tell me what ya think.

ok here are my plans and spec's for my stealth grow cab. It will use 2 t12 shop lights and 2 cfl's and will be between 15,000 and 18,000 lumen's. From either 250 or 270 watts. 370 watts and it would be 24,000 lumen's. It will have shiny white poster board for walls and added to the edges of the reflectors to extend them down to the walls. I will use a semi hydro lava rock/soil set up. With a home made co2 generator( made from a half gallon jug, yeast, sugar), and a 4" circulation fan. Man I'm betting I can pack in lots of babies and get decent yield of small cola topped plants SOG style. What you guys think? Attached are some drawings.

you think this will be enough light? i'll probably go 270 watt/18,000 lumen's. I don't think it's bad compared to 218 watts of teklight t5 being 20,000 lumen's and 250 watts of metal halide light being 22,000 lumen's. only 20 more watts and 4,000 less lumen's than the HID light. Plus you can keep the lamps really close to the plants like the t 5's and the heat will be low so nodes will stay shorter.

Sounds good man, only thing I'd add is an inlet fan at the bottom of the box. 3,000 lumens / sq ft is a general rule for CFL lighting.

that would make it under powered by 6,000 lumens by my spec's of 2x4 feet. But it's not just cfl light. they're are also 4 four foot t12 tubes. the cfl light would be 6,000 lumens and 110 watts. the t12 light would be 12,000 lumens ans 160 watts.

T12 lights aren't as efficient as CFLs, they typically produce about 30 lumens per watt where CFLs can easily produce over 60 lumens per watt, you might want to add a few more CFLs, if you pick up the fixtures at the Salvation Army or Goodwill or a Thrift store you can get them for $1 a piece, and at walmart they have 27w CFLs 4 for $10, so $14 bucks for 4 lights with the cords and lamp sockets, adding 1850 lumens a piece = 7400 more lumens, it'll be worth it in the end.

I've used 4 t12 bulbs before and it was plenty to grow strong 2.5 foot tall bushes. I would just have to start flowering at about a foot. but even at a foot they will be strong and not stretched. Your figures are off too. 33- 40 watt t12 bulbs produce between 2200 and 3000 lumens from my research.

Shoplight Product Category Page

40 watts times your 30 lumens is only 1200 lumens. So its at least around 60 lumens per watt or more.

I was looking at some other T12s that only did 1200 lumens
Radford Brothers Industrial Supply Lamp F40b 40w T12

Those ones you have will work nicely.

I think it will work. cant wait to find out. I think opening it at night after the lights kick on for an hour or so will be enough air intake with the home made co2 generator in there.

any info on how to run the power cord to the cfl light fixture. do you just splice a power cord into the incandescant wall fixture? How bout the computer exhaust fan that normally plugs in a power supply?

The CFL will screw into a normal lamp socket, and you can wire pretty much any cord up to any regular lamp socket and have it work. I usually just take apart old lamps and keep lamp cord with the bulb fixture on the end and throw the lamp away.

PC Fan into Inlet or Exhaust fan
https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=226

Very nice!!! thank you for the good info. This almost seems too simple of a setup. I cant wait to get the stuff.