Stealth growbox

[Pakman]

I'm planning on building a cupboard of sorts for a small grow setup. This is my first ever grow/setup.

The local hydro shop has 600w hps kits on special for $200, the 400w kit is $190.

First of all I need some input on the cubic space needed for the 600. There will be a 6" inlet and 6" exhaust fan.

There will also be a small seperate cloning chamber with cloner and twin led tubes. The guy included a heat pad in the quote, but if I had this chamber above the grow chamber could that provide sufficient heat?

Enough questions for now, thanks for any input.

 

[corky1968]

I'm using a 600 watt MH now and it lights up a little over a 4X4 area quite nicely.

In a cupboard it may be overkill. Then again how big of a cupboard do you have?

This IC 600 watt club thread may help you decide if you want the 600 Watts.

It helped me.

Good Luck

 

[Pakman]

Given the space I plan on putting the cupboard, its total dimensions will be w1.1 x d0.7 x h2.0m.

I'm drawn to the 600 by the price, but if it is overkill then i I'll go the 400.

Thanks for the input.

 

[corky1968]

A 600 watt in there would be overkill and would really overheat it fast.

Good Luck.

 

[aridbud]

Heat will be a factor using MH/HID/HPS. Consider LED or high wattage CFL for that small a space.

Good luck!

 

[Levitationofme]

When you can afford a quality LED that will make a big difference in your stealth box.
You will create far less heat, and good ones run quietly. You can easily get away with a smaller fan. I pull the air out thru a vent using a 3 inch can-fan with prefilter before the Carbon filter.I run it at 10% and I have few odor issues. Overkill setup alert. A filtered input as well. It's not perfect but you don't have a bulky carbon filter inside your box taking up room. I have it so the Carbon filter is stealth like in my pile o crap.

Whatever reflective material you choose, it makes a big difference over plain wood.



This was originally my dry box, but my hobby got a lil out of control. Its' currently 1/2 way done with lining of Orca.

Once you have balanced out your setup with Light, Heat, Air and humidity and tweaked it for your purposes These little stealth setups can grow great buds.

 

[Pakman]

A 600w hps will cover up to 1m x 1m or 1m2. This will be 1.1m x 0.7m or 0.77m2. Wouldn't the 600 be perfect? Sure if it was .5m2 or less it'd be overkill but with this 20x20cm less wouldn't it be ideal?

I'll be wrapping the walls roof floor with the white film (cant remember the name) and maybe a strip around the wall of the mylar (the silver one) at canopy level.

LED's in aus are still way too expensive, i could get two 600w kits for the LED equiv of about 200w so...

What area will a 400w hps cover?

 

[corky1968]

It's not so much the amount light created by the 600 watts as much the heat created
that is the problem. If you make sure you have a good venting system then go for it.

400w HPS will cover a 3X3 area nicely.

Read this for more info.

400 Watt HPS - How much space? How many plants?

 

[Pakman]

Ok I'm getting what you guys are saying...

I am very reluctant to buy the 400 because of the 10 dollar difference for the 600. Thinking future grows etc where a 400 wouldn't suffice.

Luckily, as I'll likely be building this growbox I can be fairly flexible on design etc, as long as it is stealthy.

This being said, are there any posts on here, or even people with ideas on a design that would allow me to use the 600? Cheaper is better, but i will be buying parts slowly so I can handle a bit of cost.

 

[Pakman]

I was planning a different setup, I'm pretty sure it's on here. It's a three chamber box disguised as an entertainment unit with cd racks making up the front. This setup uses household cfls.

Problem is, here in australia you cant buy 500 42w cfls for 50 cents, the highest standard cfls are 20w. 220w per two chambers (440 total) using the cfls available here, it'll cost me about $150. $50 short of the 600 kit.

 

[corky1968]

I can see it now.

You want to go stealth now and will get a nice crop.

Then the next crop with be with 6X1000 watt lights in a large grow room.

 

[Pakman]

I'm sensing sarcasm, so let me put it a little simpler.

If I spend 190 on the 400w kit for this grow, maybe run a few lots through. Now lets say I move to a house where I'm able to use a tent for instance. Now I have to put out another 200 for the 600 kit, and the 400 will be sitting there unused.

What a waste of 190 bucks when with decent venting which I'm already going to have, the 600's heat could be controlled.

 

[chronosync]

Wrong number

 

[corky1968]

Sorry I was just teasing.

Stay on target with your planning all will be fine.

 

[Pakman]

Uncertain on the "wrong number" comment?

Anyways, the ideas I was more looking for were venting setups, a variance in dimensions of the case etc.

 

[chronosync]

Sorry my bad I was posting in the wrong thread......

I see your dillema after reading your thread now, I'm not sure what I'd want to do either. Heat obv is the concern, can you get a dimmable ballast for the 6? Because you have enough height.

One thing that comes to mind is......find out how much cfm it takes to cool a 4'x4' tent and just double that figure. How hot or cool is the space the cabinet is in? If you are already on the warm side HID may not be the way to go.

You could buy the 600w, set it up and see if it makes too much heat. Return or exchange?

 

[Pakman]

I can buy a different balast from the one in the kit, but then the combo price would dissappear.

My biggest dilemma to start with is I don't have the space to grow yet. I'm either building or buying a unit to use. So I can't even test and exchange.

If I were to move away from hps for now and look at cfls (leds here, most are crap, the rest are still too pricey) are there any setups that come to mind?

 

[corky1968]

If you bought a 400 now and moved later on while upgrading to 600's and a bigger grow room.

You could still use the 400 together with the 600's or use
it alone for keeping a few mothers alive in a separate grow
chamber. While using the 600's for flowering.

 

[Pakman]

So heat wise with the two fans, how would a 400 go in this area? Also lighting?

 

[corky1968]

Unfortunately, it's hard for anyone to figure that out.

There's so many variables.

The ambient air temp, air movement, size of grow chamber, humidity, anything else involved, etc,etc.

Sadly the only way to know for sure is to try it out.

Look at it this way if the 400 watts would be
too hot then you know that a 600 watts would
have really given you a hard time.

I have a 600 watts now and in a 4'X4'X7' high
homemade grow cabinet and it gets very hot
by the end of the day when the light is on.

So I have to leave the door open when the light is on to cool it off.

Aka = It's not stealthy now.

I will upgrade my air circulation though.

Then again it's Summer here now and warm to begin with.
In Winter, I won't have this heat problem of course.