Yeah you’re probably right, what I’m talking about is the metal ring that’s inside to bounce the light around more
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i bought these, i have used them but because there only 6500k only for seedlings mothers and side lighting in veg, there are other color spectrum’s available and want to try using like the 6500 the 4500 and the 3000 together, i made simple frames for the lights out of 3/4 inch pvc bought them a few years back they were $30 then. took the covers off,
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Yes sir I am
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I made a frame also out of osb. 18 inch by 18 inch. Glued tin foil to both sides. Drilled 4 holes and siliconed four outlets. Now all I need is a ballast for the bulbs and will put small bulbs in the other holes. Don’t know if you can mix led with cfls or not. I’m gotta do something soon cuz cold weather is on its way and got a seeded California Cannon in a pot that needs to finish indoors
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Yep that’s what I really want bit its170 bucks and I got a budget
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You can mix them. I use an led screw in arrangement over head and c.F. L. Lights on the sides of my closet
And 6500k is awesome by itself.
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For a couple hundred you could just buy a 315 CMH fixture that’d be 5x brighter than 130 watts of CFL.
Hard to find CFL stuff these days, old technology. 1000bulbs.com probably has a ballast for you.
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What @vernal said has a lot of merit.
Also what @Who suggested. Those lights are great. Each one has an aluminium frame to dissipate the little heat they produce so no fans required. They each have a built in driver so no need to do wiring, you just need the right cables to connect them all together. They are low power LEDs in the fixture so you can grow the plants into them and they still wont burn. The LEDs in them are such low power that if you fix the strips so they are as close together as you can get them then they still wont produce above the max required intensity for flowering. It is impossible to burn a plant with them. However, they do not have strong penetration. The light fades off quickly as you move away from the light. I also made an angle aluminium frame to hold a bunch of them. I use them for my mother plants and cloning. Perfect for it. I use a mixture of 3000k and 6500k strips to get a broader spectrum.
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You are right @vernal. Cfls are pricy. I wound up buying a two way ballast and it didn’t work so my little experiment didn’t work. So I took everything back and bought a 150 watt hps full kit for 70 bucks on amazon free shipping too. Puts out way more lumens then that 130 watt of cfls would have
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Nice one! You wont be disappointed. 
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That sounds like an excellent deal, but, here’s the question, how hot is it? My “cabinet” (well a broken shower stall actually) has no real way to seal it from light (the bathroom itself is still in use) and ventilate the heat from it. The CFL’s I use don’t give off too much light and the LED set up I will switch to should give off next to none.
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Hopefully it will not be a lot of heat. Its only a small one. It may also help with temps if you are in a cold area.
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my leds make some heat, not like the cmh but they make heat, my strips dont make heat but thye use less intense leds
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I was reading about that earlier. About how hps light that seeps out a crack or something is unmistakable, and leds are more forgiving especially if you have a nosey neighbors or something like that. I have only one medium small plant I need to grow out and it’s in a 2x7 area. I have a 1000k hps but no tent set up and that would put out wayyy to much heat and light without a tent setup. Lol. First time I lit that baby up I knew then what the talk was about. It was dark out and man did I light up the outside of the house… so since I’m at where I’m at hopefully I can get away with a fan with this 150 watter
Not to change the topic even further… but back to what J-icky If you want cost effective, easy and efficient, you really can’t go wrong with regular screw in led bulbs. I went with bathroom vanity fixtures, but there’s much cheaper options for a light socket.
Check the links I posted below that one, also Lowe’s has a great deal on the 18” 3 bulb fixtures if you want it to look sharp lol.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Project-Source-3-Light-18-in-White-Vanity-Light/3010105
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btw if your a vet lowes will give you a discount,…had to plug it, i have gotten those discounts lol
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Im more of a visual learner, but that’s a great low cost idea
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Updated shot from last night, still vegging under bulbs they draw 9w each, with a single 15w centered above each plant. They are all going to be swapped to 15w tonight to get them ready for bloom.
Not how close the lights are to the plants, no burning until they basically touch.
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Yep. Your plants look great too