Setting up the grow light

In my case, we were able to find a few light bulb sockets very cheap at the hardware store on the island. Its a simple screw in fixture with two prongs for a regular plug. I got a pack of 3 6500k CFL bulbs, and one 2700k bulb, since we plan to grow mostly herbs the light requirement will be low, and mostly for blue light. We're only using about 60 watts in total at this time, maybe in the future we will add more bulbs or brighter ones.

We used a segment of a snap-together metal shelf as a frame for the light, and used electrical tape to connect the sockets to the frame. Also using this same tape to ensure the metal prongs were not in contact with the frame itself.

After that I rapped the whole thing in foil to provide a reflective background. Again, using tape to keep the metal foil out of contact with any wires or metal.

We bought some wire, and wired them together in sequence. This is a bit technical, so I'd advise not doing this at home unless you have some electrical knowledge. We stripped the ends of several segments of wire, and tied the ends to each prong of the sockets. Two lights on each side and 4 in total. We used black for hot and white for not. Then for the plug we wired them onto the cord we cut off from a broken floor fan.

To my surprise and great pleasure, it worked the first time. We then hung the light from strings above the shelf that would become the plant area, and made a curtain of foil all around the area to focus the light and spread it evenly through the growing area.

By the end of the project, the lamp was producing 5,000 lumens at the leaf-height, evenly across the growing area.