Check it- 420w CFL- Air Cooled- SCROG/SOG Fixture Design

I was playing around on Google sketch-up (I suck) But I came up with this 420w SCROG/SOG fixture idea. It is in the very beginning stages of design so i cant give exact specs, but I can give approximate numbers.
I am gonna build this fo sho, anyways here are the tenative numbers and pics of the 3d model

Holds 10- 42w CFLS:
About 420w and 27,000 - 30,000 lumens

Should be about 24"x20"x6" (wXdXh)

Uses 3 80cfm CPU fans sucking air through the air filter, blows through the light fixture, and then exhaust's out of box.

This should keep the box cool and the lights cool as well. Plants should be fine touching glass panel on the bottom, which means you can always have your lights right on your plants!

This fixture is designed to live in a 3sqf approximate area, and would provide just about 10,000 lumens per sqf.

Pics:
1. View from exhaust side
2. View from exhaust side zoomed in
3. View from bottom
4. View from top

interesting.....let us know how it goes.

i will, I probably wont build it until my current round of plants get done flowering and the ones that are veggin right now go into the flower cab

oh this is a flower only light, but could be used for veg just as well i guess

Lol I was concerned with a lack of replies, then I realized its 3 am, I need to learn to sleep at night

Oh and the reason I call this a scrog/sog light is that you keep a even canopy and that makes the intensity of cfls a non issue, because penetration isnt really an issue

If this fixture is right on the plants they are getting around 28000 Lumens

If a 400w HPS is 8-9 Inches away from the plants they are getting around 28000 lumens

Now why I want the cfl fixture over the HPS? Spectrum, this fixture puts out more prime spectrum light for flowering than the HPS
(HPS spikes at 2200k and CFL spike at 2700k, basically the best flowering spectrums are 2300k-2450k and 2600K - 3100K)
*EDIT* I thought I should back this up more... this is a portion of an article from Skunk Magazine, from the "Ask Ed" feature by Ed Rosenthal:

"Plants use mostly red and blue light. Yellow and green light is of little use to them, so light that is emitted in these spectrums is wasted energy. Most of the light emitted by HPS lamps is in the yellow spectrum. Only a small amount of the emitted light is is in the orange or red spectrums, which plants use efficiently. Warm white fluorescents (2700 Kelvin) emit a greater portion in the red and orange sectors.
Although fluorescents produce only about 75% of the light per watt that the HPS does, the amount of light usable by the plant is equal or probably higher with the fluorescents."

Next round of flowering is gonna a scrog using this fixture and DWC, I wonder if I can hit 1g per watt with this setup
(yes I know that is 14.81 ounces, i be keeding about getting that in one harvest, that would be four 3.7 ounce plants)

Oh and I do NOT want to argue about HID vs. CFL or about stacking lumens or anything, If you came to this thread just to argue, save you and I both the frustration and just leave without posting...

sup bro, im a cfl guy to the max i am currently doing a grow and i am using just cfls, but i gotta argue with this. if i remember right hps do very good for flowering because they emmit 1800k spectrums which is a deep red orange. too bad there is no cfl made that gets lower then 2700k, because if there was it would work wonders for flowering compared to the 2700k bulbs

glockdoc said:

sup bro, im a cfl guy to the max i am currently doing a grow and i am using just cfls, but i gotta argue with this. if i remember right hps do very good for flowering because they emmit 1800k spectrums which is a deep red orange. too bad there is no cfl made that gets lower then 2700k, because if there was it would work wonders for flowering compared to the 2700k bulbs

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actually the best area for flowering is the 2650K-3100K, this is where all the red and orange is, 2300k - is mostly yellow an of not of much use to the plants during flowering, im not trying to argue or be a dick or anything, but i have done tons of research and got this answer everytime, but still, thanks for the input dude, oh and they make 2500k CFL's, but nobody uses them cause 2700 is better (other peoples opinions who have tried 2500k's not mine)

To the people who view this page an dont reply, Please do, there is a good chance that i forgot something or one of you guys can give me advice, so if its not too much lol please give me your input!

Wow only one person in the entire cfl growing community has a thought on this? i posted this in hopes of getting feedback so i can improve the design, c'mon someone has to have an opinion, concern, doubt, suggestion, or improvements, it wont take too long to respond, and very little effort, I promise *lazy ass stoners* ha ha jk

lol, it takes alot to get their attention sometimes, say something to piss em off, that'll usually get some responses.lol. nah, but seriously, its a good idea and all but most would just rather get an hps and be done with it. threads w/o fighting in em dont live very long alot of times. figured i'd bump this thread back up to the top for ya, do you plan on hooking em all up w/the ballast wiring or having like a power strip or something in there? if ya had a power strip maybe you could switcch the spectrums and use it for veg and flower. it looks good, have you started building it yet? i'm subbed and will be watching, good luck bro, just dont kill yourself making it.

A 400 watt HPS would put out a lot more lumens, use less watts, have more penetration, and have more coverage. If that isn't enough reason to get a 400 watt HPS instead I don't know what is
Still a nice design though

tom__420 said:

A 400 watt HPS would put out a lot more lumens, use less watts, have more penetration, and have more coverage. If that isn't enough reason to get a 400 watt HPS instead I don't know what is
Still a nice design though

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It is NOT enough reason for me, and I will tell you why (in a friendly fashion)

To put out the same amount of lumens the hps would hafta be just short of 8 inches from the plants, where as the cfls would be right on them and still way cheaper to cool, all while providing a BETTER spectrum for flowering. using just 20 more watts (and a ton less money) I can make these plants yield as if they were under a HPS minus the dense buds, but also, i can put some 6500k's in there as a BLUE spectrum brings thc up to full potency (a metal halide in flower will produce less bud than a hps, but better buds cause of the spectrum) here I can have the best of both worlds, and using it for scrog penetration dont mean anything, making this fixture a very very good alternative for small scrogs

I do think HPS is better for commercial grows and anything over 600 watts, but for lower wattage personal grows, CFL's Own

darkdestruction420 said:

lol, it takes alot to get their attention sometimes, say something to piss em off, that'll usually get some responses.lol. nah, but seriously, its a good idea and all but most would just rather get an hps and be done with it. threads w/o fighting in em dont live very long alot of times. figured i'd bump this thread back up to the top for ya, do you plan on hooking em all up w/the ballast wiring or having like a power strip or something in there? if ya had a power strip maybe you could switcch the spectrums and use it for veg and flower. it looks good, have you started building it yet? i'm subbed and will be watching, good luck bro, just dont kill yourself making it.

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well I do slow vegging cause I veg the entire time the other group of plants are in flower, so i give them way less light so that they wont out grow the flower box when the time comes, so I will only be using this for Flowering

I am gonna hard wire it, there will only be one visible wire and that will be the main power cord, If i am gonna do it im gonna do it right

Havent started building it yet, waiting till the next batch go into flower in 6-7 weeks when the current batch finishs

thanks for the bump and the support dude, and yeah, but I could get this thread huge if I entitled it "HPS ARE FAGGY" but im not a militant lol, I love and support my cfl's for small scale personal grows, but would never suggest them for a big commercial grow, i say dont touch the HPS until your flowering room is 5sqf or bigger, and then go to the 600 and forget all about 250's and 400's

I'm sorry man but have you ever cooled a 400 watt HPS
What about 400 watts of CFL?
400 watts will put out the same amount of heat regardless of the light
CFL's have the misconception of being cooler because they are usually put all around the plant. That means that 400 watts is scattered over the whole room. A 400 watt HPS has the all that heat coming from one spot that is why some people think it is hotter. Do what you want man you can go ahead and use 20 more watts to get less bud quality and quantity wise

I measure the ambient heat in the room, and it is much higher with hps, I am running 296w of cfl right now, and its much cooler than my pos 250 hps was

How much of difference is it in lumens?

its about the same cause the lumens from the lamps diminish as you get farther from the plant, and the cfls can be right on the plant, and equal lumens,and cfl has a btter flower spectrum

The most lumens I could find that a 42 watt CFL will put out is 2,800: http://www.1000bulbs.com/42-Watt-Compact-Fluorescents/
So 2800 * 10 = 28,000 lumens for your light
Now the LOWEST amount of lumens I could find on a 400 watt HPS is 50,000 lumens: http://www.1000bulbs.com/400-Watt-HPS/

400 watt HPS= 50,000 lumens
420 watts of CFL= 28,000 lumens

Clearly you are making shit up and have no info to back it up. I know what I am talking about and I absolutely without a doubt in my mind know for a fact that a 400 watt HPS will outproduce 420 watts of CFL anyday of the week (using less watts might I add)
You could hang a 400 watt HPS 2.5 feet over the plants and it would still be as bright at canopy level if not brighter than your CFL setup if the CFL setup were right on the tops of the plants
If you are going to try and prove me wrong at least have some facts to back it up not just your stoned guessing

This is the last response You get as I said earlier this is not a CFL vs HPS thread, I dont Know my shit huh? A 400w hps DOES have 50,000 lumens, oh but we forgot a word, silly us, INITIAL Lumens, there we go, Yeah get that 50,000 lumens, the hps will hafta be less than an inch from the plants, CFL's Initial Lumens is the final number you work with cause you DO keep the lights with in an inch, dont come in my thread and insult my intelligence when you believe that a 400w HPS provides 50,000 Lumens at ANY distance, A 400w HPS puts out like 29,000 Lumens at like 8 Inches from your plant, and most people suggest keeping the light further away than that, which reduces the number even more, Initial Lumens do NOT reach the whole grow room....if you "knew your shit" You would be able to grasp this simple simple concept.

Better really rip into me, and get a good last word in, because this thread is for a fixture, not hps vs cfl, and I said that in the beginning, I refuse to let this thread turn into, or even participate in a stupid flame war over lights, which is what you want obviously, cause instead of using facts and numbers, you use personal attacks, well you do use numbers, the wrong ones, good day

Maybe this simple chart will help people figure this out, sorry 29,000 is at 9 inches, not 8 as i had said, but the point remains the same

A Lot of people suggest a hps be about a foot from plants, where you get all of 15,900 lumens ... yay

tom__420 said:

You could hang a 400 watt HPS 2.5 feet over the plants and it would still be as bright at canopy level if not brighter than your CFL setup if the CFL setup were right on the tops of the plants
If you are going to try and prove me wrong at least have some facts to back it up not just your stoned guessing

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Looking at this chart you are saying that 2,456 Lumens is better than 28,000

there I provided my proof to back it up