

I recently decided to build my own CFL hood with a fan hookup because my 400W HPS was just way too hot for my small flowering closet, especially in the summer....

-It measures approx. 24in long x 18in wide x 6in deep


-12 ceramic light fixtures parallel wired




-Plywood top w/ 4in hole for fan ducting




The best part about this light is that grow room heat and light spectrum are both adjustable by simply swapping cfl bulbs. I mix and match with 26w blues and 42w reds until i get the maximum amount of lumens possible while still maintaining a fairly low room heat.

3 favorite combos:

12 x 26W blues (veg) = 312W, 20,400 Lumens

6 x 26W blues and 6 x 42w reds (summer flowering) = 408W, 26,400 Lumens

12 x 42W red (Winter flowering) = 504W, 32,400 Lumens

Thanks for stoppin in
Lisdexik

Bump

Kali Mist

why so much construction for cfl's ? I like the idea of a fan though. I'm about to put together one of those diy reflector / light sock using a dryer hood metal. Sure you have seen those. Point is I have a 2 socket light for it , and just ordered 2 "equal to" 240W Full Spectrum bulbs. I think they are 105W's each. Heat shouldn't be too bad with that combo.

But with the wood I would think the humidity and heat would deteriorate the box over time. Maybe I'm wrong.

yo were building this in march man for sure im gonna go get a black curtain and we can make it so half is hydro flowering and half the closet is veg soil and clones i gotta post some pics man

I have thought about building something like this a couple times, but with a glass shield and two vents - one in one out for a cooltube setup. Sidemounting the vents works better in this case.

One thing I do have to ask though is if you are running 400w why not CMH? Or even PL-Ls? Cheaper and more efficient... The coil CFLs drop off a lot of light because of their shape.

looks just like the inside of my dresser cab! = looks good!

thats awesome.
where do you get those sockets?

Thanks for the replies guys

Building this light was not that much work... It took me about 4 hrs start to finish

I run 400W of CFLs as opposed to CMH or HPS because I live in an apartment and the summers here are in the mid 90's for 4 months. I have a 400W HPS, I attempted to run it, but between the small space and the hot summers, it is impossible to keep temps down.

I bought the ceramic sockets at ACE, they're about $4 a pop though....

Lisdexik