actually, the quality of the glass sucks nowadays..there's a HUGE difference between Boron silicate and Duran Schott glassget rid of whole thing . cooltubes suck. cooltubes are a last resort
actually, the quality of the glass sucks nowadays..there's a HUGE difference between Boron silicate and Duran Schott glass
Could'nt agree more flat9, the only way I'm gonna know for sure is try n see for myself, I've also heard that keeping a hps bulb too cool reduces performance also ? goodluckThe consensus around here seems to be that cool tubes "suck," but I don't know if actually anyone has done a very reasoned analysis on this point. Here are some of the factors:
-- What percentage of PAR is lost through a cool tube vs. bare bulb?
-- What does said percentage equate to in terms of watts?
-- How many extra watts do you have to add to your environment to cool it w/ bare bulbs as opposed to using cool tubes? Think in terms of A/C, more powerful extraction fans, etc.
-- Could the loss in PAR in using a cool tube be made up for (and perhaps then some?) by adding more light yet avoiding the need to use active cooling (such as A/C, active air intake, etc.) or more powerful passive cooling (more powerful extraction fans w/ much higher CFM)?
-- How do all of these factors change w.r.t. grow space size?
It is not clear to me from reading these forums that anyone has actually done a reasoned analysis with all of these factors included. These factors also may not scale linearly (i.e., twice the watts may not necessarily need twice the BTUs in an A/C if the grow room sizes are different, etc.). Not a knock on people in this forum -- that is a rather complicated question to answer!
It's something I really want to figure it out! It'd be nice to know exactly how much PAR is lost through each kind of cool tube so we can figure it out. And has been stated, sometimes cool tubes are the only feasible way to cool your room if you've got issues with heat and/or power constraints. Lots of variables...
actually, the quality of the glass sucks nowadays..there's a HUGE difference between Boron silicate and Duran Schott glass
whats the good one and how would you tell the difference if you were in a shop?