Buying ready-made T5 grow light fixture in a store or on the internet is easy, because all you need to do is order it, then once it is arrived you only have to unpack it, hang it in your designed space, screw in the bulbs, plug it in and you are good to grow. And although this option might be easier and simpler, it can also be more expensive. That’s why for those who don’t want to spend a ton of money but still want qualitative light for your plants, you can try building your own do-it-yourself (DIY) T5 grow light fixture, because it is quite easy and it all comes down not to your handyman skills but to your ability to order the right parts and place them together.
There are many different options of the way you can build your own DIY T5 fixture, but one of the simplest ways to do it is to use wood board as base and to attach single bulb T5 fixtures to that board to custom make your own T5 fixture.
To this kind of DIY you will need:
- Wood board (size depends on how many bulb fixture you want)
- Daisy-chainable 1 bulb T5 Grow light fixtures (as many as you want on the board)
- Reflector for each of the bulbs
- Hooks and some chain to hang the fixture from the ceiling
- Screws to mount the fixtures to the board and the board to the ceiling
- Screwdrivers
- Small drill
- Other instruments you might need
So first you need to take your wooden board and measure out and plan the placement of the bulbs. I recommend to space the bulbs about 12 centimeters (4.8 inches) apart from each other, because this way you will be able to place the reflectors on the bulbs and they will sit at comfortable distance from each other but the light coverage will still be seamless and uniform. After you have done that flip the wood board around and decide where you will place the hooks that the fixture will hang from and drill the holes for them to get it out of the way.
Next step is to attach the single bulbs fixtures and their reflectors to the wooden board according to the measurements you previously made. I chose to use single bulb ready-made T5 fixtures, because I know that I am not good at electronics and making sure the wiring of the bulbs is good, but if you know a little about electronics you can also simply purchase bulbs, bulbs sockets, some wire and electronic ballast and fully make T5 fixture from scratch.
Once the single T5s and their reflectors are attached, you can plug them together. The reason the fixtures need to be daisy-chainable is to not have to use power outlet for each of the bulbs, because for example if you have 8 bulbs in one of these fixtures and if they are not daisy-chainable you will have to have 8 free electricity sockets, but with daisy-chainable fixtures you can plug them all together in one chain and power them all from one outlet.
The last thing to do is to screw in to hooks and attach the chain so that you can hang the DIY fixture from the ceiling, plug the fixtures together and into a socket and turn them on. That is how easy it is to custom make your own simple standard T5 fixture.
