air cooled hood setup

[ballplayer 2]

Long time lurker first time poster. Just looking for some reassuring advice. I am setting up a room that will measure 5.5 x 3. I am using a 265 cfm Dayton fan for exhaust (its already in place), mainly just to bring fresh air in. The room is 99% sealed (caulked, weatherstripped, etc.), chilly fresh air comes in from an adjacent room that has a constant temp of between 68-70.

I have been having heat problems and would like to eliminate them using air cooled hoods. I am thinking about using the 6" 449 cfm fan from vortex. The hoods I will be cooling are a 400 HPS P.L. Deep reflector (using the air cooled housing/reflector they offer) and a 400 MH Coolbreeze hood from Sunlight supply. From what I understand both hoods have 6" holes/ends to run the air through.

My question is three fold:

1) Is the 449 CFM fan powerful enough to cool those hoods (which will be very close together) and travel an additional 6-8 ft with at least one, possibly two turns/bends to an exhaust point?

2) The reason I am using a 6" inch fan, and two 6" air cooled hoods is because I am worried about the compatability issue, I want to be sure everything connects seamlessly. Is compatability a big issue? If not, then would it be possible for me to use, say, an 8" vortex fan, 8" aluminum flex tubing, and then a reducer (8" to 6" ) to connect the tubing to my hoods? Please explain if I am way off base or should everything be 6" across the board ?

3) the air I would be pulling or pushing (have not decided until I see how everything fits in the room) over the lights would be between 68-70 degrees F. Is that cool enough to do the job?

Overall is my plan solid? What adjustments should I make (excluding the current room exhaust system, its in place and must stay that way) ? Are there better air cooled hoods I should be looking at (the hoods must be compatible with either Sunlight Supply or P.L. ballasts) ? Thank you for taking the time to browse and offer opinions on my thread. Any help provided will be greatly appreciated.

 

[ballplayer 2]

I hate to bump this, but I am looking to make purchases this week. Nobody has any insight or reccommendations? Is my plan good enough or not?

 

[NiteTiger]

You may be over-purchasing on the fan, but better to much than too little. The fan you're talking about will do the job just fine.

 

[circadian clock]

you can always go big on the vortex , just get one of those controllers to dial it down, then when you've outgrowed your space u have a more compatable set-up. i bought a 400 watt switchable, now im looking at it like wtf. as far as being worried about heat, my 400 watt barely gets warm.

 

[Arkaya]

dude, a 6 inch 449 cfm fan from vortex is enough to cool a 1,000 watt HPS/MH air cooled hood. It's a great fan although I recommend a $35 speed controller to slow it's air ouput and noise down just a bit. For that size fan I would recommend at least a 600 watt HID if not a 1,000 watt HID.

for question #2, you should go with the maximum size you can all the way through. For instance I have a carbon filter that is 6 inch, a vortex that is 6 inch but a light hood that is 8 inch. I have reducers to reduce the 8 inch hood down to 6 inch so everything is 6 inch from beginning to end if you forget the reducers for the light hood. If the hood was a 4 inch and I used 6 inch reducers, the hood would be the weak point in my system, get it? Go with the biggest you can go with ventalation, you will learn a hard lesson if you go weak sauce on the ventilation.

For #3 I would say pulling is better then pushing. Put the vortex fan up in the attic to reduce it's noise and you will have just as much air flow without the noise you get with having a big 6 inch fan in your grow space. I reccomend this configuration highly... Scrubber > Light Hood > Fan > exhaust

Cheers mate

 

[ballplayer 2]

Thank you for the responses all. I had to bump the thread earlier, I thought it may have slipped into oblivion.

Thank you for the reassuring advice nite tiger and circadian, much appreciated.

Arkaya thank you for the detailed installation advice. I totally understand what you mean about the weak points in the system. That is something I would never have even thought of, thank you. I will be sure to go as large as possible on the hood and ducting.

Unfortunately for me, venting out the roof may not be an option, I will check with my carpenter.

One last question: Going with that size fan for smaller wattage systems could not do damage to my lighting systems could it?

Also just wanted to clarify, this fan will be cooling two systems. 1 400 HPS, and 1 400 MH.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful responses and advice, much appreciated.

Also, anyone else who may happen on this thread with air cooled hood experience please offer your opinions. Thank you.