Air cooled reflector testing with Digital footcandle meter

[Ganja Guerilla]

The pl and sun gro are in use now and will test them in 6 weeks unless I find another hood. I will check and see what I can find tmw.

I can wait... I'm in no hurry, still buying equipment so I have a few months to go before I need to decide on reflectors.

Coincidentally does anyone know of any other hoods that allow for air cooling from the top of the reflector like the Sun Gro? I want to run CMH lamps without glass but still want to pull air through the hood with a small axial fan mounted on top where a flange would mount.

Thanks for the great thread!
GG

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

pico, have you moved yet? If so, I can loan you my Daystar AC.

That PL AC hood looks interesting, and I'm sure does a nice job of spreading light but all that turbulence... more than a few lights would cause a lot of drag and loss of velocity / pressure in the duct system.

your so right, looks like the worlds worst design.... might work if justing using one, maybe two... probably not even as effective as a daystar at heat removal.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

I can wait... I'm in no hurry, still buying equipment so I have a few months to go before I need to decide on reflectors.

Coincidentally does anyone know of any other hoods that allow for air cooling from the top of the reflector like the Sun Gro? I want to run CMH lamps without glass but still want to pull air through the hood with a small axial fan mounted on top where a flange would mount.

Thanks for the great thread!
GG

i had an old HF radiant that had 4" on the sides/top/back....good luck

 

[Ganja Guerilla]

i had an old HF radiant that had 4" on the sides/top/back....good luck

Cheers!

 

[greenisgold]

I can wait... I'm in no hurry, still buying equipment so I have a few months to go before I need to decide on reflectors.

Coincidentally does anyone know of any other hoods that allow for air cooling from the top of the reflector like the Sun Gro? I want to run CMH lamps without glass but still want to pull air through the hood with a small axial fan mounted on top where a flange would mount.

Thanks for the great thread!
GG

Why not get a hood that is not air-cooled and cut your own hole? I did this but instead of cutting a hole for cooling I cut one at the opposite side of a super sun reflector and monted another fixture. I now run 2 bulbs, tip to tip in one fixture.
Good luck.

 

[darthvapor]

ganja the daystar gives you the ability to run with glass or without and has provisions for vents on the sides and top.




cats love hid light. Must have been like jamaica for them

 

[Ganja Guerilla]

Why not get a hood that is not air-cooled and cut your own hole? I did this but instead of cutting a hole for cooling I cut one at the opposite side of a super sun reflector and monted another fixture. I now run 2 bulbs, tip to tip in one fixture.
Good luck.

I've looked at a few non cooled hoods and they either don't use a reflective insert, meaning I would need to cut the reflective surface, or if they do it doesn't allow for any air movement around the insert. I know I could just use a fan blowing up into the hood but I would like to take advantage of physics and allow the heat to rise away from the plants.

I like the idea of two lamps in a single reflector, I was eye balling the super spectrum hoods for that reason before I started to consider CMH. Like everything I've been planning it seems to change from week to week, like now I'm thinking of going with a Darkroom DR240w instead of building a PVC and poly tent. Two months ago I would have said DWC... now it's changed to Coco, the only constant is change...

Thanks for the input.
GG

 

[Ganja Guerilla]

ganja the daystar gives you the ability to run with glass or without and has provisions for vents on the sides and top.

Thanks! In your estimation which reflector do you think would perform better, the daystar or the sun gro? K+ to ya...

 

[greenisgold]

I've looked at a few non cooled hoods and they either don't use a reflective insert, meaning I would need to cut the reflective surface, or if they do it doesn't allow for any air movement around the insert. I know I could just use a fan blowing up into the hood but I would like to take advantage of physics and allow the heat to rise away from the plants.

I like the idea of two lamps in a single reflector, I was eye balling the super spectrum hoods for that reason before I started to consider CMH. Like everything I've been planning it seems to change from week to week, like now I'm thinking of going with a Darkroom DR240w instead of building a PVC and poly tent. Two months ago I would have said DWC... now it's changed to Coco, the only constant is change...

Thanks for the input.
GG

I'm also running cmh bulbs as well-just started. My fixture has a 400 on one side and a 250 on the other. I also have a mover. These bulbs run pretty damn cool. I also mounted a heavy duty PC fan on one side of the reflector. It blows right under the bulbs and I'm about 6" above the plants now. It also blows on the plants as well.
Good luck.

 

[darthvapor]

can somebody please make a graph for those numbers? I dont have excel and dont know how to use the prog either. Well gonna go to the hydro shop and see what I can get to test next...hopefully the super sun 2

 

[Guest]

I tried to glance at all the pages in thsi thread to see if anyone touched on this and didn't see it, so if my idea has already been discussed, I apologize for a duplicate.

I realize that many are very concerned about what readings these particular lights and reflectors produce. And this is some great info to use. But, I think we may be able to get a bit more from all this data.

The secret to lighting, is to use what it gives in the most efficient manner. And we can clearly see that when plotted out, there are some great differences in the concentration of light in different areas of the patch.
This is shown wonderfully by the graphs that pinappaloupe and Hurricane provided.

Now let's take a close look at the graphs....

Pick a plot, any plot from any light, and it will be similar shape. Basically an upside down bowl.
Now, imagine the canopy controlled by a SCROG or similar method, that was in the shape of this inverted bowl. In theory, I think we could take whatever light we have, take plotted readings as has been done here, and construct our growing platform to fit the contour of the plot pattern.

I may be wrong, but wouldn't this method provide us with the best usability of the light? I mean, if we did construct our growing platform as such, rather than a flat plane, wouldn't we be able to see numbers being close no matter where the reading was taken within the plot area.

Basically what I'm saying is, that we can take the readings as has been done here, and then use that data to tell us exactly the contour our SCROG should have to best use the light. This way no matter what light set-up you have, you can make the best of it. And wouldn't this provide us with a very even canopy, in theory at least?

I dunno, maybe I aint lookin at this the right way? (shrug)

(LOL...someone will try to coin the term; "BSCROG")

 

[Ganja Guerilla]

can somebody please make a graph for those numbers? I dont have excel and dont know how to use the prog either. Well gonna go to the hydro shop and see what I can get to test next...hopefully the super sun 2

I can do those in a day or two, I need to find my office discs I don't have excel installed on my laptop and my desktop is in about about 60 pieces right now...

 

[BlindDate]

Pick a plot, any plot from any light, and it will be similar shape. Basically an upside down bowl.
Now, imagine the canopy controlled by a SCROG or similar method, that was in the shape of this inverted bowl. In theory, I think we could take whatever light we have, take plotted readings as has been done here, and construct our growing platform to fit the contour of the plot pattern.

Exactly, except has anyone put up reflective side walls outside the grid to see if that does not flatten the bowl? Maybe it has already been addressed? I'm not going to read 18 pages.

 

[fulltimehuman]

you could theoretically even out the light but you would be reducing overall distance from the middle area of the bulb, the footprint is tapered, so the light isn't even so close. in other words you would have to sacrifice maximum lumens by lowering the distance of the middle but not raise the sides to even it out as you can't raise the sides beyond the tapered angle of the most exposed light, I know thats not proper terminology but you may see what i mean.I believe the diffusers may be a better way of evenly distributing light across the reflector and thus footprint, not so mid-area hot-spotting. Good thread, I read all 18 pages.

 

[hurricane]

Fairly ripped putting these together. Cant help but think could have done something better with the scale, suggestions welcome.

Hurricane

 

[Guest]

Just seems to me that this fits in perfectly with why parabolic scrogs are so successful.
The trick would be to get the most harvest by manipulating the canopy, as is done with the basic flat scrog. But to gain extra exposure to a larger percentage of bud space, with the least amount of shading by other plants possible, the canopy should follow the exact shape of the parabolic arc that the light creates.

If this is indeed the case, and contouring the scrog to fit the light pattern is the optimum, the perfect scrog should give the same numbers at every tested spot on the patch.
It just seems to me that having any area of the scrog getting a higher concentration of light can only result in larger buds shading others.

THink of it this way...we make the least amount of shadow when the sun is at it's highest point (high noon), when we are perpendicular to it. The more out of perpendicular we are to the sun's parabolic arc, the more shade we create.
If the earth didn't move, and were shaped in an exact inverse of the suns parabolic arc (a bowl scrog), we would all be making no shadow, and casting none on our fellow mates, because we would all be seeing the high noon effects no matter where we were, or what time of day it was.

So, if our buds are always perpendicular to the light arc, they will all get equal amounts of light, and should produce nearly exact buds. The moment any of the buds go out of perpendicular with the light arc, they will not only receive less light, but they will also stand a chance of being shaded by other buds.
I just can't think that the buds getting the very rich light in the middle of a flat scrog, are going to make up for the losses that their shade, (and the poor layout of the canopy and light distribution) create.

BlindDate has brought up yet another good point to also consider.

 

[BlindDate]

Since most people will have reflective material around the perimeter of the grow footprint, I still can't help thinking that this will have an "evening" effect. Again...Has anyone tested this?

 

[terran2]

Lumatek 750wt digi

Lumatek 750wt digi

question for the thread (good info here )


need to scale back on amp draw from 1000s and have been getting some mixed reviews on the lumatek 750watt digi ysytems . One limitation seems to be in the spectrum dept as seems there's only a limited bulb selection manufactured for this wattage .

Anyone here can give some informed opinions on the 750 wt systems?

tia

;o)

t2

 

[clowntown]

Since most people will have reflective material around the perimeter of the grow footprint, I still can't help thinking that this will have an "evening" effect. Again...Has anyone tested this?

Yeah, that's what knna was saying about the black box.

 

[darthvapor]

I like using linear light movers to even out the canopy and even out production all around the cola. I just tested the super sun with glass and without but Ill post it tmw.