Does this 250w or 400w Cab design make sense? (diagram included)

[Hawk]

What do you think of this grow cabinet design. The goal is to have everything self-contained, quiet, and cool.

There are two air circuits--each with it's own remotely located 6" inline fan. There are four separate sections: A veg box, a flower box, a ballast chamber, and a carbon scrubber chamber.

The green airflow line is for the hood and the ballast. Air would be sucked into the ballast chamber, through the hood, and then out of the cab. The idea here is to exhaust the ballast heat out. The light will be 250w or 400w so I don't expect pulling ballast heat through the hood will degrade the light cooling by much. The hood is a Super Sun 2 that seems to seal well but I may add a modest carbon filter anyway for extra odor protection and dust filtering (and sound muffling unless I muffle sound another way).

The red and blue lines would be for the other air circuit. Air would enter the cab through passive intakes at the bottom. That air would pass through the flower box and veg box before entering the scrubber's chamber. It would then pass through the scrubber and exit the cab (red line).





The precise location/size/number of the various intakes/ports are not necessarily represented accurately in the diagram. I haven't worked out those details. For example, the exhaust pipe for the scrubber might just go straight up through the ballast chamber rather than turning to snake through the flower box. Also, the top left intake port of the scrubber chamber would likely be a pipe that reached the top of the flower box. I didn't actually draw such a pipe but drew a blue airflow line instead.

I could swap the locations of the scrubber and ballast chambers. That would more easily allow for pulling air out of the top of the flower box. That arrangement might look more like this. I didn't label it but the veg box would be below the ballast chamber. Not sure if it's really any better or simpler this way:




I don't want to put any grow related heat into the room--I want all heat exhausted out through my pair of remote inlines. Is there a better and/or simpler way to do this??

The bigger picture is for this cab to be installed in a sliding door bedroom closet very similar in size/type to this:

One of the two 6" air circuits is installed and running in the closet. The other air circuit is partially installed (most ducting through the attic is done but there's no fan yet). Right now my 250w light is just hanging in the closet (being air cooled by the one functioning air circuit) over a couple of vegging plants. The two fan ducts come straight down from the ceiling on the left side. If getting enough passive air into the closet to feed the cab becomes an issue (w/ the closet doors closed), I can go through the closet wall into another closet of an adjoining bathroom.



Please comment! Thank you.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

Looks good. The thing I might do differently would be to place the intakes in the veg chamber as high as possible and exhaust into the bottom of the flower chamber while eliminating the exhaust into the scrubber area and the intakes in the floor of the flower chamber (sort of a G like shape for the flow).

Namaste, mess

 

[Hawk]

Looks good. The thing I might do differently would be to place the intakes in the veg chamber as high as possible and exhaust into the bottom of the flower chamber while eliminating the exhaust into the scrubber area and the intakes in the floor of the flower chamber (sort of a G like shape for the flow).

Namaste, mess

I'm gonna mull that over. That would create a more circular-type flow pattern for the scrubbed air circuit.

I think I hadn't considered something like that because I didn't want to circulate air warmed by my veg chamber CFL's into the flowering area (or visa versa). I suppose my thinking was to keep both the veg and flower areas drawing in the freshest, coolest air possible.

But maybe your idea would ultimately be better?

 

[messn'n'gommin']

With a good flow (i.e. fan) and what heat CFL's put out, I don't feel it to be of a GREAT concern. Also, as it stands in your diagram, the flow will follow the path of least resistance and MOST of the flow will go from the bottom of the veg chamber to the scrubber, leaving very little flow, if any, from the flower chamber.

 

[Hawk]

With a good flow (i.e. fan) and what heat CFL's put out, I don't feel it to be of a GREAT concern. Also, as it stands in your diagram, the flow will follow the path of least resistance and MOST of the flow will go from the bottom of the veg chamber to the scrubber, leaving very little flow, if any, from the flower chamber.

I see your point.

I was thinking I'd have the veg box to scrubber box exhausts sized significantly smaller than the flower box to scrubber box exhausts. I figured that would force a greater proportion of the air to flow through the flower box. But if that idea is less sound than doing as you suggest....well, that's why I'm seeking advice.

Also, I've experimented a bit with CFL's and have been surprised by how much heat they actually produce. I suppose that experience more than anything else is driving my reservation about exhausting the veg box directly into the flower box.

Perhaps a combination of both ideas would work: Have most of the veg exhaust drawn into the flower box but leave one small exhaust at the top of the veg chamber leading directly into the scrubber box??

Thanks for the comments.

 

[FullMetalJacket]

I have found this one more active too .

Nice, I actually like the first design man on the very top..

I disagree with circular airflow being better. It is harder to control each compartment independently with circular air flow. With your set-up you can add/remove/cover intakes and "exhausts" in to the carbon filter chamber to control temps humidity.

Definitely wouldnt be gaining any thing by filtering your hood exhaust if you are sure it is sealed. I would reather filter the intake. Doesnt have to be a good filter just something to keep the dirt out. May want to filter the intakes if you can. Make sure you carbon exhauset is trong enough though to bring air through passive intakes with filters. I love floor intakes like you have them..so much simpler/effective...

messn- why would you change it to circular?

 

[messn'n'gommin']

I disagree with circular airflow being better. It is harder to control each compartment independently with circular air flow. With your set-up you can add/remove/cover intakes and "exhausts" in to the carbon filter chamber to control temps humidity.

...

messn- why would you change it to circular?

On your first point: I feel this has merit and wisdom.

On the second: It was my thinking that MOST of the air would flow upwards from the veg intakes to the scrubber more so than through the veg then the flower then to the scrubber and that by eliminating the ports between the veg chamber and the scrubber and the bottom of the flower chamber would leave the air nowhere to go except through the flower chamber route. But as I said your first point has validity. Maybe a fan to assist the flow from the flower chamber to the scrubber all without having to eliminate any intakes? That may solve the problem as I like the way he has his closed loop light/ballast exhaust and the separate veg/flower/scrubber setup.