Hey guys, I've been a long time reader, just finally came into an issue that I'd like to post about and get a clear cut answer rather than taking bits and peices of threads to make my own answer haha.
I have a small box I built for 3-4 plants. It's 3ft wide 3 ft deep 3ft tall. I have been using floro setups thusfar, but the problem I'm having is using 20 CFL the heat is uncontrollable, on my budget. I WANT to switch to HID.
My question is does the top of my box HAVE to be enclosed? As in could I mount an HPS light 2-3ft above my plants and just have it shne on them with no roof? Or would I lose a ton of lumens by not having it covered? The reason I don't want ot cover it is heat of course. I figure if I just hung it and let it blast down I could throw a fan on it and call it good. I'd imagine I'd need to cover my windows because of the ominus 'glow' emitting from the room, but would I just lose entirely too many lumens?
Thanks alot in advance, sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to be detailed.
I have a small box I built for 3-4 plants. It's 3ft wide 3 ft deep 3ft tall. I have been using floro setups thusfar, but the problem I'm having is using 20 CFL the heat is uncontrollable, on my budget. I WANT to switch to HID.
My question is does the top of my box HAVE to be enclosed? As in could I mount an HPS light 2-3ft above my plants and just have it shne on them with no roof? Or would I lose a ton of lumens by not having it covered? The reason I don't want ot cover it is heat of course. I figure if I just hung it and let it blast down I could throw a fan on it and call it good. I'd imagine I'd need to cover my windows because of the ominus 'glow' emitting from the room, but would I just lose entirely too many lumens?
Thanks alot in advance, sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to be detailed.