My custom home made lights tested and proven to do great

[johnblagg]

I have great success with my home made fluorescents using off the shelf GE multi volt pro electronic ballasts ... PN # GE296HO-MV-N-DIY and Lothonia Lighting 65 watt triple tube flat compact fluorescent T4 bulbs made to use in outdoor flood lights. Since the ballast will power bulbs from 48 watts to 96 watts they give you the option of just buying higher wattage bulbs if you ever need to increase light output and the ballast is high output also ...
They put out 4,300 lumens at 6500k and each ballast will run two of them giving you 130 watts in a small footprint flat cfl bulb 4 inches wide x 8 inches long and just 1 inch thick so they take up almost no space .

Ballast runs $37 bulbs are $13 each so for about $70 you have a great set of lights I use regular lamp cord wire in 2 pairs from the ballast to each bulb and it is flexible and easy to work with so you can place the ballast several feet from the bulbs and it gives you great flexibility when your hanging attaching/mounting the lights .

[WhiteRabbit]

Very cool!

[naoki]

Interesting, I've seen this kind of lights for aquarium. It is not so efficient, is it? So is 4300 lumen the initial lumen? Then it is about 66 lumens/W. So it is similar to older T12 (around 60lm/W). T5HO is around 92 lumens/W.

[johnblagg]

Originally Posted by naoki

Interesting, I've seen this kind of lights for aquarium. It is not so efficient, is it? So is 4300 lumen the initial lumen? Then it is about 66 lumens/W. So it is similar to older T12 (around 60lm/W). T5HO is around 92 lumens/W.

well then again you have to consider its 4300 lumins in a 4 x 8 inch area instead of a 4 foot long area also... and since i am using a high output ballst to drive them they may be giving more lumins per watt in fact but I dont know that for a fact ... the point is 4300 lumins in a very small area compared to a 4 foot long spread out area with 5000 lumins ... in the end I get what I want in the area I need it with out 4 foot long fixtures. Bulbs and ballasts are cheap and off the shelf at home depo ... pack the 5000 lumens from the t5ho into a small 4 inch by 8 inch footprint area for me and Ill be impressed with more lumens per watt but right now Im more impressed with lumens pre square inch...some how the plants seem to agree

[Magnus A]

As I said before, you are loosing almost half the light as you do not have a proper reflector. Put a paper just belove the tubes to shield the direct light you will see that the bulbs only give you half the rated light in the direction of the plants.

Straight T5HO with parabolic designed reflectors would be more efficient as they divert all light downwards.

[BioWheel]

Please be careful. Looks like you have wire nuts as a connection. You should permanent solder them and wrap with heat shrink. Light output is top-notch though.