400 or 800 watts? in a lil closet? what to do.........

[MedGrowerTom]

Okay, closet is slightly bigger then 4ft by 2 ft, so basicly 8 sq feet of floor. On the bottem of it, I have 4 t12's, so 320 watts of fluro tubes at only 40w per squar foot.

above that, is where I plan to flower..........At this point I only have a 150cfm dayton, doubt that would cool 2 400w hps's, if it would though plz let me know. I am either goin' to cooltube, or build an air cooled hood for each one, if I use both.

They will be remote ballast when I'm done with them hehe...

So yeah, thats like 100watts psf, a lil overboard? Watt wise I know its not 'cause ive had that in the past, just not in such a small area. But yeah, I would cool the lights sep from the grow area, just wana know before I start if I'm just asking for heat probs. Would of liked to use one 400 for a 3x3 area, but is 2x2 to much(which would be 2 400's in a 4x2 area.........

I know, stupid question, do a search, you stupid newb....................just lookin' for some friendly advise as to the problem.

By the way, once I move in the next few months I'll post a thread with my other equip, bigger lights, 5 setups of 9 buckets each, but cant do that here and am limited to my closet(and stupid rubbermaid).

If interested, I could make a grow log on this, bubble cloner should be showing roots by this weekend, which is when I will rebuild the closet and start hookin' up lights.......................


So yeah, long post sry, point is I have a bunch of 400w lights, but should I use 1 or 2? If 2, I know I will need more then a 150 cfm blower for it, but because of its location it must be somewhat on the quiet side(not that Im hiding it from my wife, just this closet butts up to our bedroom door....

Um yeah, thats about it for now I guess, should never smoke before posting(stupid premi buds, had to do some triming and could not just through them out)

 

[Philosophelon]

I think that you will be able to cool 2x400w just fine, assuming your intake air isn't too warm, if you use cool tubes and exhaust them separately from the room. 100 wpsf is kind of high, and you could get away with two 250s, but if you have 400s already, I say use 'em -- and you'll definitely yield more with 2x400w than with 1x400w, so I'd use two .

 

[KUSHEATER1]

how are ya going to extract the heat from two 400 a nice amount of heat they will generate and that 150 won't do it, also consider smell if you have a carbon scrubber you will need enough cfms so read a little more and keep planning.I use a 6 invh vortex,carbon scrubber and temps are about 6 deg. above ambient...

 

[Philosophelon]

The last post makes a good point. You are going to need a fan that pulls more than 150 cfm to exhaust the room, although with cool tubes I think you might get away with using your 150 cfm fan just to cool your lights if you don't have too many restrictions in your ducting -- but you might need a new fan for your lights too, especially if you use 2x400w. You'll probably need a 6" blower for the exhaust, especially with ducting and a carbon filter. With adequate ventilation though I think you can totally run 800w in there, but that's alot of heat in a confined space so you'll need a good blower(s).

EDIT: On second thought, I must admit my (highly enthusiastic ) general inclination is to always go for maximum yield with a given space, electrical limits, and plant count. If you're concerned with other elements such as noise, budget, or heat you may want to consider running a single light.

 

[Stone Skunk]

Not that I'll be any help but I am about to do almost the exact same thing. Mines 57"X23" and 8ft of height, my table stands 2ft though. I plan on my stanley blowing through 2 400s in cool tubes sealed from the grow with a second fan and filter to pull air out of the closet. I would definitely love to see a grow log of this, as detailed as you want to make it.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

I highly doubted the 150cfm dayton would cool the two lights, but like I said in my original post I am planing on 2 blowers to vent cab/lights seperatly.(you will learn that I can not spell) And I have built a few carbon scrubbers before, used to be on OG back when the C-13 Cabs got started, sucked for a couple weeks after that site went down not knowing why, then freaked when I found out.......

But yeah, never used this much light in a lil closet like this, and I only have 2 400w hps and 2 400w ml to use or about 500 watts or so of cfls soooooo...........

Just I'm 50-50 to give it a try with em see how it works, or if I should just use one and I guess just use part of the closet but that would mean less plants/yield.........

Prolly will just try to use the small dayton with one 400 but I really didn't want to lol.......Idk

 

[strydr]

Med,
I have a closet about the same size as yours. 2ft deep, 5ft wide, and 7ft tall. I was running a single 600HPS, before switching to 2x400 CMH. With a 6 inch Vortex, split between cooling the lights (sealed hoods), and pulling air through the closet. It pushes out through a scrubber. I pull air from outside, and I am actually fighting to keep temps UP. With the HPS, I was fighting to keep temps DOWN...

I think the dayton would be fine for a single 400, but anything more than that, and you need more oomph. I'd say set up both the 400's, and test. If cooling is still a issue, get a bigger fan (Vortex, for the win). More lights is always a good thing

 

[KUSHEATER1]

fighting to keep temps up now but just wait a month or so the heat will be back and all will be saying I need to cool my room and that's why I said that .Yeah right now you could get away with that fan but for how long and when the heat comes it spares nobody all your ladies will die in the heat. A dayton 265 and a 400 watt light with carbon are pushing the limits in45x24x60 so try it out and see ,give it a go ambient temps mean a lot...

 

[MedGrowerTom]

ambient in that room is 65 or lower at night, and 68 in day, in summer we crank the ac and its 68 in the house, lot of money but the wife likes it cool hehe

 

[KUSHEATER1]

then you should be okay

 

[sparkjumper]

Consider looking into the Sun Systems 400/400 MH HPS combo fixture one of my alltime favorites.You can use one lamp when smaller(I use the MH) then kick in 800 watts as they get bigger

 

[MedGrowerTom]

Okay, thing is I allrady have 2 400w hps, and 2 400mh......might extend the closet a lil bit, at max 'could' be 4x4, which would be beter....But Idk

Would like to use the 150cfm dayton for something, I know I need to vent lights and grow space sep with a diff blower for each.

First grow years ago when OG was kinda new still I used some bathroom fans, but the 2 I used were loud as hell, and had them both in a c22ish type cab with 3 250 hps and I was good with heat, each fan I built a carbon scrubber for.


But, I'm only living here till this crop is done and its time to move hopefuly it will be done when I'm ready to move anyways, should be fine.

Walls are just gona be flat white, will use the 100ft roll of mylar 'after' I move lol, dont wana waste that stuff.

But yeah, right now its kinda between 4x2 with one 400, or 4x3/4x4 with 2 400's...........
somwhere between 10-22 plants, have about 12 now, but cuttings have lil nubs today so should be ready to starting training some mothers soon.

of the 12 seedlings, I'm hoping for at least 5 or 6 females, not showing yet but the shit is crossed a lil so I know of maybe 4 so far, but still a lil early to tell yet(Ide say the 1st stain I started is a week older then second batch(second is ak47), so give or take there about 5 weeks maybe? Idk lol, but the WWxC99 is in a 5 gal pot and had lots of training and has maybe about 30ish tops(small still, but yeah) and 3 clones of that are just about rooted.

Should be good once they get into there new homes, but I want to have all this done by Monday, and I'm getting the wood tonight or in the morning so help me figure out what route to go.

Should go the easy way, full closet, one light, build right when I move.

But....................a lil more work and twice the yeild(hopefuly) but is it worth it for only once cycle lol.


What would you do? goal with one is 8 oz, goal with 2 would be close to a pound.
I know I would have to veg them a bit for that, but that cuts into my timeframe so there not gona veg much more(allready about 5 weeksish) so I figure 2 lights would help me more I have no idea, just keep going in there and envisioning both setups and cant figure it out on my own.

By the way, I am a med patient and can have 24 max at this point to stay legal.

TOm

 

[BeeBee]

Considering that you are moving soon, and that this crop won't finish until it's already pretty hot, why not just use one 400? Get something out of it, and move on--put your major effort into the next project, where you'll (hopefully) get many more than one harvest.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

I know, I also have 3 1000w sodiums too..........but thats to much much for there, so not using them and then not using the second 400 just is hard to put them to use lol, but yeah deff gona use 1 400.........

But, had a lil prob today...........both my 400w ballasts are not working......

Just had it setup in there too.......



How much is a cheep mh to hps conversion bulb for a 400w MH ballast

 

[MedGrowerTom]

okay, Guess Im going to have to use my old 250w light............damn it, guess I'll also have to add a bunch of cfls on each side of the hood.... figure if I have 4 cfls on each side of the hood, at 23 watts each that would put me at 430 for the closet, which is good.

Figure, 430 watts, at 1 gram per watt, is 16 oz's(whoooo hooo a pound), so my goal is to break at least a half pound with this half assed setup, can't wait to move and setup the other stuff, I will see if I have any pics left from the old house.