Air Cooled Hood

[boe~pimp]

i'm not calling you a bullshitter pipe mate take it easy but wheres the light going to reflect to ?... the reflector and back down... obviously the light output power & spread won't be identical to one without glass, but i think the difference will be illiminated considering i can have my light 100mm off my plants now plus slicing over 10 degrees off my temps. not to mention it just makes my grow room look more high tech

 

cheers ~Boe~

[pipeman]

hey boe I agree the glass cover is excellent when trying to grow in a cupboard in warm weather. I've done it myself on one of my hoods. My old cupboard without a covered and air cooled hood is running at about 29-30 degrees while my cupboard with a glass covered air cooled hood is running at 24-25 degrees. I was just pointing out that light intensity is lost so if you can get within the optimal temp range without it then a glass cover is probably counter productive.

 

I also suspect that the light spread is less even. Firstly you have a hood closer to your plants, which obviously is not going to distribute light as evenly as an uncovered hood further up. In answering your question about where the light is reflected too, the answer is back up and then back down, until it strikes the glass at a large enough angle to penetrate. Clear glass will reflect light almost completely if its directed at a large angle. A good example of this is if you have ever gone snorkelling or scuba diving at night. If you point your torch straight up it will shine right through the surface and you will get hardly any reflecting back, but as you point it at the surface further and further away from you it will gradually stop penetrating the surface and reflect back down into the water. So more light will tend to pump through the middle section of glass and towards the edges the light would get reflected more, which obviously will reduce the evenness of the spread. This is why the glass around light bulbs aren't bad, because it is curved around the source of light so the angle of incidence is always great so most of the light shines straight through.

 

 

I may take detailed light meter readings on each setup one day if I have nothing better to do. But as you say, the benefits of temp and reducing ventilation to take better advantage of CO2 in a cupboard situation far outweigh the very marginal drawbacks.

[boe~pimp]

ok i see pipe.. let us know of the results..

[white_cluster]

hey pipeman, can you post a piccie of this magic meter you're talking about??

I dont use meters, too costly for something I know I can do good myself, but this one gets me interested. How much did you pay??

[pipeman]

Here is a pic. Its a combination meter that measure PH and moisture in soil, as well as light intensity. I think it was about $30 from Bunnings.

[Luke Skywalker]

Yeah, I have the same meter, only I wouldn't trust it as far as I could get it down one of my tear-ducts.... :: I found absolutely useless for ph after a very short while. When I compared it to a standard universal indicator, (liquid drop type ph test), it was way out. So as far as a ph meter goes, it's pretty crap. But the moisture meter is okay, as far as I can tell. However, as the light meter doesn't go up too high then it doesn't really tell you more than you already know, i.e., that the dark bits are dark and the bright bits are bright. I use the flairform ph liquid indicator and I haven't had a prob yet, and this stuff never needs calibrating, either.

Whitecluster, if you don't already have one, then one meter that I would say is an absolute must is a good E.C./T.D.S./ppm meter, like the NZ Hydroponics Truncheon. This gives you absolute control over the fertilising and flushing of your plants, be they soil or hydro. (Provided the soil grows are in pots, mind, I don't think you can collect the runoff from an earth grown plant. ) I thought getting an e.c. meter was something I could do without, but would be nice to have in time. So I took my time, slowly saving up my money to get one, finally getting it about a year into growing hydroponically. But when I did, then all the mistakes and overdoses I had been giving my ladies and other plants became horribly apparent. The plants have never looked back since.

 

Bloody hell, here I go again, nattering on about a completely different subject to this post. Just on the aircooled hood, though, I have to agree with pipeman, the glass will cause reflection, and you will get a lumen drop, particularly if the area is not cleaned regularly. I'm still wondering how effective it would be just as an extremely well ventilated hood, without the glass, temperature wise.... How about a test on that from someone out there with a removable glass section. IF, and that's a big if, the temps are still down significantly, then maybe this could be the answer for many a cupboard grow..... Just a thought..... Or ten....

[white_cluster]

hey luke,

how much they cost??

I new that one was dodgy when I saw the price and picture, probably OK for soil but I prefer the liquid things too, I use one called Junior pH tester which only measures from 5.5 to 7.5 and can be fixed to within 0.1 of the required pH.

But maybe I might get me a e.c. meter, I never have over feeding problems, which leads me to think I could probably pump more chems into my girls.