Home Made CFL Plant Light Fixture. 3.22.14

Parts for Home Made Plant Light Fixture

These are the parts for the home made plant light fixture.  There are videos on youtube by several authors.  I don't know which one originated it.  The video I watched was praxxus55712, very well explained.

6X24 round pipe	3.98
1/4 inch diameter, 12 inch long threaded bar price for 2	2.02
23 watt CFL price for 2	8.28
wing nut 1/4" price for 4	1.21
hex nut 1/4" price for 5	0.97
bedroom light fixture	7.98
extension cord 8'	6.97
Sum	31.41

I forgot washers.  I bought those and 2 eye bolts for hanging the fixture.  That's about $2 more.  I could have used a cord I had lying around.  That would reduce the cost by $7.  If I shopped around I might have found a cheaper light fixture too.

Holes drilled in pipe, inside nuts and washers screwed onto threaded rods

So far very easy.  Looking at the original, maybe I should have found longer rods.  These should be OK.

Drilling the holes for the threaded rods and assembling them took about 10 minutes.

The I pondered for a week how to assemble the unit with the bedroom light kit.  The reflector is curved.  The light kit rests on a flat surface.  I finally decided to assemble it as-is.  The center of the reflector flattened to accommodate  the bedroom light kit, which is fine.

I added eye hooks at the end to hang the unit from my plant stand.

THe CFL lights are100-watt equivalent, 23-watt CFL bulbs.  Estimated energy cost per year is $2.77.   Lumens 1,600 per bulb.  These are bright-white.  I don't know if it matters, bright-white vs. daylight.  Anything I use seems to work OK.

One issue I got wrong.  I've been trying to figure out what type of bulb, daylight, bright white, soft white.  I bought bright white.  Searching around artificial light growing sites, I should have bought daylight.  2700k - bright white - is good for flowering - probably why my peppers are flowering.  6,500k - daylight - are better for growing.  From the linked site " for example with tomatoes you would want to use a 6500k bulb until your ready to start the flowering stage of your tomato plants".

I may add aluminum foil to the ends to reflect light back into the unit.

Assembled CFL Grow Light

Assembled CFL Grow Light

CFL Grow Light