Growroom Upgrade

[UrbanMister]

Nice Build! I like the camoflage aspect of the stylish doors that really make it look like "natural furniture" !

For that size space, two- 70W metal halides for the right and left halves of the space in the veg phase would work really great, about 5000 Lumens each, low consumption for lots of blue/par relevant light for lush vegetative growth before you go hps for bloom. You can re-fit standard building floodlights(the 400w/500w halogen) for the Rx7s in-line bulbs just by replacing the socket with a high-voltage type for the 5000V ignition current the ballasts/starters use to fire the halides up. I have converted a number of them really cheap. Then you can use daylight bulbs (5200-5600K are available standard) or even more blue light with aquarium bulbs in 10000K-20000K values for various levels of blue in the range between 500nm and 400nm. Most color spectra I have seen appear to be the best for our purposes here in the values of 10000K or 14000K which are very standard aquarium bulbs and cheaply available from hong kong aquarium suppliers on eBay.

Great build, lots for me to learn

@ Ganjasattva - Have you done a diary on this? I would really like to see how it is done, I have a 400watter given to me for my birthday that I have no use for.........however if I could convert it Id be over the moon!

[Ganjasattva]

Yes I have converted a number of these normal halogen floodlights to metal halide grow lights. I discussed this with my favorite local electrical wholesaler who gave me the expert ok that it is safe to do. In fact, a 70Watt metal halide produces a lot more light but much less heat than a conventional 400W halogen bulb will, so the casing and hardened glass are all suitable to handle what the light dishes out. However you need to replace the socket with the ones rated at 5KV- 5000Volts, in order to safely withstand the high ignition voltage of the igniter sent to the halide bulb. The socket will normally come with thicker, SILICONE insulated wires. You must replace the pvc insulated wiring with silicone insulated ones - which means usually having to switch the ground wire in addition to the two which are attached to the new high-voltage socket!

To make the upgrade/retrofit, just open the lamp, remove the old halogen Rx7s bulb from the double ended socket. Most lamps will have a single screw under the bulb which is holding the reflector. If so, remove it and then carefully remove the reflector without bending or damaging its shape. Now you will see the old Rx7s double ended socket and the contact wires. Now you should open the electrical contact box attached to the outside of the fixture. There will be a row of three screwed wire connectors, you will need to release the contacts hold the wires leading into the lamp chamber. Now remove the screws holding the socket in the inside of the lamp chamber and pull the wires through and out of the chamber so that the socket is completely free and can be put aside. Now just reverse the process with the new socket and connect the wires after leading them out into the contact box. Replace the ground wire with a silcone one if it leads into the chamber. Replace the reflector, insert your MEtal Halide bulb, close the lamp and screw down the glass and then connect your electronic starter/ballast to the contacts in the box and close it. Now you can test it.

On a few I re-rigged, the bracket holding the ceramic sockets on the ends was a slightly different shape with a raised middle that went up to the reflector and had a threaded hole for screwing down the reflector, whereas my high-voltage socket was flat, so the screw hole would have been too far away for the original screw holding the reflector. 2 solutions - after removing the old bracket, unscrrew the old ceramic bases and replace them with the new ceramic sockets which you unscrew from the new bracket. Then return the old bracket + new sockets inthe the lamp. Or you can find longer screws. I have done it both ways, no problems, though I prefer to change out the bracket if that is the case.

Just remember that the wires leading from your electronic or magnetic ballast/starter/igniter into the connection box on the lamp will also be running up to 5000volts at ignition so the cable used must also be rated for 5KV and silicone insultated.

Here is a socket as an example: ebay nr 251148155592

make sure whatever source you find in your country or the UK clearly states, that the socket is for HID/HQI/HCI rated for 5KV and that it is the 70W version as only that will fit in your standard 400W floodlight housing. The 150W versions of this socket are longer and will not fit unles you have a larger Lamp casing to work with.

I have not done it but it should also work if the length of socket base + the length of the bulb are no longer than the double-ended one that is, to also exchnge the old socket for a single ended G12 Socket bulb

I will try and do some pics ASAP.

Good luck!

Edited October 6, 2012 by Ganjasattva

[UrbanMister]

awesome,

I dont fully understand all your comments but pics will definitely help, please update/link this thread as id would be cool to turn that lamp into something productive

Thx

[grooving]

Tidy build you've got there.

How many hours do you think it took you start to finish?

[theecho]

That is an excellent build there mate! Kudos! Looking forward to seeing this progress more! What are the next plans?

Also..

How are you getting a good supply of fresh air? I have a similar setup but I'm struggling with a decent amount of airflow when the closet door is shut.

[potato1356]

incredible stealth on this one. LOVE the handle idea. going to copy a lot of what you've done for my new room

where did you get the door from? and how much did it cost?

Thanks in advance !

[MrHardcore]

Really Nice Build

sleek and subtle but affective