150 vs 250 in a small Cab?

[Guest]

Hey guys, I have a little cabinet and am trying to determine which wattage would work better for me in it. My grow space is 13" deep, 25" wide and 46" tall. Would I be better off running a 150 HPS or a 250 HPS for flower? I have a 140~ CFM Dayton blower for exhaust and will be using passive intakes. Is the 250 overkill in this small a space? I'm not planning on doing any scrog'ing for the first few grows so I wanted to use the 250 if at all possible to get a bit more light penetration. Thanks in advance, have a good one!

 

[Fat Puta]

Im sure u could get away with a 250W Im running 2 x 150w hps and do fine. Heres some good cab links

www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=20641

www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21879&page=1&pp=15

 

[Guest]

Hey thanks man! I have been waiting out the 'no new users' period here at IC with daily doses of your thread, good looking stuff! Once I get things up and running I am definatly going to become a regular in your cab threads.

 

[Jnugg]

What are the temps in the room the cabinet sits in.You don't want the temps in the cab to be above 82F and 75F is optimal for daytime (lights on) temps.

I'd say try a 250 and a good inline exhuast fan with plenty of fresh air intake and you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jnugg!

Room temps should be good, it's still really cold here right now and warmer months will have a window mounted AC unit.

I have a 146 CFM Dayton Blower with a 4" intake duct mount on it, I figure if need be I can run some duct from right above my light to the blower so that it is pulling the (I think?) warmest air in the cab from directly around the bulb out first.

Another question for you guys, due to my small space I don't have a reflector to fit my cab, can I just hang my bulb vertically without any negative effects? Anyone know off hand how long a 250 HPS bulb will be in a mogul socket so I can try and figure out how much headroom I am working with? My lamp has not arrived yet and so far my scouring of the Osram/Sylvania/Philips catalogs here at work has not turned up an answer.

 

[Jnugg]

Take a visit to ebay.com and search for "bake around tube" or "Pyrex" and just scroll untill you find the bake around tubes.They retail around 10-15 bucks and measure 11" long by 4" wide and make a cool tube out of it.You couldleave one end open so you ventilate your cab and cool the light at the same time.

 

[m.steelers]

I've been thinking of switching to a cool tube. How effective is it to leave one end open vs. doing the traditional fully enclosed tube? The space for this one would be 20d x 45h x 30w, scrog. I think in a smaller space like that it would be harder to keep the temps down with an open end tube... but I could be mistaken. I have used aircooled hoods but always had both ends sealed.... leaving one end open is attractive as you would need to run one less fan, and less noise. Anybody tried both methods to compare?

m

 

[Guest]

I think you should be able to pull off 250 watts in 3 feet of height with that blower.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that Link to the tube Jnugg! I'm a little tapped out $$$ wise right now but that is definatly going to be a project for the next few months or so! I do alot of metalwork and CAD here at work, I could definatly get some parts made up to go with that tube for a fraction of the CoolTube's retail price.

I am also curious as to how the heat goes with one end of the tube being open, I am new to the whole tube design, what normally goes on the end that does'nt have your outtake fan on it?

I have a horizontal reflector but my cab is about 3 inches too short front to back for it, I will most likely chop 3-4 inches of the reflector here at work on the band saw as I do not have too much extra cash for alternative solutions right now.

Someone told me that verticaly hanging a lower wattage bulb is not as effective? Is this true?