Best air cooled reflector???

[old blue]

How ya doing Old Blue.

My 2 cents.

If $$ is an issue, ditch the digital ballast and get a regular ballast. Take the extra $$ and get yourself a good 6" Can or Vortex fan. I use a 6" can to cool 4000w with no issues. I also pull air, not push. Pushing air thru your hoods will only create leaks and "push" hot air out of those leaks. Every degree helps.

http://sunlightsupply.com/product.cfm?sid=51C71121CBD856883B055B200D2479FE&p=963&cs=products%2Ecfm%3Fsid%3D51C71121CBD856883B055B200D2479FE%26c%3D23%26kys%3D%26pgi%3D1

I am not sure if you are able to find this hood locally, but I recommend this over all other hoods I have used. No more taping up the lenses and fittings with this hood. The lens is on a quick relese hinge with thumb screws and the lens seats on a durable gasket of foam to prevent leaks. Easy changing of bulbs and cleaning of the lens.

Bottom line, most hoods are pretty equal as far as "coverage". I don't really think one is better then the other as far as light dispersment. But there are differences in ease of use and small features.

Hope this helps.

I love that hood! Can u buy that online, or do u have to find a dealer that sells them? And do u know if any of htg's hoods are hinged like that?

Btw, i'm not too worried about spending a lil more money for the digital. Gotta pay to play, right? I'm a strong believer in spending a lil extra to get a better end result. And yeah, i'll be buying a vortex to cool it as well.

 

[solarz]

While everyone is speaking of pulling air through the hood rather than pushing, could someone post a diagram of this, or explain it? I am asking because with pulling air through the hood, i'm coming up with a few different ways to do it. One being having a fan (outside the grow area) pulling cool air through ducting (that's connected to the air cooled light). On the other side of the light having ducting leading to a fan pulling the hot from the light and pushing it back outside of the grow area? Is this an efficient setup, or is there something easier or more efficient to use? Thanks in advance.

Solarz

 

[solarz]

Here is a little diagram i drew up that kind of shows what i was trying to explain in the previous post. Please take a look at it and let me know if that is an efficient setup or not. Thanks!

 

[smokeajoint]

Rethink the light. Thowie is not best option always.

get yerself a 600W digital. you will actually get more lumens absorbed by the plant and that's what matters most(IMHO). you will have to keep the 1000W 18-20 inches from plant due to how hot they run. You can get the 600 much closer which results in higher effeciency of lumen use.

i have a 6" easy cool and its a peach. mo cfm mo betta.

L8r

 

[MootPointBlank]

Here is a little diagram i drew up that kind of shows what i was trying to explain in the previous post. Please take a look at it and let me know if that is an efficient setup or not. Thanks!

I believe that it's easier to understand "pull" and "push" circulation with respect to the light housing as the system and not the room. Imagine pushing air into the housing or pulling air out of the housing as your convention for the direction of airflow. The point that was attempted to be made earlier about hot air leaks is this; the light bulb housing is a system, which is inside of a sealed grow space, which is a system, inside of a room, which is a system. Bear with me. If the light bulb housing has leaks in it, air pushed (positive pressure) into it will follow any path of least resistance, meaning that if the air pressure in the tube is greater than that of the box, air that has been heated by the bulb will travel into the grow space that we try so desperately to vent in order to keep cool. Conversely, if air is pulled (negative pressure) through the tube, any leaks in the bulb housing will draw air from the grow space. The problem here is that the air won't be treated for odor as no one typically filters their hot light bulb air. Any way you slice it, leaks are bad.

Sidenote: though not necessarily applicable here, are the thermal properties of expanding gases. As gases expand, they absorb heat. So when air is under vacuum it does a more efficient job of removing heat.

Hope this helps.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

if you havent bought your light yet, check out hydrowholesale....they have lumatek 1000w digi kits w/cooltube for $399....if you want a baddass hood, look for the "hydrotek silverstar"...i'm getting 2 of those and 2 1000w lumatek ballasts..also..the growbrite brand that htg carries is crap....go for the lumatek or galaxy brand light ballasts ... a 4" 180 CFM squirrel cage blower will work perfect for cooling 1 1000w light....it's what i'm using now and my cooltube barely gets warm.....you can find those for around $80...htg does have a really good deal on fans...the growbrite brand fan&filter combo is the way to go...6" 440 CFM for $199.(that includes carbon filter)..i'm buying 3 of those combos for my new setup
P.S...those little crappy $40 inline fans WILL work to cool 1 light