Homemade 1000w cool tube!

First off let me say! that I asked around this forum several months ago about cool tubes for lights,we all know how exspensive those cool tube's with fans can be!...............by the time you buy the hood with glass $200 then you have to buy the fan and the duct work another $160 or so,it can get exspensive and odds are you will have to order most of it through the mail,which has a shipping and handling rate of another $50 to $80 bucks depending on where you live!.........

So believe it or not after some research I came to the grim reality that by the time I get everything I need for one cool tube right down to the last screw and piece of tape to the shipping and handling it would be fare to say it probably would have cost me$400 or more canadian or so! I even checked out EBAY,still peeked at the $400 dollar mark..............

and when I did alot of research on how to make a cool tube the information was there but not for a 1000w hps bulb! there were links to information for smaller wattage lights but not much info for the big bulbs...and to behonest I found the information was kinda not in-compleshion and left you with unanswered questions lol..............................So I went out to the stores in my area like home depot,walmart.canadian tire,home hardware and had a good look around and managed to come up with a cool tube complete for less then $100 I couldn't believe it..............

I noticed there may be links to cool tube information on this forum throughout different post's made by different members but instead of a link I decided to post a thread right here with instructions on how to make a cool tube,as well step by step pictures along the way........

First thing first!.........

You will need glass tube,based on the size of the bulb you use!400w,600w,1000w or less........this project will be based on a 1000w hps bulb...You can get this glass tubing just about anywhere,you might find yourself looking in the candle section or glass tubes they put over large tall candles,I found mine in walmart they had several sizes ,based on some candles are bigger so get the glass that measures up to your bulb simple really!........my candle cover thAt I bought was 11 1/2 inch's long....and only paid $6.79 for one ...I bought 3..................

Continued...........

You will also need a fan to suck the heat from the glass tube,so what I came up with was a air duct fan for moving air along the funace of your house in the area's that the heat never seem to get to,these fans help transport heat through the duct work on a furnace to get heat to the colder spots of ones house!............................I bought the fan at home depot for $65.00 tax and all this is the most exspensive part of the project...........

roll foil tape $5.00
black electric tape $2.50
1 tie plate used to anchor bulb socket inside ducting0.90 cents
steel strapping $3.06
exstension cord$10.00 has to be a 3 prong cord because the fan doeswnt have a cord with it and the fan has to be grounded so make sure the cord has 3 prongs...
you will also need a foot of duct to hook up to air booster duct..the fan is 4 1/2 inch's so you need a foot of duct to fit the 4 1/2 booster fan.....$5.00..
you will also need flex duct to run to the place you decide to dump the heat! I purchased mine for$6.00 it's about 7ft long when fully exstended......

Note all these things except the glass candle cover where all at home depot...

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Now that you have all the needed parts for the cool tube.....

take a moment and lay out the pieces to get a little idea of how it should all work!.....lay the glass tube into the 1ft long piece of duct and lay the bulb inside the glass tube ,this will give you a good eye's view of where everything should be! because you have to make sure your bulb doesn't stick out past the glass tube as well you want to make sure you don't anchor the bulb socket so far into the duct vent that alot of the bulb is to far inside of the duct...

Now take you bulb socket of your light Kit and wrap some steel strapping around the socket and anchor with a a little nut and bolt but just make it a comfortable fit! and don't over tighten it the socket could crack if not carefull,then take tie plate and anchor it t6o the back of the socket both of these steps will allow you to later centre the socket in the centre of the duct..........when it's you have that done it should look like this!

Once you get the steel strapping and the tie plat onto the bulb socket now it's time to once again line things up with a eye's view.....

Take the bulb and screw it into the socket then take the bulb and socket and lay it into the tube to see where the holes in the duct need to be made to anchor the socket inside the 1ft piece of duct,remember make sure you measure up where the socket should be placed so your bulb isn't to far inside of the duct.........once you have everything lined up make 2 hole's inside of duct to anchor the socket.......the hole's should be directly above the socket and directly underneath the socket........... note: you should be able to make those small holes in the duct by starting with a little nail first,the duct isn't that hard to punch a hole in.......

Continued!..................

Now after you got the socket secured into the duct work,take the bulb out of the socket and take the foil tape and wrap the inside of the edge of the duct several times to try to build up a cushion for the glass tube to rest against also helps take up the gap between the duct and the glass tube because it isn't a perfect fit....................you can also use normal foil to help build up the base of the funnel.....................

Now take one end of the glass tube and wrap it with foil tape,go around the base of glass a couple of times to once again create a cushion for the glass where it meets the end of the duct! after all glass on metal isn't the best idea!.....................now insert glass tube into the duct end that you prepared just keep working with it until the glass tube fits nicely snug into the duct......once you do this.then wrap the glass and the duct together but stay close to the edge of the glass because you want as much of the glass tube being clear,try not to go to far down the basde of the glass,may restrict some of your light!................once you have both ends taped together with foil tape,reach inside of the glass tube and tape the inside of the tube to the duct that way you have a complete seal once you turn on your fan!......................Now we are half way there!.............

now we have cooltube hooked to the 1ft duct,as well have the light socket anchored inside the 1ft duct...............

So now we take the fan or air booster which is already anchored inside duct work already by the factory..perfect!...............so now we cut the end off the exstention cord and keep the pronge side of the cord!.......hook the wires up to the fan,if you notice the fan has 3 wire's thats why I said further up that you needed a 3 pronge exstension cord......in this case green wire on both exstension cord and air booster are both ground wire's......and the 2 remaining black wires on the fan can be hooked up to the exstention cord either way! doesn't matter......just make sure the green wire on the air booster is the ground wire that hooks up to the exstenion cords green wire can't go wrong really lol...........

O'k now we got the fan wired up,as well we have the glass tube taped to the 1ft duct.......now comes the part to wire up the ballast light cord back to the socket that is now inside of the 1ft ducting......

Sorry the picture I took doesn't show the 3 wires that is needed to hook up to the back of the bulb socket! the black wire is hiding behind the white wire that is screwed to the socket!.........but anyhow when you do take the wires off the bulb socket in the first place just remember where the wires were too,if you look close you can see that I marked the socket with w for white and B for black,in this case the groundwire is the green one bolt that wire to the plate that is holding the socket inside of 1ft ducting ,make sure your wires arent touching in anyway lol make sure it's a good clean job wouldn't want your house to burn down even though in most cases if you wired it up wrong and plugged it in youl'l probably only trip your breaker! but to avoid this just pay special attention to what your doing...............

Also take note in the same picture I cut about a inch or so into the duct so I could slide my cord into the duct, so when I hook the airbooster up to the end of it won't interfere with the cord,also take note,I wrapped up the cord where it begins to enter into the duct on both sides kinda built up tape on both sides of the cord so the cord can't move back and forth ,as well prevents you from pulling the cord out of the duct in case you dropped it or something,you don't want that cord moving around inside the duct while your adjusting your lights might cause something to wiggle loose so make sure you tape both ends of the cord up until you have a spacer made between the duct and the cord.................................

So now we have the socket re-wired up! and the air booster wired up to the exstention cord,as well we have the tube taped to the 1ft duct......so before we begin to join the air booster onto the back of the duct lets screw in the bulb and fire up the ballast!....and see if the light works...

Now hook up the air booster to the 1ft duct and make sure the fan is pointing in the oposite direction of the bulb,join the air booster to the duct and tape it with foil tape!......at this point wrap steel strapping around the air booster and 1ftduct secure the strapping with a nut and bolt....these strappings will be used to hook up to a reflector hood or if you don't use a reflector you can still use the strapping for hanging the light from chains! it's all good either way youl'l need something to hang the light over your grow!..

So once you tape both ends of the duct to each other then hang your light into postion in your grow area ..............once hung then do the final step hook up the flex duct,this should be done once everything else is in place and lights are hung because the flex duct once streched out is hard to get into your grow box or the grow area do to tight spaces or what not lol I learned this the hard way!................so last step hook up flex duct and run other end to wherever you want to dump your heat!...........I should also mention make sure all the duct is taped up with foil tape because any air leaks,or holes from where you screwed the hardware on may take away from the air flow,which prevents this setup from running 100% effectively........

So there you have it your very own cool tube! and it cost me just under the $100 range,thats a savings of over $300 bucks or more,by the time everything is said and done.............

This Homemade cool tube is very effective! thats a 1000w HPS bulb burning inside that glass tube and we all know how hot a 1000watter can get :( before I hooked up this cool tube I had huge! heat! problems but once this system got up and running I was shocked on how well it worked! it is completely cool in the grow room now so cool infact,I might have to turn on the heater from time to time to take the chill out of the grow room it's almost to cool now lol...but thats a good complaint.............

It works so well infact I can touch the glass tube with my bare hand and leave it there probably for as long as I wanted too,there is absolutly no heat coming from the glass,infact I can even touch the actual 1000w bulb with my fingers without burning them before this cool tube though I would have burned my finger as soon as I touched the bulb! note: DON'T TOUCH BULBS! LOL I only did because I wanted to see how well the system worked......I must say I am completely happy with my results...............

I should also mention there are arguements out there that the glass tube takes away from the lumens that reach the plant,other words cool tubes can cut back the actual light out put of your lamp by 20%,note this is still debated by many,but I will add that the glass tube I used is just a glass cover for a candle probably a big roman candle and the glass is very thin perhaps a little thicker then a standard house hold bulb!..........don't know if the glass would be even thick enough to hold back any amount of lumens from the plants and if so I would say it would be alot less then 20% thats for sure.........................

Note in the pics I am actually holding the cool tube in my hands while the 1000w bulb has been on for more then 6 hours....and not even close to hot,maybe as warm as the top of your dryer after drying a load of cloth's.....

Now just a couple of pics of the light and cool tube happily hanging over my garden! growing my babys without any heat stress....now of course people cosmeticely speaking the cool tube and set up don't get any points for good looks! but it serves the grow room really well besides it's the plants you want winning the good look award!...............

So I hope this was good information for everyone.....I know for sure I'm happy lol :rasta:

I should mention that I can bring the light really close too the top of the plants if I wanted too! but it's a fresh batch of plants I just put into flowering and I like to gradually bring the light closer to the plants,not because of the heat or anything lol because there isn't any just so the plants can get use to such a strong blast of light a 1000watter can give!......if I wanted to I could have the plants touch the glass tube without any effect to them....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Garden Knowm

hey mellow man.. i was sharing your thread with some other poeple and they had concerns that that fan can not take the heat that is being generated by the HPS and drawn through the fan.. they said the fan may take a crapper and then the glass will heat up and explode and possibly kill a pet or something.. yikes

what do you think?

still a great set up.. but worth considering...

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It's good for people to have caution when dealing with any kind of eletrical source,and to be honest I took the heat into consideration when I bought the fan!,first thing I should mention the glass tube wouldn't break if the fan was on or off! the glass is tempered! I don't know how hot the glass could get before it cracked if it would at all? I had the system running for over a hour without the fan hooked up and I believe within a hour the bulb would have reached maximum heat! the glass never split or broke! and when the fan is on as you could see I could actually hold the glass tube in my hand and felt warm like the top of your dryer! r........

I could actually touch the 1000w bulb myself with my fingers it was hot but not hot to the point you couldn't touch it with your bare flesh.....I might take a picture later to illustrate me touching the bulb while it's turned on just to show that the fan works so well that the bulb it's self is being cooled down!................

The fan doesn't allow the bulb to heat up enough for any consideration for heat! as soon as the bulb produces heat the cool air is sucked into the tube and pass'es over the bulb so quickly that any heat generated is being wisked away with the air coming into the glass tube that is drawn by the fan........Like I said earlier I was shocked! that it worked so well and I'm the type of guy that gets paranoide when dealing with heat and electric sources lol..................but this set up really has my mind at ease.......

The manafacture of this fan recommends not to use the fan in a air duct that exceeds 155 degree's the bigger fans can handle 180 degree's........I guess what one can do is take a tempature gauge and put it close to the 1000w bulb and see what it reads? maybe it won't reach 155?.............of course with the fan sucking the heat very quickly the heat is reduced to almost a tropicial breeze! or less.........and I am sure this fan being used inside of a full hot roaring furnace probably producing more heat then a 1000w hps bulb?..

Come to think of it I remember a couple of times I would be down in the sub basement of my old house working around the furnace and actually touching the duct work that runs of from the furnace and that being almost untouchably hot!.......and the duct work on the cool tube is no where near hot! not even close!..........................

I am a very paranoide guy when it comes to heat sources and always fear a fire in waiting lol....but this set up makes me feel completely comfortable.....but just for arguement sake and my own peace of mind I will pick up a tempature gauge and leave it in the exaust of the out take duct and see what temps I get!.....................................Could possibly someone from this forum put a tempature gauge close to their 1000w bulb and tell me what reading they are getting?.............Like I said though I feel the fan is working great and my tempatures are no where near 90degree's.....

All and all safety is the key issue when it comes down to anything! and I recommend anyone who attempts such projects takes all safety into consideration..........

Just to prove to anyone who may think that the fan I selected wasn't up to the job for cooling down the bulb take a look here! these pictures illustrate me making full contact with the 1000w bulb that has been on for more then 6 hours straight!.as you can see I actually am putting my bare fingers onto the 1000wHPS bulb ,now it will get uncorfotable to the touch but not after several seconds with direct contact with the flesh! so if I can actually touch the bulb should show you that there is no way that heat can get to the point that the fan might melt! or stop functioning.........how many people can actually touch a 1000w HPS bulb after 6 straight hours of use? I know I can lol...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lemonboy

Do you think it would be possible to run two 250W bulbs in a setup like this? Perhaps a MH and a HPS.

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Sure thing! can't see why not!.............there is several sizes of candle glass at walmart and other stores like K-mart (Martha Stewart section) I got my glass tube @ walmart for only $6.78 and my wife was at zellers and picked me up a small glass tube that would fit a 250w hps no problem,she picked up the small glass tube not knowing the 1000w HPS bulb is huge! lol but you know you got a good wife when she is out shopping around for her self and at the sametime keeping her eye open for things for my grow room lol....

but ya you could pick up a smaller glass tube to fit the 250 w hps bulb or you could use a big ass glass tube I used for my 1000w for the 250w still would serve the 250w hps bulb anyhow.....as for the mh bulb a small mh bulb could fit into the large glass tube I used, no problem,but now I have to go out and get a bigger glass tube for my 1000w mh sunmaster cool deluxe bulb! because the glass tube I used for my 1000w HPS bulb is too small at the entry point of the glass tube for the 1000w mh bulb.......but should go right over a smaller mh bulb no problem!..............so to your question yes /yes and yes! exact same principal of putting together a 1000w cool tube! as it would be for a 250w,or 400w,0r 600w bulbs..........................

I know where to get a bigger glass tube for my 1000w sunmaster mh bulb I'll probably pick that up tomorrow and post a pic of it here!..............to behonest if I really wanted to I could get a glass cutter at canadian tire and run the glass cutter around the glass tube I already have,just etch into the glass ever so slightly a couple of times and once thats done a couple of times tap the glass slightly and it result in a clean break! which then would allow the hump on the 1000W MH bulb to enter into the glass tube therefore fitting!....either way I'll get the job done........here are a few pics to show different size glass tubes the small one was the one my wife picked up for me lol...perfect for a 250w bulb for sure!....but for a mh bulb youl'l have to go wider with the tube!...........