People wish they could have as broad of patents. In reality they are quite specific, allowing for competition to still occur in the invention field. I wish I could fund this idea. I might try using KickStarter for this idea, after I look more into it. I bet tons of people on this site would support the idea.
Funny you should mention your dad being a carpenter. Mine was too, he used to specialize in finish carpentry and custom cabinets. When I was a kid, I went to help him on a lot of his jobs during the summer. I was the gopher for his crew when they wrapped up the original build on the Grill on Hollywood at the Hollywood and Highland Center. When he started running a small framing crew, then I got to work on that during the summers. In hindsight, I was horribly underpaid; I was making $100 a house that we finished (Though, when you're part of a 4 man crew that's knocking out 2 houses a month; that's not shabby for a 13yo.). Thanks to him, I can spot a bad joint in some floor moulding from across the room; he's also the reason I feel constantly ashamed of all my woodworking. Those were some fun times, though. Even after I got out of the Marines, I got drawn back into contracting. There's something about it; there's a special pride in looking at something and saying "Fuck yeah, I built that.".
It's the curse of creating something; there's always something you could have done better. It's the same for me. I always see where I screwed up. When I finished hanging some crown moulding for my roommate's in-laws; I spent the rest of the day noticing all the flaws. On the other hand, everyone else has thought it looks awesome. At a certain point you have to think "Well, everyone else thinks it looks good.", but you can't forget that you've seen it done better. It's that balance between practicality and perfectionism.
It is the same with art. People praise me and all I see is where I could of done better.
i have one of those box fans mounted on the back of my GH. my plan is to build a little cage of sorts that hangs on cleats for the dark hours. the cage basically hangs over the length of the fan and angles away allowing for the fan to keep pushing air out of the GH, while blocking light through a simple 90 degree bend.
less talk more advice.
just need to trim the corners so the plastic will lie flat, and staple some scraps of the black sheeting to the small boards that i use to plug the cracks in the roof and we should be in business.
i guess what's important is not so much that it is pitch black, but that it is dark enough and consistently timed.
My theory is that it's relative brightness and exposure time. My soil garden was right in line with the kitchen windows and the back porch light; they didn't stop flowering either. My light-dep was irregular as hell though. I had a bad habit of forgetting to take them in and put them back out on time. So they had a sporadic light schedule. Then they'd go into a shed full of light leaks, but with all of the light having to come through cracks and diffuse.
keeping that regular schedule is essential. and if i ever miss my lights off time, i make sure to wait 12 hours to turn them on again.
Given my experience before, I'd say you won't wreck anything by missing the times a collective week or so. That's about the times I shot for.
i get up at about 10 am every morning to turn off my lights and feed my chickens. if the chickens aren't squawking, which happens often, i am liable to miss lights off. happens plenty during every cycle, never seen anything weird happen because of it.