Im planning on building a new type of lighting system i havent seen for sale, would like some input. I know this is going to sound ghetto but seriously. I want to combine air cooling, wind sway and light movement effects all in one package. The quantum board idea of spreading light out and getting it to penetrate canopy. I have several novel ideas here. First of all, the frame of the system will be a box fan. It will be an enormous amount of air flow, like 1200cfm, in a 3x3, the plant will be swaying like thunderstorm. I want to mount small qb96s to each corner on a low profile aluminium plate. 240w driver. Novel idea two, in the middle i would like a uv light. Considering many options here, i had to pick the least worst. Im going to mount a modified bug zapper onto it. This kills bugs and gives UV light. Box fan is 20x20. The qb96 are 4x3. The bug zapper lm looking at are about 12 inch bulbs. The plan will be to remove the top off the grow tent to maximize the airflow, the air will push down, and out of the mesh screen in the bottom sides. Due to the top being removed, the bug zapper will come in handy. The grow would have to be a dwc or maybe some kind of new system in order to maintain the vpd. The goal is get the fastest growth at the highest efficiency and yield. 4 plants. My goal for this is to be in 500-550g range while using less than 350w. 1.4-1.6gpw 57gpsqft. Another thing to consider is that your high efficiency 6inch fans, 55$, less than 400CFM and can use up to 60 watts. 6.6 cfmpw. The cheapest $15 box fans are doing 1300cfm at 87 watts. Thats 15cfmpw. More than twice as efficient. One even claims 2400cfm at 55W. 43cfmpw. More than 6x more efficient. The main problem will be keeping up the vpd and leaf temperature. This is planned for an area of hot weather though. I would also like to accomplish this yield in under 90 days from cloning. Thanks.
3x3 lighting plan
- Thread starter Jqwerty1
- Start date
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
It's metal conductor screens that arc when something is close enough between them that zaps bugs. The light simply just draws them in.
Yeah, i get that. But its a simple cheap plug and play UV light, that also kills bugs. Trying to find low powered and a good profile fit for small grows is almost impossible. Ive wanted to mix some in my 2x2 but theres now way until HLG put sthem on the boards with some new fancy leds. Im pretty weary of the efficacy of UV leds on the market today. I wanted something more broad spectrum flourescent. The only options you really get are reptile CFLs. I dont like the wastefulness of CFLs, the need for lamp sockets. Its just a pain in the ass to mount and dont get a lot out of it. With a bug zapper, i would just need to run some thin wire between the two frames. I uses to have bad, bud rot problems until i begin killing all the gnats and stuff. I started with soil in my grow room amd got a bad bag and shit got funky real quick. Went soilless, but i still had bugs for a while, i figured they were transferring mold.spores into my bud when they landed on them. I did glue traps for a while but i figured in the end a bug zapper would be better so i put one on my tent and thats when i got the idea. A 12-24 inch T8? Tube Style lamp would be perfect but theyre pretty hard to come by these days, they all got replaced with LED.
pulpoinspace
Well-Known Member
Reptile basics.com sells 12% and 14% uvb t5ho tubes they work great for boosting trich production
growingforfun
Well-Known Member
Box fans burn out SUPER fast when faced with almost any restriction of air in front of them, or behind. I tried making a ghetto carbon filter in the past by getting a furnace carbon filter ( they easily let air through ) removing the screen from the fan so it let's more air through, and putting one on the fan.
The fan worked for less than a day.
For a example just remove the plastic from the fans and notice how much more air flows, and those holes are giant and hardly restrict anything at all, but it still puts stress on the fan.
I dont think it will work out. Plus those fans draw like 120 watts. Your light will QUICKLY turn into a power sucker that is bad at multiple jobs instead of being good at a single job.
The fan worked for less than a day.
For a example just remove the plastic from the fans and notice how much more air flows, and those holes are giant and hardly restrict anything at all, but it still puts stress on the fan.
I dont think it will work out. Plus those fans draw like 120 watts. Your light will QUICKLY turn into a power sucker that is bad at multiple jobs instead of being good at a single job.
a mongo frog
Well-Known Member
What does this mean?