what's wrong with my setup, it won't reduce temps!!

[Dr.Feelgood]

Guys, try to be nice. We're all newbies at some point.

Threadstarter: Think of it in the sense that you want to pull cool air THROUGH the cab, across the plants, and across the light so the air absorbs the heat and is, then, exhausted out of the cab. Know what I mean? Think of a radiator and coolant in your car's motor. You're constantly circulating, heating coolant via the engine, and cooling it in the radiator. You need to pull air from the bottom of the cab to the top of the cab where it is exhausted. Got it?

 

[bostrom155]

I'm sorry :friends: You'll get it, go back to when it was 74?

 

[Guest]

ok, some of you might remember this thread I made a while back and I've been reading and I understand what you all are talking about now, the problem is that I'm dumping the same hot air that's being exausted back into the closet. so either I need to add another powerful fan outside the cab (I've added a 16" oscilliating fan, but it doesn't effect temps.) so I need a powerful fan, how loud is a 462CFM active air fan? a website is having a special for $65. Or how many CFM would you recommend, I don't want to get a loud fan.

or it might work if I add passive intakes, so I believe I should add 4 - 2" passive intakes since my exaust fan is 4", and I can add these with "pee traps" or PVC elbows. I'm not sure where to install these intakes, I can't do it at the bottom of the cab so I'm thinking on the side/bottom of the cab would work. I have an 8x8 darkroom vent installed (this isn't an intake vent is it? if it is, it isn't helping much)

I think the best way would be to add that 465cfm fan outside the cab or another powerful fan, but i'm not sure what's the quietest fan I can get to do this, how many cfm would you recommend?

any other suggestions or do I understand everything now?

 

[bostrom155]

Before you buy stock in any more fan companies, let me ask you a few simple questions?
1. What is the temp of the closet that your growbox is in?
2. What is the temp in your growbox, just under the canapy of your plants(with all plants in the cab)?

 

[Guest]

Before you buy stock in any more fan companies, let me ask you a few simple questions?
1. What is the temp of the closet that your growbox is in?
2. What is the temp in your growbox, just under the canapy of your plants(with all plants in the cab)?

not sure about closet temp., but it's pretty hot, I start sweating in a few minutes, temp of growbox is 90+ with closet door closed, and around 88 with closet door open

 

[bostrom155]

can you have a grow cab outside of the closet?

 

[Guest]

can you have a grow cab outside of the closet?

no, it has to be in my closet, I'm sure there is a way to fix this a lot of people grow in there closet, a lot of people have replied with answers in this thread and I just need to add passive intakes or get a powerful fan which will cool the closet (I think this would be the easiest way) but I don't want it to be too loud, I found a fan online they're having a special for $65 it's an Active Air 465CFM fan, that should definately cool the closet I would think, but how loud do you think it will be? I don't want it to be loud.

even if I add passive intakes it isn't really going to help any since the same hot air is being circulated in the closet right? so the same air is going to go back into the cab. I even have a 7" oscilliating fan inside my cab and that doesn't really help.

 

[Dr.Feelgood]

so you MIGHT add passive intakes?

make your life easier and just do it.

i mean...wtf mate? how would a bigger ventilation fan or an air circulating fan make things any better?

YOU. NEED. NEW. COOL. AIR. TO. BE. PULLED. THROUGH. THE. CAB.

add the intake and then figure out a way to put new fresh air into the closet. leave the door cracked and put a fan there to circulate the air? then close it when people are over.

 

[Guest]

so you MIGHT add passive intakes?

make your life easier and just do it.

i mean...wtf mate? how would a bigger ventilation fan or an air circulating fan make things any better?

YOU. NEED. NEW. COOL. AIR. TO. BE. PULLED. THROUGH. THE. CAB.

add the intake and then figure out a way to put new fresh air into the closet. leave the door cracked and put a fan there to circulate the air? then close it when people are over.

how many passive intakes should I add? I'm going to add 2"passive intakes either "pee traps", or 90 degree elbows, I have a 4" vortex 170cfm and cab size is: 2x2x4 ft. and there is an 8x8 darkroom vent

and can I add these intakes towards the bottom and on the sides instead through the top or the bottom?

 

[Guest]

also, I have an 8x8 darkroom louvers vent installed, this is different from passive intakes?

 

[bostrom155]

You need to get some thermometers, before you buy anymore fans, and get accurate temps, you have to know the temp of your room and other things of course. Is your bedroom, that the closet is in, A/c'ed or not???

 

[Guest]

yeah bedroom has ac, I have a digital thermometer, but I think it's reading temps. wrong, somebody posted this picture on the first page, and the one on the right is the one I have and it's showing a significat difference in temps. so I guess I'll get a new thermometer first, but it's hot in there, I can tell when I walk in there it gets hot.

so is a darkroom louvers vent not the same as passive intakes?

I know, I'm kind of slow at this, but I'm trying to read up on this as much as possible, and thanks for being patient hopefully I'll eventually have this figured out. I've been searching and reading posts on passive intakes quite a bit, I was about to go to the store and get some pvc elbows and then I read a post where somebody said to just get an 8x8 louvers darkroom vent instead, so now I'm confused, since that's what I have installed so now I don't know if I need to install passive intakes or not.

my temperature guage is showing my apt. is at 80 I usually keep the ac between 75 and 78, I can't lower it anymore or my electricity bill is going to be too high.

 

[Jnugg]

Untill you gac start exhuasting the hot air to somewhere outside the closet your temps won't decreASE.

 

[fallenangel]

Untill you gac start exhuasting the hot air to somewhere outside the closet your temps won't decreASE.

yeh simple as this .... i still dont think you get this concept

 

[Guest]

so, I guess there's nothing else I can do since I can't exaust hot air anywhere else, all hot air is going directly to a carbon scrubber, and I can't put it anywhere else, I guess the plant is probably going to die and I'll probably not be able to grow since I can't exaust air anywhere else, we'll just see what happens.

 

[dan kay]

any way you can reroute the AC from the bedroom into the closet? i had an apartment that the bedroom ducting went through the ceiling of the closet. 2 x 4" holes and i was pumping in my AC and pumping out my hot air into the bedroom. maybe you could trim 1/2" off the top and bottom of the door to help get a little more airflow through. good luck.

 

[bostrom155]

Can you take a pic of your cab showing the closet area too,
can you leave your closet doors open, if not get a pre fab, like I mentioned earlier it looks like it belongs in the room or closet instead of some plywood slapped together, looking like a shipping crate.

 

[Guest]

i'll post pics, when I get my camera back, I can't reroute the AC through, I'm not good at this type of stuff I'm suprised I was even able to get this cab assembled (which is half-assed assembled).

although I don't think pics. are going to do anything, I understand now what everybody has been saying, I leave my closet door open but it doesn't really help much it's only a 2 degree difference.

I'll just let the plant grow and see what happens, if it doesn't grow then oh well, this is just a hobby I was attempting, not really a big issue.

 

[bostrom155]

You need to have your room at 70-74 degrees F, if you have central Heat and Air, and you cant get just that room cool, buy a window unit, with the closet doors open and the room around 72 it will be OK.
I would like to see pics, in order to help.

 

[Guest]

You need to have your room at 70-74 degrees F, if you have central Heat and Air, and you cant get just that room cool, buy a window unit, with the closet doors open and the room around 72 it will be OK.
I would like to see pics, in order to help.

I can't keep my room at 70-74, my electricity bill is going to be too high, I used to keep my apt. at that temp. and my electricity bill was crazy, and I lowered it recently and my bill actually lowered after I had light/fans, etc.. on 24 hrs.
I guess I'll just lower my AC temperatures or get that portable AC and leave closet door open. is there a particular portable AC that you could recommend that isn't expensive? do they take up a lot of electricity?