Updated old school w/pics

I just completed a dual foci vented parabolic hood that will be running 1K HPS and .4K CMH last night and am beginning the second today I am taking pics and will post the room build, from ventilated ballast shelf , remote ignitors and dual bulb ventilated parabolics. System is designed on a budget and is capable of running CMH and HPS separate or together. 2.8K over 48ft2 for 58.3W/Ft2 . ventilating an old school parabolic makes it run cool enough to touch the ceramic mogul fixture w/o burn and really keeps things cooler than A/C. I am excited by the expected performance of 1k of penetration and .4K of spectral goodness for my next round.

I will post up more pics tonight. Pretty damn happy with the hoods and the ballast wiring is about ten times neater than when I cracked their cases. Vent system keeps the ballasts barely warm to the touch and having all four ballasts in one "unit" makes servicing components very easy.
More later after I make the second hood and button up the room.
So I am being lazy this AM cause my fingers are stiff as hell fro wiring and metal work so I am posting this part way done batch of pics
First is the feed to timer and wiring out done in 6g oven cable
next is dual out dryer plugs one feeds the CMH 400's and one feeds the 1K's
this is a closer look at the wire into the ballasts the 400's are linked to the dryer distribution block and the 1K's are linked to a dual throw 20amp breaker.
The dryer block is designed to handle 4K and everything is individually grounded including the shelf unit itself
This is the complete 2.8K shelf 400's on left 1K's on right. yellow romex is 14/3 with red to ignitor and running 1K's, white is 16/3 red to ignitor and running 400's











Next is some semi crappy shots of a siamesed parabolic with ventilation
First shows the slight elongation but overall professional look to the hood
Another shot of the exterior note the hood mount of the 400w ignitor. It is rated for a 2' strike so have mounted it at ~6".
The next shows the remote ignitors for the 1K's they are rated at 10'strike so are mounted at 5' from bulb.
Close mounting of Ignitor to bulb is much easier on both pieces as less resistance must be overcome for the arc to strike.
Last is a pic of the finished underside of the hood with bulbs. Note the original focal point is retained for maximum performance. while adequate space between the bulbs allows good cooling.







More pics as I button up the room of the ventilation/carbon filter and clone closet
WR

.

i miss my parabolics. good job. i got my best yields ever using parabolics but heat became an issue when i moved.i want to switch back someday.now you got me thinking and thats dangerous LOL. great work

Nice job man... really looking forward to this

So pretty much have everything as I want it for now. I added a second timer series to the first to run staggered times for the HPS and the CMH. I am running an 18hr veg at this point over new clones and some old moms with a 3hr lead in/lead out on just CMH to 12hr combined .8K CMH/2K HPS



temps are consistant @ 70-72 CMH/ 82-85 combined with vented parabolics



This is a pic from sitting on the floor looking into the canopy, note the nice gold white color even this crappy old cam pics up



I have had the older moms under the CMH @ 24hr for about a week priot to my clones being ready and saw incredible growth as the plants accustomed to the new light.

I think having the ability to cut electicity during veg due to the efficiency of CMH w/o any loss of production is awesome, in fact I am far happier with one .4k CMH than a standard 1k MH for results in veg. I do however still believe using the 1k HPS during flower for shear penetration power(W/ft2) with the spectral addition of CMH will be obviously more productive just from the greatly increased vegetative response seen so far.
Gear is running great with ballast temps remaining only warm to the touch, lamp J/B tops are room temp and the underside of the hood I can hold the ceramic mogul in my fingers after a ten hr dual bulb burn as well as hold the bottom of the CMH WHILE BURNING! My vent ducting is toasty but not over hot in all it works great. All room venting is via vented ballast shelf or hoods so all odors get heat zapped prior to hitting a 12" bed of charcoal filter before hitting the furnace inlet and heats my home during winter, then in summer hits a heat exchanger to keep the spa warm.
Main points are
1 next to no alteration to rented home
2 heat from grow is an asset not a problem
3 modular equipment for moving ease
4 efficient equipment that is durable and reliable
5 Adequate usable light in a better spectral distribution
6 Easily done by anyone competent with ballast service and electrical skill
7 whole project if taken at once is two days tops with the design work.
8 Equipment will now come down in modules in less than 20 minutes and can go right back up in a couple hrs figuring intakes and exhausts
9 2.8k is only a blip on the meter but will pump 3.25 lb in 75days using only HPS.( CMH may bring this up)
10 Making your own gear is really cool for a geezer who was a home de-pot grow gear inventor from before all the new gear was even a dream.



Better than stock, eh?
WR

PS made my first parabolic from a cardboard template and roofing tin painted flat white for a 1k MH scavenged from a warehouse as there were no gear retailers back then...LOL

whiterasta said:

Click to expand...

Damn dude, hard core beauty.

.

Hey BB looks way cool, i really like your hood with the dual lamps and that your venting the room through it and the ballast area. Very inventive and green of you to reuse the heat for house and spa.

It would be great if you would give a little more color (detail)on your venting hood and which brand/make of 1K watt HPS and 400 watt CMH lamps?

hey rasta, great job on the reflector
and the coverage looks sweet. I like parabolics
a lot. Very little shadowing, more uniform light.

I have 2 30" reflectors ; maybe I'll try your design.

thanks.

Awsome idea!

great work on the vented parabolic reflector!!!

great work on the vented parabolic reflector!!!

whiterasta great work and attention to detail !!!! did you assemble this from 2 hoods or did you build it out from scratch? any details you could provide about the material, riveting, sizing for the proper reflectivity or or heck even plans would be greatly appreciated (thanks in advance for the info).

Also how close could you get this to the tops with that setup?

thx again Good work!!!

duh I read the post and saw that you "siamesed" the reflector out of a ready built hood

WR, props man. your grow shows more balls than most Ive seen, and it proves that you dont have to buy a bunch of bs to get fire results. I wanted to personally thank you for the remote ignitor idea.

If I may share without trolling, I have 4 x 400w cmhs (sometimes 3cmh/2hps) in a 3' deep x 6' long x 8' high closet, (built a 3x6 shelf), 2 ballasts safely mounted in a (free) transformer metal can in the attic, the other two mounted in the lower chamber. Ive got the ignitors mounted on each level, and i mylar'd the whole thing ceiling down excluding the floors, so no reflectors. I stapled 4mm contractor bags on the shelf, and 3in up the wall.

I am running perpertual sog, the top chamber all cmh for first half of flower, then they finish out in the bottom with half cmh/half HPS, beginning their journey on the cmh side and rotating over to finish out in hps.

I am now thinking of incorporating a hot water heater timer I have like youve done above, I already run all of this off of 10 awg run directly to my 240v dryer plug.

My question is, if I may in your thread, I was told by an old timer 240 is more efficient for these ballasts than 120, and while I dont believe it, I am wired for 240. What is your opinion, it seems it would simply be half the current but I'm no electrician.

This would have never been possible without your instruction on custom wiring and magnetic kits, which I now prefer over my digi .6ks. i am now pulling an avg of just shy of an OUNCE every DAY out of a standard sized closet! Thanks again for the spark of motivation and instruction!