New Grower Quick Ventillation/Lighting Question

[SpacedCWBY]

P.S. SPACEDCOWBOY - is your name a reference to the anime Cowboy Bebop?

No, it's an alter-ego that I took on in high school. Seeing as I was spaced out on pot all the time and enjoyed country music, seemed to fit. That and it's in that song, I think it's the Joker by Steve Miller. I was suprised to read about those kids in Utah who became huge pot smugglers. Seems as if one of them used the code name Spaced Cowboy on their radios as well.

Anyhoo....

Take care all.

 

[Slezman]

Whatup all,

Well I finally just hooked my inline fan up and things don't seem to be going so well!!

To recap: I have a 265 Daytong squirrel cage venting from the top of the cab. Passive vents at the bottom of the cab. My 600w hps is cooled using a 500 cfm duct booster fan (like the kind you get at homedePOT). 8" ducting is connecting this fan to my radian 8" ac hood and then out the ther side of the cab (the light is being cooled using air from outside the cabinet)

The temps are still way to high: 91 F inside (78 f outside)

The 8" duct fan just does not get enough air moving through the hood, I can barely feel it coming out the other side. I'm thinking I either need to buy a vortec or get a co2 system going so that the plants could handle the heat better. Are there any other options that I'm not thinking of? What would you all recommend?

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Go with the Vortex or another quality inline. Those duct booster fans aren't worth a damn if there's any resistance in the line. I wouldn't worry about using CO2 until you dial in the grow without it first as it'll only complicate things for you at this point.

 

[Slezman]

Word. . . I was wondering how I was going to calculate my CO2 release. . . seems like a mess, especially with turning off the ventilation and compound with the fact that I'm new to growing. . .

 

[cheetos]

could you possibly switch the blower to the hood and duct booster to the cab?

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

Hiy Slezman
Sorry the duct booster didn't work - at leats it was cheap to try. You got the right idea on testing - a hand in front of the end of the duct run will tell you the air movement. Surprised the booster is moving so little air. Does the line it was plugged into cone down into another reducer anywhere?

Turns out MTF was right on the money then ( to you MTF ) that there'd be too much resistance for the booster.. so a Vortex or similar will be your best bet.

I'd try Cheetos idea first though - swap the fans and see if there's enough air flow in the other loop with the booster. If not, time to shop for a centrifugal.

One other thing - I still think you could use double the amount of passive air inlets. That can choke the fans tool. If the temps don't fall much with the cetnrifugal fan, that would be the next mod to look into.

 

[Slezman]

I could switch the fans but this would require me to make new holes, enlarge old ones, and patch up old ones. I'm trying to avoid maing any permanent changes until I'm competely out of options.

I made a small change in my setup which reduced the temps a little to 87 F (+7.9 F above ambient of room). Instead of seperating the hood and the inline by ducting, I put the inline right up against the hood and then moved the ducting to the intake side of it. I can feel a lot more air coming out of the ducting now. Obviously this is still too high but every little bit counts. I guess this is going to have to work until the vortex comes.

Greenjeans: I think my passive intakes are big enough. I've got two 5" x 13" vents on the bottom. This equals 130 square inches of intake compared to my 12.56 square inches of exhaust. So the passive intakes are 10 times larger than the exhaust.

Do you guys think it wold be too early to put my seedlings in there? It's 90 F in the room they are in right now so it's really not that much of a difference in terms of temperature.

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

My bad Slezman - I only noticed the circular openings in the floor, didn't review the cab design, did the wrong assumption thang... sorry. That is PLENTY of passive intake - hats off to ya, you can never have too much passive intake IMO.

Part of the problem is dynamics of the ducting and splits - that is so hard to get across is writing and pics, at least to a dude like me.

The way it's setup now, get a 375-450 cfm centrifugal and you should be down to a 2-4 degree delta temp inside to outside with only one run of duct. Your getting better flow striaght through, as the splitters are adding a bit of flow resistance.

I think your seedlings will be ok if the RH is mod to high - ya might want to peek in on 'em every couple hours the first day just to be sure they adapt - may need a misting or two until they do.

Still smackin my forehead. Can't believe I didn't notice you had 10x intake area - amazing...

 

[cheetos]

if you start the seedlings on some silicone additive then the 85 degree'ish temps might not be so bad. The silicone helps the plant build up a tolerance to the heat by thickening the cell walls. It also helps defend against the occasional low water issues and helps defend against bugs. Silicone additive should be a given for any grower regardless of the temps.

 

[Slezman]

Thanks for the input everyone!!! I solved all my temp issues by buying an 8" vortex. You can read a summary of the construction of my cab and all the problems I came into by going to the permanent thread for my first grow: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=537428#post537428

Obviously, this thread will be updated as my plants progress!

 

[cheetos]

damn straight that thing worked. an 8" vortech is some serious fricking cfm's man. You could prob do two 600's with that thing. A six wuld have been plenty eficient. Better safe than sorry right. Awesome youre up and going. Im checking out the grow thread now cath ya l8tr.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Thanks for the input everyone!!! I solved all my temp issues by buying an 8" vortex.

A man after my own heart You'll like that fan...and you'll be able to run 3-4K of air cooled lights on it if ya ever decide to go bigger.

Now that you've oversized your cooling, have you thought of going with a bigger light? That fan will handle it :wink:

Glad ya got it going good...looking forward to the grow thread. Best wishes on it.