DIY dual 150W Cooltube

  • Thread starter The Hemp Goddess
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The Hemp Goddess

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This is a cool tube setup with remote ballast made from the 1 piece 150W yard type lights sold at the big box stores. This DIY will be in 2 parts. The first part will be the assembly of the cooltube. The second part will deal with the ballast. I did not use any part of the original light for the cooltube.

These are the things you need.

1. Most of this is self-explanatory. It is important to use side mount sockets. Use wire that is heat resistant.
2. These are 3" plumbing no-hub couplings. I only used the stainless steel sleeve part of this, not the rubber sleeve (I may find another use for the rubber part, but was worried that the light would get too hot for the rubber part).
3. A Pyrex Bake-around. I purchased mine off E-bay.
4. I found this piece while rummaging through a box of light fittings after I assembled mine. This piece could screw onto the end of the threaded piece and take the place of the eyehook.

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thx hemp goddess for getting this on the diy thread cant wait to see the rest when your not so High:giggle:
 
1. Drill a 3/8" hole through each no-hub coupling near one of the hose clamps. If you need an eyehook to hang the tube, drill a 1/8" hole in line with the 3/8" hole near the other hose clamp.

2. Connect the socket to the no hub coupling, centering the socket. You should be able to find nuts that fit the lamp allthread to secure it to the no-hub coupling. I live in a very small place with very limited selection and I ended up buying 2 brass couplings and cutting them to use as nuts.

3. Connect the eyehook to the no-hub coupling if needed.

4. Connect the no hub couplings to the bake-around tube.

You can connect fans and ducting to the ends of the no-hub couplings to air cool the light.

Part 2 will deal with the electrical connections and the ballast.

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Dude your such a Goddess I love you this is exactly what ive been thinking of making and is much easyer then making a new reflector from sheet metal! I would so roll you a spliff right now thank you very much. How much was your bake around? And how are you going to stop the light from shining up instead of down? Do you have a reflector in mind?
 
Hey this is what I got so far, let me know what you think. Im going to buy a 150w MH for the other side, I really want to utilize both bulbs. Its going to be a while until I get the MH ballast kit im kinda broke now haha. I made the reflector out of sheet metal 12in x 24in then I glued mylar to it. I saved the neoprene from the no hub coupling and used it to raise up the reflector a little bit as to not build up heat.

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how is the result just wonder if you growing with that light right now?

I'm thinking about build that with fan, but how is the results?
 
I didn't see a second part of this, am I missing a thread or was there one?
 
I dont have my bulbs in yet I'm waiting on my next pay check but this is just a work in progress. She has not yet finished the next thread where she explains on how to wire the ballast. I found a great kit for really cheap at prolighting.com they have a 150w mh ballast kit for 60 bucks. At least I think its that company im really faded. It comes with ballast capacitor and igniter all pre wired which is great! All I need is a long extension cord a male and female plug and medium base socket and im good. I dont like the wire coming out of her design though im going to have the extension cord come directly from the socket.
 
if its only 150 watt per bulb with that type of normal socket.. I don't think we need ballast? fans will keep bulbs cool?
 
Killertea08 said:
I dont have my bulbs in yet I'm waiting on my next pay check but this is just a work in progress. She has not yet finished the next thread where she explains on how to wire the ballast. I found a great kit for really cheap at prolighting.com they have a 150w mh ballast kit for 60 bucks. At least I think its that company im really faded. It comes with ballast capacitor and igniter all pre wired which is great! All I need is a long extension cord a male and female plug and medium base socket and im good. I dont like the wire coming out of her design though im going to have the extension cord come directly from the socket.


You cannot just run any old extension cord directly to the socket. You need to use wires that are insulated for high heat situations. The socket does not plug into the wall outlet--the wires that come from the light socket go to the ballast and wiring from the ballast goes to the wall outlet.

Did you check out the $20 150W HPS? If you are at all handy, you can separate the ballast from the socket.

Your reflector looks great! Thanks for contributing.
 
papabeach1 said:
if its only 150 watt per bulb with that type of normal socket.. I don't think we need ballast? fans will keep bulbs cool?

As far as I know there is no HID light (or fluoro for that matter) that does not require a ballast. On smaller wattage lights, the ballast is substantially smaller and usually not a remote ballast. I have found these easy to keep cool.
 
Hey chica. so my question is. how many plants at what hight with this grow?
Great job by the way. i want to do this myself now. and lord knows i have enough mission bands lying around...
i have a 3'x4'x5' grow box. could i fit 2 sets of these in there?
 

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