Gettin it goin.. is my lamp too hot?

Thank you everyone for all your great info and sharing... so easy to get de-railed! nature of the beast I guess.

I have a small grow box closet 2' x 4' x7' tall...lined in panda, a window behind to pipe the exhaust, 400w dimmable ballast, & HPS bulb. I'm worried this'll be too hot and melt my panda to say the least..

The reflector that came with it is the cheaper alum wing (w no lens), and none of the product documentation says how far from the ceiling the lamp needs to be, which is surprising. I'm guessing at least 12" but I'd like to know what you would suggest!

If I had a different hood, could I mount that on top of the box to save space, run cooler and still be able to seal light leaks?

My plan is to veg in this open box for a while, box has no door yet, still figuring that issue out. Will some cfls around the plants help reduce stretching caused by the HPS?

Thank you!

of course if you had an air cooled reflector it would be cooler but you should be able to rock what you have with no problems. i would park an osc fan in it. good luck and happy grow!

Small fan on one side blowing across the bulb and extractor duct at the other end worked wonders for me, and my closet is 2.5 x 3 x 6, 400w hps. After I did that top of the hood would be barely warm.