Vented hood and light rails

So im looking at getting a lightrail4.2 with 12 feet of rail to move 2 lights that are air cooled. Ideally i want both lights to travel the entire 12 feet but how do i keep the flexable ducting from sagging and bunching up from one end of the rail to the other?

Any advise would be great.

It's gonna be a mess. No real way to do it well.

Light movers just spread yield, they don't make more yield.

If you really wanna use a mover, forget air cooled lights (that only takes about 30% of the heat anyways), just pop in an AC unit and call it a day.

I love my Light Rail™ 4.0 Bought it about 2 1/2 years ago to use in an 8x4' grow space I still haven't built.

Nice to use in my current grow room to get more even coverage even if it only moves 20" or so. With a bushy canopy it hits leaves that would be in shadow with a single point light source. I can run a 1000W Super HPS a foot off the tops without burning them tho try to keep it about 16". I use adjustable open hoods so no hose to worry about.

What size space are you wanting to light up? As the light(s), travel that 12' some are being left in the dark for a while so it might be better to have a spreader bar to separate the lights by a few feet and not travel so far each trip and have more steady light on everything. Hard to say without all the dimensions and I'm no light mover pro either.

Renfro said:

It's gonna be a mess. No real way to do it well.

Light movers just spread yield, they don't make more yield.

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Can increase the yield with more plants being covered with the same light bringing your power per gram cost down a lot. Power is almost 25¢/kwh here so even if my yield per square foot using 1 - 1000W HID to cover an 8x4' space full of plants with a rail is 25% lower than it would be using 2 - 1000w lights and no rail my cost per gram is a lot lower. The rail only uses 9W. 2 - 600W would be better with 50% more lumens for 20% more power but that would mean buying 2 - 600s and I already have 2 - 1000W setups.

Rails aren't cheap tho but I figure I have pretty much made that $300 back in power savings already tho haven't sat down and done the math. No records of hours run either. Maybe that feature will be on the 5.0 version.

I think you just get about the same yield and it's spread over a larger area. More trimming, smaller buds. You can't tell me that a plant with a light over it all the time wont yield way better than one thats only got full light part of the time. Thats my experience and I have seen the difference first hand. I had a Super Skunk grow and three lights. I used two on movers and one just sat over the plants constantly. thos that were under the mover had much smaller buds compared to the ones that just sat under the light all the time.

I could see using them to move the lights around a bit to get more even spread, eliminate hot spots but I think the wattage per sqft rules apply. 40-50 watts per sq ft. of canopy.

Renfro said:

I could see using them to move the lights around a bit to get more even spread, eliminate hot spots but I think the wattage per sqft rules apply. 40-50 watts per sq ft. of canopy.

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With a 1000W Hortilux Super HPS only 16" above the canopy I'm hitting triple that for wattage.

I'm not saying you're going to double your yields but I know I'm getting at least 50% more by covering a larger area with more plants. Or even just spacing the plants out a bit more to allow deeper light penetration.

If you are growing in something like a 4x4 tent and have good lighting then there is no advantage but I grow in a 7x9' room so my grow space changes depending on what I'm doing.

Like this grow. Taller plants in 6 - 4gal pots on each side to make a corridor down the middle to hold a SoG kind of thing with 8 - 2.5gal pots with 3 - 5 plants in each pot, 2 strains.

The light rail goes up and down the middle of that corridor covering a 6x6' grow area. I would rotate the tall plants once a day so each side got better light half the time. Nothing wrong with the cola size on those and the middle ones were a good 3 weeks from harvest when I took this pic. ProMix HP and AN nutes.

They don't look very big, I am sure they coulda been a lot fatter with the extra light time. But hey, they do look tasty. Good job man!

I have used light movers and I vouch they increase yield. The idea is you can get the light closer now. The trick it to have two lights moving and one where the other one isn't.
I agree dont duct the lights and get rid of the glass, glass just filters light I'd rather back off lights 6" than air cool them separately.
Light movers are dope with HID lights. Dont see a need for led on movers

OldMedUser said:

I love my Light Rail™ 4.0 Bought it about 2 1/2 years ago to use in an 8x4' grow space I still haven't built.

Nice to use in my current grow room to get more even coverage even if it only moves 20" or so. With a bushy canopy it hits leaves that would be in shadow with a single point light source. I can run a 1000W Super HPS a foot off the tops without burning them tho try to keep it about 16". I use adjustable open hoods so no hose to worry about.

What size space are you wanting to light up? As the light(s), travel that 12' some are being left in the dark for a while so it might be better to have a spreader bar to separate the lights by a few feet and not travel so far each trip and have more steady light on everything. Hard to say without all the dimensions and I'm no light mover pro either.

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The space im covering is 4x12 , the 2 lights will be 5feet apart so they will only travel around 6 feet total.
I keep my 1000w hps air cooled hoods around 10in off canopy now and have good results but they only cover a 4x8 area now and i have 4 feet of flood table thats not in amy direct light now, id rather spread the 2 lights along a rail than buy another 1000w hps.

Nizza said:

I have used light movers and I vouch they increase yield. The idea is you can get the light closer now. The trick it to have two lights moving and one where the other one isn't.
I agree dont duct the lights and get rid of the glass, glass just filters light I'd rather back off lights 6" than air cool them separately.
Light movers are dope with HID lights. Dont see a need for led on movers

Click to expand...

Im still leaving the glass, it was a major game changer for me going air cooled, doubled my yeild by letting me put the light closer. As long as the plants are not 9 feet tall i get hard buds top down to 3\4 deep in the canopy.

Removing the glass on 5 1000watt hps would cook my room in a few hours. Even with ac.

i run 600 watts in a 4x4 with no glass and can keep temps perfect, but every set up is different. cool tubes have their place and all im saying is sometimes its better to keep the light further without the cool tubes than closer with them. i can definately think of a way to have your lights still ducted while moving i just gotta think for a bit

If you have the ceiling height i would use flexible duct from up high in the middle and bring it down to the light. it will only sag when the light goes to the middle but not too far because it will double back on itself. moving 3 feet either direction will make it only possibly fall down 1.5 feet probably less when the mover goes to the middle
if you have two light movers make sure theyre moving the light opposite so one light is always going to the opposite end of the other light

Im thinking of getting these things called plant yoyos, the kinda work like the retractable unit for keeping keys on your belt. That way it can stretch and retract with the movement.

Thats my thinking atm, plant yoyos and a good wrap of duct tape where i hook the yoyo to the ducting to stiffen it up a bit.

i wish u luck bro. i found my old grow from when i was in highschool. down near the bottom you can see how close i got that 400w hps without a glass
ive always wanted to try it again lol that crop was huge! i did end up breaking my mover and then added a 600w but no heat issues in that 2.5ft by 5.5 ft chamber

https://www.rollitup.org/t/nizzas-3x-15-gallon-feminized-big-bud-vision-seed-grow.773447/page-3

Renfro said:

It's gonna be a mess. No real way to do it well.

Light movers just spread yield, they don't make more yield.

Click to expand...

I think i can handle my buds being smaller if that is the case, but i feel that it will only get me more yeild.

Thanks for all the input guys, i will post pics when its complete.

Got it all put together today and it looks great and moves smooth.

Going to add some diy led lights i built later, overall im pretty happy.