cooltube air-cooled party cup design

[smurfin'herb]

Ok i have been searching a little bit and i havent come upon this idea yet so here i am to advertise it. You lose light footprint in larger areas with cooltubes. And when using air cooled hoods, they still dont let u put them as close to the plants as cooltubes do, so you have to sacrifice when choosing,either way. So i was just wondering why no company has thought to put a cooltube cylinder inside of an air-cooled reflector and just drop the original flat glass cover. Then i though further asking myself "if you have a glass cylinder in a reflector then the light would come from the bulb, through the cooltube cylinder,bounce off the reflector and then SOME would go right back through the cylinder again and again". But i have no way to prove if that is in fact how it would go down. So the thought i had next was this; Instead of using a cooltube cylinder, if you could have a piece of borosilicate glass melted into the shape of one of those tall skinny plastic cups that you get your party drinks in on vacation, or at a concert/festival or mardi gras. They are about 2.5 feet tall and have a long skinny neck thats about 1inch in diameter and at both ends the neck opens up to about 4 in in diameter. PMme if you need a better description of the "party cup". Ha i think thats what ill call this The Party Cup Design!lol So anyway as i was saying if you could get a glass blower to shape you something like that (not a replica, but of that nature), and have both ends fit into your air-cooled slots and have the middle be skinny (where the bulb would be), but just a tad away so the bulb just fits, then that way you would reduce the light reflecting back into the cylinder because you have reduced the size of the cylinder itself! Of course if this was designed, then some kind of bulb socket would need to be made so that you could remove it and replace the bulb that way, since you would probly have a hard time getiing your hand in the tiny cylinder to unscrew the bulb! This might not let you get as close as a cooltube (or maybe it would), but definateley closer than a regular a/c hood. So let me know if u think this is a good idea or not, cuz i really wanna try it out. And if you dont understand just PM me and i will try to find a pic of "The party cup" and post it.

 

[imnotcrazy]

Tapering the glass down around the bulb will cause you to have A LOT of resistance to air flow, think about that also

 

[smurfin'herb]

ya, i thought about that too, but if you had a 6 inch opening on each end and then say like a 3 or 4 inch diameter in the middle, then you'd probably be able get away with it. It would still restrict air flow, i agree. Tests would need to be done to see just how smaller the middle can be than the ends before having too much airflow restriction. I think if u tested and tweaked it, then you would end up with a design that is an a/c hood that can be put closer to the plants than the other a/c hoods. So now you would have a better light footprint than a cooltube using this "super air-cooled hood" at almost the same distance away from the plants as the cooltube would be. Dont be afraid to hit up this thread. Does anyone have the resources to accomplish this task?

 

[NiteTiger]

I'm actually planning on just mounting a typical batwing style reflector to my cool tubes. Same effect, less money

 

[smurfin'herb]

But you would not get as well of a footprint as say a super sun 2 a/c. I thought I read that the batwing actually tested pretty bad with the light dispersal it makes. Ill try to find where i read that.

 

[clowntown]

Somewhat relevant:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=46419

If you can, get a sheet of reflective aluminum (preferably the textured ones used in reflectors, to reduce hot spots and spread light more evenly). But if not, you could build your own using a piece of sheet metal or something and painting it.

If possible, try to keep the reflective material INSIDE the glass to avoid what I call the "triple glass effect":



... since light intensity is lost through each pass of the glass. From the diameter of your tube, it doesn't look like you'll have space for the "V", but that design helps a bit as well in deflecting the light sideways so you don't lose some light that tries to reflect straight through the bulb.

These are some of the CoolTube designs commercially available:

I later found out the "V" is called a "restrike bend".

 

[smurfin'herb]

I'm actually planning on just mounting a typical batwing style reflector to my cool tubes. Same effect, less money

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=51325&page=9&pp=15&highlight=batwing+test

HERE ITS ON PAGE 9 POSTED BY PICO.

 

[smurfin'herb]

Here, I think this is mdhydro's...... http://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/15592ctducting222.jpg

 

[NiteTiger]

But you would not get as well of a footprint as say a super sun 2 a/c. I thought I read that the batwing actually tested pretty bad with the light dispersal it makes. Ill try to find where i read that.

You said it yourself - Cool tubes keep it cooler. So, while I may not be getting the perfect footprint, I'm getting a hell of a lot better footprint than without a reflector. With the reduced heat, I can snug all that light right down onto the tops

 

[smurfin'herb]

your right, you are getting a better footprint than without the reflector. But you can pick up a pebble finish cooltube with internal (inside the glass) reflector and outside flanges from mdhydro and be way better off probably. Pebble finish is what you want, it reduces hotspots. But still, cooltubes work best in smaller areas. But my idea above is for someone who has a decent amount of space and wants to get their a/c hoods closer to the plants than a normal a/c hood would allow... so that you have the option of being able to focus in on a smaller patch (like a cooltube), without having to worry about heat, or be able to have a bigger patch and great light footprint and still benefit by not even having to worry about crankin up the air conditoner as much as if you had just a regular air-cooled reflector because of the the "more cooled party cup hood design". Instead of making a sacrifice you now have both options with this all-in-one unit. lol

Also, i wanna add to my design. Since a little heat would build up outside of the party cup tube and linger in the hood you could counter it by making slits in the top inside part of your reflector (just a few little slits in precise areas to let heat rise into) and install two computer fans in the top sucking out the hot lingering air. If you dont think computer fans would survive atop a reflector then post me some suggestions.

P.S. If you made the slits small enough, then you wouldnt lose any significant amount of light. Unless you all think otherwise?

 

[pumpkin2006]

P.S. If you made the slits small enough, then you wouldnt lose any significant amount of light. Unless you all think otherwise?

Metal tape.

 

[NiteTiger]

Internally reflected is only about an eighth of an inch from what I'm talking about

Those metal flanges are basically batwings.

Oh, and the batwings are adjustable, so if I want a wide dispersal I'll pull em out, if I want it tight, I'll being them in.

I'm sure your design will work, I'm just a bit less of a perfectionist, I guess. I figure, you want a reflector on a cool tube, put a reflector on a cool tube

 

[smurfin'herb]

yup thats exactly what im doin. but instead of a regular cooltube it would be a tube wide at both ends but skinny in the middle. you know, like the shape of those lcups you get at amusement parks and stuff. Im trying to defeat the light going through the glass so much (as seen in clowntowns post above), by reducing the size of the tube in the middle and making both ends widen out so they can fit the a/c holes.