Yo KnOwM,

Interestingly, in my flowering area, the surface temp of the soil is consistent with the air temp surrounding it. In my veg area, where theres essentailly no canopy and the lights are close to the plants...the temp of the surface of the soil is approximately 10 degrees warmer than the temp of the leaves.

A correction from earlier, when measuring the temps of the CFL ballasts, I took the reading from center mass, however, the area directly closest to where bulb meets ballast is 10+ degrees warmer.

Also, I failed to realize earlier that the ballast, while all sides stay consistent, the temp has gone up a smidge during the warmer part of the day. Hovering around 115 °F now. That or it just steady gets warmer throughout the day on it's own. Not much of a concern being as its 15' away on the other side of the room.

As well it should be noted, there's bound to be differences from one manufacturer to another regarding the temps of ballasts, lamps, and CFLs.

I'm using... http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/shop/MAS-52224-A.html

But only because http://www.tradervar.com/images/cp7875.jpg wasn't in stock.
slowthestone Reviewed by slowthestone on . zandor...its on pal! Finally found a real grow shop. Screw making due with bits and pieces of the things I was crafting together from hardware stores! 600 watt electronic ballast...ck 600 watt Agro sun red reflector lamp...ck 15' remote socket...ck Botanicare Salt leaching solution...ck Foxfarm Open Sesme, beastie bloomz and cha ching. Dutch Master penetrator and folitech foliar sprays Rating: 5