Smoking Gun
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Medicine is correct that having the lights close to the plants reduces the loss of light over distance (law of inverse square). However the closer the light source the less spread of light. If you have enough light in your space the drop off of light intensity from being further from the plant will be insignificant.
I also agree that air cooled hoods do reduce the amount of A/C you have to run. One of the drawbacks of this is having extra equipment to purchase, maintain and run, especially if you still need to have an A/C to control the temp of the room. The air cooled hoods also provide more chances for odors to escape. While the seals on the glass have gotten better over the years, they are not perfect. There is also the space where the ducting hooks up to the lights, this may also have very small gaps that allow some odor to escape. By having open hoods you can eliminate these small places that will allow odor to escape.
Then there is the fact that the light quality is diminished through a glass lens. Medicine gave the parameters for that so I won't recap it.
This is just my opinion. There is no absolutely correct or wrong way to do anything, just many, many options.
I also agree that air cooled hoods do reduce the amount of A/C you have to run. One of the drawbacks of this is having extra equipment to purchase, maintain and run, especially if you still need to have an A/C to control the temp of the room. The air cooled hoods also provide more chances for odors to escape. While the seals on the glass have gotten better over the years, they are not perfect. There is also the space where the ducting hooks up to the lights, this may also have very small gaps that allow some odor to escape. By having open hoods you can eliminate these small places that will allow odor to escape.
Then there is the fact that the light quality is diminished through a glass lens. Medicine gave the parameters for that so I won't recap it.
This is just my opinion. There is no absolutely correct or wrong way to do anything, just many, many options.