A few questions on flouresant tubes

[CovertCarpenter]

... yes, they're the 'Y' adapter beasties, but they're being supported by these 'All-weather sockets' that I found @ WM, for 3.75 ea. They're basically a standard socket that has a white and a black tail out the end, and is coated in some rubbery compound to help keep moisture out. I believe that they are used in things like garage lighting, and I basically took an old extension cord (2 wire) that would support the 400ish watts I wanted to pull thru it, twisted the leads of the sockets around a metal KV shelf bracket, and spliced them to the cord (making sure to get the hot and neutral correct).

The outer two sockets support a tree of three 'Y's, and four 26w bulbs, each. The inner two sockets support a single 'Y' each, and two 45w bulbs. I am not using the 65w bulbs mostly because I can't find 'em off-the-shelf 'round here commonly, while the 45w 4100k 'shop light' can be found at WM, Revy, Hdepot, etc... and the 26 watters are everywhere! I had to go to R to get the Y adapters, but they are only 3.50ea...

So, including the $1 extension cord, the $6 timer... and the $1 of picture wire that is hanging it from two huge wooden beams I rescued from the trash, the total cost of my livingroom lighting is $140 on the bean (not including tax), and I'm getting 24,800 lumens for it, with not too much heat, and I didn't have to buy all the bulbs, etc, at once.

Lumens/watt: 63.92 Lumens/buck: 177.14

(in comparison, even tho my main garden gets 150 lumens/watt, factoring in all of the extra costs of cooling (which I still need to add to!), its lumens/buck ratio is around 171.42

[CovertCarpenter]

...if you look closely, you can see the differences in the colours, although the camera doesn't do it justice.

LOOKING at it with naked eyeballs, I can tell 'em apart easily

[Salvein211]

Yeah I can defiently tell the difference. Ya I finally decided how im gonna start.

For veg ill prob run x8 of those 23w/100w cfl's that do 1600l at 6500k.

For flower I'll prob run about 6 of those cfls(same watts as above) at 2700k and run 4 of the 6500k

But spread over about 40" for 2-3 plants

A lot of people use mylar and other things to reflect their walls, what is cheap and very useful at the local hardware store? I can see the problems with foil

Also, are you going to make some kind of hood for those lights in the pictures?