I was using one 125w red CFL for my entire grow but had acquired 3 more 125w CFLs (red) from fleabay, the idea being to use two in my grow room, rest my current bulb & have a spare.
The problem was that I can only fit one reflector in my room so I had to think about the problem from a different angle. The obvious answer is to have 2 125w CFLs under the one reflector. After a lot of thought I decided to give it ago....
This was my grow room so you have some idea of the problem
(the 2nd lamp in there is just hanging and only there whilst I do the 'adjustments' to stop the plants having an extra dark period)
Parts required:
A length of laminate floor!! (or anything else yu have that will do the job)
1x E40 light fitting
A length of 2 core wire
1 terminal block
6 nut and bolts (your old ones wont fit this mod)
A length of gardening wire
Firstly strip down your reflector, removing wire light fitting, screws and plastic gromit (I hadn't removed the gromit at this point
)
Cut a 'T' shaped bit of laminate floor using your 'old' light bracket as a guide for width (mine was 8cm)
Make sure that the T section is going to fit inside the reflector & trim down as required...
Using the holes already in your bracket and the light fittings, mark and drill mounting holes as required in your T section
Now you can attatch the light holders after you have wired them
With the light holders secure you can then attatch the T section to the origional reflector light bracket
Double check at this point that everything is good by adding the bulbs and ensuring that your distances are good
Because of the extra weight of the new bracket & extra light this is a good time to drill a couple of small holes in the reflector at the end of the CFLs so you can use a bit of wire to secure them so they wont droop when you put the reflector back into place
You can now wire both bulbs to one side of the terminal block and your power cable to the other - don't forget to reuse the earth strap!
Put everything back in the grow room, rehang the reflector & switch on...
Job done, reflector pimped & plants happy
There are a couple extra pics in my 'pimp my reflector' album if you want to take a look.
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