My budget 5X5 setup

Found your thread through bing. I like your setup. I may have missed it, but how did you wire those fixtures if you don't mind me asking? I'm Thinking of slowly phasing out my hids, and this is right up my alley lol

blue pyro said:

Found your thread through bing. I like your setup. I may have missed it, but how did you wire those fixtures if you don't mind me asking? I'm Thinking of slowly phasing out my hids, and this is right up my alley lol

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I simply wired them all up in parallel, hot to hot, neutral to neutral. In other words, select 2 colors of short wire (I cut up a broken outdoor electrical cord) and wire up all the same colored screws or terminals from one socket to the other with the same colored wire, do the same with the other. Then I terminate the last (or first however you want to look at it) with a length of cut electrical cord that has the plug on it. I used a heavier gauge outdoor electrical cord as my wiring material for extra safety.

One thing you can do instead is simply buy a few 8-light bath bars and attach a cord with plug onto them. I scored 6 of them from Wayfair.ca for $18 each on sale (tax and shipping in). They look too cheap to put in a real bathroom, but they have safe water resistant ceramic sockets and perfect for a grow space.

Love this grow, trying to steal some ideas but how are you taking the plastic cover off the bulb? I am willing if necessary but do I need to cut it or is there a trick? Just bought a few to fool with but that shit is on tight.

Roxo said:

Love this grow, trying to steal some ideas but how are you taking the plastic cover off the bulb? I am willing if necessary but do I need to cut it or is there a trick? Just bought a few to fool with but that shit is on tight.

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Yes they really need to come off. You can pry them off with a reasonably sharp tool. I used a small flathead screwdriver. Some brands you can twist off without any tools. The plastic covers are just glued on with a flexible caulk, like silicone on something.

Northwood said:

Yes they really need to come off. You can pry them off with a reasonably sharp tool. I used a small flathead screwdriver. Some brands you can twist off without any tools. The plastic covers are just glued on with a flexible caulk, like silicone on something.

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You gave me the confidence to go for it. Lol. Channel locks for the win.


So the box says they pull 15W but my smart outlet is telling me the 7in1 fixture is pulling 140W total. My light meter app saying about 40k lumens at 10".
Thanks!

Eta: a little uneven coverage. I was going to put another one or two fixtures in there but didn't buy all the bulbs yet.

I used 6 bulbs with home made reflectors on, 12.5w x 6 = 75w in a 75cm x 47cm veg room.
spaced the bulbs out 25cm's and this gave my canopy about 23,000 lux (4000k) (even spread)
so i jump convert lux and the plants are getting just over 400 umol/s/m2

4 weeks from seed, also use a low amount of dry food mix in the compost