making a cool tube

[postmandave]

does anyone know anyway to mke a cool tube or any other way to cool a 600watt hps i have exuast fan on the hood and a oscilating fan blowing on it but my temp is going out the window , thanks

[karmaxul]

75% of the electricity you use is to get her up to temp to make light. I dont cool bulbs as it is extremly inefficient. I would recommend sealing the shade with duct tape and put a ac in the window. If you put a ac in the window take it apart first and put weatherstriping in the middle under the lid to seal off any air escaping.

One love
c

[BukDatAss]

I did a cool tube and it gave saved my temps by 10 degrees it would work better but I need a stronger exhuast fan. Oh to make a cool tube just use this its a really good way to make a cool tube http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=38520:thumbsup: oh in order to cool ur 600 watt bulb you would need at least 240 CFM exhuast fan to work well. I'm only using a 80CFM for a 400w thats y mine isnt working well I need at least 160cfm for my 400.

You can also check out Turtle420 thread :thumbsup:http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=34726&page=6

[Zandor]

75% of the electricity you use is to get her up to temp to make light. I dont cool bulbs as it is extremly inefficient. I would recommend sealing the shade with duct tape and put a ac in the window. If you put a ac in the window take it apart first and put weatherstriping in the middle under the lid to seal off any air escaping.

One love
c

I do not agree with you here.

Most of the power consumed is by the transformer not the bulb. The gas inside the bulb get's hot to produce the light but no where close to the 75% you are saying. Heat is a by product of the gas producing the lumens. (light)

Most of the energy is spent transforming the power from 120v input to the 240-277v AC output the light requires to burn. That is where most of the true heat and the power come from.

There is nothing wrong with cooling the bulbs in an air-cooled hood. I have used them for many many years with great success. The amount of light the bulb produces is not affected once if the bulb is cool or not. The glass does take away a few lumens but nothing you or your plants would notice. The savings in heat is well worth the very little light given up by the glass.

I have measured it many times with my light power meter and have found less then 1% decrees in the lumens with cool tubes or air-cooled hoods.

A cool room is way better then a hot room any day!!!!!!

[postmandave]

thanks all for your help and the links

[karmaxul]

Zandor, If you convert your electric to 240v the only reason it is slightly cheaper is because the ballest runs a bit cooler, true. The reason your lights take so long to produce the full light is because all it is doing is heating up the inner componets of the bulb. Once the temp. is up to par the gas illuminates. Heat makes the bulbs work. If you are constantly cooling the bulb with more electricity it just consumes more to heat it. You are fighting against yourself. The best thing to do is to insulate the hood making it airtight and cooling your room via an a/c unit.

Incandescent light bulbs are energy inefficient, they waste energy producing light and not much of that energy is used for pure light. What makes the light bulb non energy efficient is the remaining energy left over from light production, produces undesired heat. Nearly 25% of the energy produced in the United States, goes to lighting (Incandescent light bulbs account for 40% of the usage, Florescent lamps for 40%, HID for 20% - courtesy of U.S. Lighting Market Characterization" by the Department of Energy, September 2002 ). From the lighting, 50% of the energy used to power the bulbs is wasted by means of heat. Most of this energy loss is by inadequate maintence of the lighting fixture, the use of obsolete equipment, and insufficient use of the light.

http://www.cat.pinellas.k12.fl.us/ISTF/2003_2004/03-715/problem.htm

As HID produces the most heat the rate of wasted energy is higher then 50%

[karmaxul]

When it comes to bulbs most of the energy is lost from the tip which is why for instance in the low pressure sodium ( most effecient light at 200 lumens per watt) Phillips in the Netherlands puts on a IR coating on the tip insulating iit. They used to use tin back in the day which produces a blue spectrum but the IR coating according to them produces a 15% red with the pure yellow of the gas

Any clue way each day I am having posts erased?

[DoctorFeelGood]

I do not agree with you here.

Most of the power consumed is by the transformer not the bulb. The gas inside the bulb get's hot to produce the light but no where close to the 75% you are saying. Heat is a by product of the gas producing the lumens. (light)

Most of the energy is spent transforming the power from 120v input to the 240-277v AC output the light requires to burn. That is where most of the true heat and the power come from.

There is nothing wrong with cooling the bulbs in an air-cooled hood. I have used them for many many years with great success. The amount of light the bulb produces is not affected once if the bulb is cool or not. The glass does take away a few lumens but nothing you or your plants would notice. The savings in heat is well worth the very little light given up by the glass.

I have measured it many times with my light power meter and have found less then 1% decrees in the lumens with cool tubes or air-cooled hoods.

A cool room is way better then a hot room any day!!!!!!


I have to disagree with you and side with Karma.
Simple facts are your bulb needs to be a certain temp in order to fire the lumens we expect of it cooling it only increases the time it takes to actually produce what its suppose to.
As far as someone saying its this % or that % whos to say for sure we all have different setups and I am sure results do vary but on the standard idea behind the bulbs we use cooling them does effect the output.
DFG

[karmaxul]

I pulled the 75% from word of mouth I have read reports but never seen structured testing to back up the claims. I should not have said 75% you are right it was just a estimate.

[mobay]

what cfm exhaust do you have, maybe its not pulling enough heat out . i had a 265cfm pulling through an air cooled hood and a 3x4 grow box and didnt have a problem. i think its your cfm's postman. ps dont use a bathroom exhaust fan in your box. and if you having a problem with you heat you should get 1 of these, with summer coming around. you dont wanta be homeless with a fire outbreak.

OUR CUSTOM MADE (patented) Bimetal thermal regulator switches are included with every sunlight shed. If the air temperature in your grow room gets above 105F, then this switch will turn off ONLY the lights. Heat transfer occurs directly through the metallic base via convection, radiation and conduction in gaseous and solid media.You can rest assured your plants will never burn, which greeatly reduces the risk of fire. Provides peace-of-mind your home is safe

[karmaxul]

Or you could hook up a thermostat to a ac. That is a cool contraption you got there I have never seen that.

[BukDatAss]

how much do those plugs go for

[mobay]

$65 us

[Zandor]

Get out your slide rule and do the math again guys. You are way off base here and are missing the basic science. There is a point where the bulb reaches max temperature and then just radiates heat and the excess heat as a by-product is what you are cooling not the true internal temperature of the bulb. You are using dry air to cool the bulb so you are not affecting the inside of the bulb.

In fact I believe you are helping the bulb to work even more effect by maintaining a better working temperature so the bulb can put more energy into producing lumens. (that part is only observation)

[jamstigator]

You can buy Pyrex Bake-A-Round tubes on ebay and jury rig them as cooltubes, for $20-$30. You can also buy cooltubes from bghydro.com, or whatever store you prefer. If you buy a real one, get one with an internal reflector (reflector inside the tube). They're a fair bit more efficient when run that way, since the light only has to pass through the glass one time, compared to as many as 3 times with an external reflector (three would be: once going upward through the glass, hitting the reflector, coming back down, hitting the top of the tube, then hitting the bottom of the tube on the way down). Every pass through the glass eats up some of your light, so minimizing the number of passes maximizes your light output.

[turtle420]

Working with Zandor's input, and Karmaxul's... I'm thinking...

Ok, does ANYBODY have a cool to the touch cool tube? Or experience with such a setup?

I had 1st a 6", 90CFM fart fan, running one 400W MH.
Warm air out, hot (if touched) cool tube. Hot, right under the bulb... not "near" it.

2nd, I installed a 550CFM Dayton axial 10" fan... same 400W MH.
Too much air out to know if it's "warm" or not.
But cool tube? Same as 90CFM... hot right under the bulb, not in the areas sorrounding the bulb.

I'm just wondering, does anybody have a "cool to the touch" cool tube?

[jamstigator]

Just felt mine (400 watt HPS), and the tube is warm. I put my hand right on it for 30 seconds (right under where the bulb is), and it got no hotter than just warm. That's a 6" diameter, 18" length tube, 400 watt HPS, and a 440 CFM 6" inline centrifugal fan about 2.5 feet worth of ducting away. (The fan is dialed way down speed-wise though, because my carbon filter is only rated for 250 CFM, and my box isn't large enough to need the full 440 CFM anyway.)

I doubt there are any that are actually cool, but I guess 'cool' is a subjective term anyway. Obviously, the tube would never be cooler than the temperature of the intake air, but mine is definitely warmer than that, at least right under the bulb. I have read about liquid cooled lights, but...liquid + electricity seems scary to me. :)

[Zandor]

Mine was cool up to about the 3" mark but if you touched the glass it was still well over 100 deg and would burn your hand. It did allow me to get my light to with in 6" of the top of the plants and that improved light penetration and bud production of the lower portions of the plant that would not get light before.

[postmandave]

i have found a glass tube 4 inch diameter, but i dont know if it will break with the heat, i sat it on a gas fire all night and it didnt break but was to hot to pick up, now can any one tell me the best method to attach the duct fittings i dont want to tape them on as i dont want the tape to burn , and thanks guys for all the input nearly there lol

[BukDatAss]

dont know but thats How i did it... Oh go and check out the link I sent u before on this thread for turtle

[postmandave]

if it worked for you that is fine with me , thanks.