WildWoodFlower
Active Member
Greets fellow plant lovers. I decided to post this thread thinking it may save some folks the effort and time I spent in deciding what to do for lighting when I made the decision to start personal growing again. I knew I wanted some CFL's due to my limited space of 4'x3'x8' and being concerned about controlling heat. I searched the web far and wide looking for the best CFL fixtures I could find to purchase. I came across an ad for a 2000k Super CFL fixture but it was a bit costly and I didn't like the what looked to be the flimsy design and of course was worried about safety as well with it. I liked the concept of it but thought it could be better.. So I figured I would save some money, build exactly what I wanted and know myself that it was built safe and to my personal standards. I took a look around my garage looking for materials when I found several old 4 foot tube style flouro fixtures that had burnt out ballasts or simply did not work any longer. I took three of the fixtures ( Pictured Below ) and torn them down to the bare cases.
I used one of these for the center panel ( that would hold the fixtures and wiring ) and used pieces of the other two to rivet and fasten to each side of the center one to create reflector surface for the extending bulbs. I used ones I had laying around that were junk, but occasionally I have seen these type of " shop lights " new on sale for as low as $9.99 a unit so it would have cost me around $30 if I would have had to purchase the fixtures new.........
Sorry about the blurry pic
... but as you can see in the pic above how I used one unit for the center and pieces of the other two for reflector extensions as you will see in further pics how I used rivets to connect the reflector extensions to the main center piece. After I had the frame of the unit built I simply drilled holes for the sockets to be mounted and wired inside the center chassis. I purchased 10 Dual standard base light sockets that included 18 AWG pigtail wires from eBay for $30 ( Why they used 18 gauge building these sockets instead of 14 I still don't understand ) but either way they worked for what I needed.
You can better see now how the side panels were riveted onto the main base of the unit in the pic above. I wanted to be 100% safe so I bought some 14 AWG wire from my local hardware store to use for the chassis wiring from socket to socket ( 20 Bulbs running at once , I wanted make sure I was using heavy enough wire to take the heat and load )... Better safe than sorry
!!!!! After wiring it all up , I also purchased some heavy duty water proof indoor / outdoor 14 AWG power cords to power this thing up from the wall. Again I used 14-AWG because it is rated for 15 amp breaker which is what my timers, Power strips, and Circuits all are. This way if it did overheat or anything it would kick a breaker instead of melting the wire and burning my grown and house down. Once it was all wired up I placed the Top section of the middle unit back on to cover all the wires and internals. Note when I said power cords (s) ... To even be safer I ran five sockets ( 10 bulbs ) on each power cord coming in giving me two power cords to light the whole unit or I can run just one side when plants are small and do not require as much light. Next was to add some bulbs and test it out hoping for no sparks or fireworks , lol........
After testing both sides and making sure all was good I purchased several 4 pack boxes of 23 watt CFL bulbs around $50 in bulbs which was the most expensive part of this build. I bought both " Cool And Soft " spectrum bulbs so I can mix and match during veg / flower. I hung it up in the grow room, connected the timers and have been very happy with the results , this light is a CFL BEAST !!!!! Still on my first grow with this light fixture but all is going very well so far and I am only using 12 of the available 20 bulbs, as the plant gets bigger I will add more bulbs. So in basic guys and gals , if you are looking for a simple and rather cheap alternative to purchasing already built CFL units that can be a bit pricey, This unit can be built fairly cheap was just a little over $100 for me since I had most of the materials laying around but would not be much more even if you had to buy a few things to make one. So to " Roll It Up " .. This unit will put out a whopping 32,000 lumen of light and uses only 460 watts of power consumption and can be used and adapted for both veg / bloom , or full time mixed spectrum. I am very happy with it and figured I would pass this along encase anyone else was looking for a great CFL lighting solution
And a final picture of the unit in action with my 4' side lighting ( flouro's ) ... If you want to further check out how the lights are working , I will be posting a Grow Journal very soon
... Take Care All & Keep It Green !!!!!!!
I used one of these for the center panel ( that would hold the fixtures and wiring ) and used pieces of the other two to rivet and fasten to each side of the center one to create reflector surface for the extending bulbs. I used ones I had laying around that were junk, but occasionally I have seen these type of " shop lights " new on sale for as low as $9.99 a unit so it would have cost me around $30 if I would have had to purchase the fixtures new.........
Sorry about the blurry pic
... but as you can see in the pic above how I used one unit for the center and pieces of the other two for reflector extensions as you will see in further pics how I used rivets to connect the reflector extensions to the main center piece. After I had the frame of the unit built I simply drilled holes for the sockets to be mounted and wired inside the center chassis. I purchased 10 Dual standard base light sockets that included 18 AWG pigtail wires from eBay for $30 ( Why they used 18 gauge building these sockets instead of 14 I still don't understand ) but either way they worked for what I needed.
You can better see now how the side panels were riveted onto the main base of the unit in the pic above. I wanted to be 100% safe so I bought some 14 AWG wire from my local hardware store to use for the chassis wiring from socket to socket ( 20 Bulbs running at once , I wanted make sure I was using heavy enough wire to take the heat and load )... Better safe than sorry
!!!!! After wiring it all up , I also purchased some heavy duty water proof indoor / outdoor 14 AWG power cords to power this thing up from the wall. Again I used 14-AWG because it is rated for 15 amp breaker which is what my timers, Power strips, and Circuits all are. This way if it did overheat or anything it would kick a breaker instead of melting the wire and burning my grown and house down. Once it was all wired up I placed the Top section of the middle unit back on to cover all the wires and internals. Note when I said power cords (s) ... To even be safer I ran five sockets ( 10 bulbs ) on each power cord coming in giving me two power cords to light the whole unit or I can run just one side when plants are small and do not require as much light. Next was to add some bulbs and test it out hoping for no sparks or fireworks , lol........
After testing both sides and making sure all was good I purchased several 4 pack boxes of 23 watt CFL bulbs around $50 in bulbs which was the most expensive part of this build. I bought both " Cool And Soft " spectrum bulbs so I can mix and match during veg / flower. I hung it up in the grow room, connected the timers and have been very happy with the results , this light is a CFL BEAST !!!!! Still on my first grow with this light fixture but all is going very well so far and I am only using 12 of the available 20 bulbs, as the plant gets bigger I will add more bulbs. So in basic guys and gals , if you are looking for a simple and rather cheap alternative to purchasing already built CFL units that can be a bit pricey, This unit can be built fairly cheap was just a little over $100 for me since I had most of the materials laying around but would not be much more even if you had to buy a few things to make one. So to " Roll It Up " .. This unit will put out a whopping 32,000 lumen of light and uses only 460 watts of power consumption and can be used and adapted for both veg / bloom , or full time mixed spectrum. I am very happy with it and figured I would pass this along encase anyone else was looking for a great CFL lighting solution
And a final picture of the unit in action with my 4' side lighting ( flouro's ) ... If you want to further check out how the lights are working , I will be posting a Grow Journal very soon
... Take Care All & Keep It Green !!!!!!!