Are you using eggcrate?? Or the opaque light covers? If you're using the opaque light cover, your light intensity will definately suffer. Eggcrate looks like a graph paper grid with 1/2" squares. The panel is also about 1/2" thick. If I am understanding your post correctly, it sounds like you are using the panels that are only about 1/8" thick and do not have the 1/2" squares in it:thinking:
I could be wrong, but I'm just checking...