building a cfl fixture

I saw somewhere on the internet that someone made a cfl fixture out of a 5' x 8" section of duct work and I was thinking about doing the same. His housed 24 lights. I'm looking at doing one but it would be about 3' long. It is going to be for about 6 plants. I was wondering how many cfl's and what watt they should be. Any help would be greatly appreciated

anyone have any ideas at all?

What I think of as ductwork isn't that reflective, not as much as white paint. As for the cfls, using Y adapters allows you to have 2 at each socket and at an angle. I'd use 42w. What I don't like about these fixtures is that they can only (or usually) be used on top, and they take up a lot of space overhead. One big advantage of cfls is how they can be moved around and positioned. I've gone to using t5s overhead, which takes only a couple inches, and the cfls on the sides.

I think maybe I saw the same design you're referring to, if so that guy had a terrible design..was he a cocky electrician? The hood that he made looked really pretty, but it was basically pointless because of the huge gap between the bulbs and the surface of the hood, as well as the angle the lights were mounted. He did a great job wiring it and building it, but the design was all wrong. I think heating venting works great for a reflector but only if applied properly. You'd be much better off with 2 rows of 6" duct placed side by side with single rows of horizontally placed bulbs lined up inside the "tubes" as close as possible to the top of the reflector, maybe even touching it, using it as a heat sink. You want the light foot print of your bulbs to somewhat match the shape of your reflector to get the most out of it... Use probably 26 or 42w bulbs.

Also I agree with Illegal that painting it white would be better then the unpolished aluminum.