First grow closet on an armoire closet with CFL

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Thanks toker69, I can't wait to get my ladies in there and they get a feel for the new upgrade (installed it while my girls were sleeping, I had them in the closet for a short period. ) now I can see the spectrum of the LED when the CFL are off, but when the CFL are on I can't see the spectrum of the LED. Are the CFL over powering the LED? Even if I can see it are my ladies receiving the wavelength?

 

[toker69]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Sure the cfl's help you see better, and add more light for growing.

Keep an eye on temperature, and it should work out nice.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Notice a bit of temperature increase. Should I upgrade to a 112 cfm intake fan instead of the 30cfm computer fan?

But besides it all the ladies are loving it. Im just curious if the cfl are killing the reflectivity of the LED. Should I take some off, reducing heat and increase the reflection of the LED wavelength that I can't see. Are my ladies still receiving it plus the cfl's

Let me know what y'all think.

 

[toker69]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

No problems with mixing CFL's, and LED's buddy.

People do it all the time.

Many of the big grows use t5's as side lighting.

The CFL is just putting out more of the type of light you can see with.

But still it adds up, and don't block anything.

People are mixing HID's, LED's, and CFL's all the time.

And it works! It works good.

 

[toker69]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

The thing I'm wondering about is temperature, and headroom.

I really love your mini setup with veg, and flower rooms.

But I think you should try autoflowers, and make it just one taller space.

You could make your own female auto seeds, and save $$

But yes I think you need the bigger fan.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Thanks bro. I'm new to this and this is my first setup and cycle. Surprisingly The only two seeds that came inside what where supposed to be a sinsemilla and my hook up claimed it was afghani kush, so I kept them and happy both turn female. What would have caused it to create seeds. Hermi or pollinated by a male... it would have had more than 2 seeds.

And yeah my next step will be to add more head room and grow 3 footers instead of 2 feet.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Wanted to share a quick BUDshot today we start vweek 3 in 12/12

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Ok so the LED had increase the temperature substantially. Even doe I have it next to the exhaust fan. Yeah The light is cool to the touch but the heat exhausted by the LED is heating up the chamber more than expected. Let see if changing the 30cfm fan to a 112cfm fan intake helps keep things cool. Bring in more cold air!

Best is that I will use the other fan to built my drying box. Stay tuned for a thread on this.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Update 5/22/14- had to redesign the box filter/light trap.
1. The small box wasn't venting fast enough and hot air was bouncing back in the chamber.
2. The exhausted heat was close to the intake fan and hot air was being pulled in.
Notice a great temperature drop last night, no more air bouncing back in and cool air is being pull in. Next step is to build a frame to hold a filter for the intake fan.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

You would think that by having a small space I'll be able to have good humidity, but I don't. My veg space has been suffering from humidity in the 30% during lights on well. . Not anymore with the addition of a cheap USB humidifier problem solve. My ladies are going to be loving it now. Maybe I can see some growth increase. Fingers crossed

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Random photos. The girls are loving it!

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Few modification to the grow closet. Still experiencing heating issue. I think that the reflective insulation is holding the heat. I am going to try switching to a white surface and see if this. I rebuilt a new light trap a relocated the fan to blow straight to the room. This help bringing it 3 degrees down but I'm still in the 95. Could it be possible the carbon filter is causing heat? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Next step i will add head room for the flowering chamber and set up lighting to harness a mother, I was originally planning of taking cuts of cuts as I moved on, but I think by doing this I'm watering down the genetics as the cycles goes. Any thoughts?

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

in my battle with heating issue. I think that I'm on the right track and Do to the factor that I want to keep it as stealth as possible I'm very limited to the option with the inline. I believe that the reflective insulation is holding up the heat, myla has the same problem and since mine is insulated is reflecting more radiant heat ( this is what I think). I will be changing it out to TPO(Thermoplastic Polyolefin). This is a white membrane that has a high R value. This is used on roof know as cool roof. oh and definitely in the future will upgrade to a bigger cfm fan. I currently have a 112cfm fan intake and another one for exhaust.

 

[toker69]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Hey bro! Looking good.

Taking cuttings from cuttings for clones is fine, and white paint is only slightly less reflective than mylar.

I can't tell exactly how your venting is setup, but an exit vent directly above the new LED might be good.

I grow in my closet in my bedroom. Heres a photo of my setup.

The hot air goes up thru a hole above my I-Gro LED.

And blows out into my bedroom. It keeps the temps the same as in my bedroom.

I got a window AC unit cooling down my bedroom, and thus cooling my closet grow room.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

I have the exhaust fan next to the LED. and the way I have
it with a simple light trap a filter.

the temperature was kept in the 91 @ max ( better than 99) but I'm now thinking that I have to get the exhausted heat out of my room. It's been getting around 89 in there and in my living room is 72.

 

[Boscoe]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

This is the same problem the smaller SuperClosets have: PC style fans just won't do the job unless you can keep your room temps super cold. Like, if you live in a chilly climate and have a garage that's routinely 50f, they work great.

Ultimately I think you may have little choice but to upgrade to a real exhaust fan. Unfortunately, I think you'd have to have the fan outside the box to prevent it from eating up an unacceptable amount of your box's headroom. Which also means reduced stealth.

For my own in-progress armoire design, I was originally inspired by the Superclosets but decided to design my own, mainly due to the SC's design flaws concerning heat.

There are some very nice 4" and 6" fans that are designed to be as quiet as it's possible for something blowing air to be. They're a bit spendy though. I was originally thinking about a 4" Soler & Palau TD-100x. Most fans require you to do your own electrical wiring, but this model is available in a pre-wired version for $127. But, it's only 140 cfm, and after seeing the issues you're still having with 110 cfm and what BID told me about his set up, I may go to a 6" Vortex S-Line ultra quiet 347 cfm instead.

These things are like the cadillac of inline fans! LOL SO much good design behind them. But super spendy at $188. But considering the amount of extra power and features you get for not all that much more expense, I'm realizing that the Vortex is really the way to go. Throw a speed controller on it, and it should handle anything you throw at it.

Good call on the humidifier, BTW. That's another problem with small spaces - you're pulling so much air through it to keep the temps down that you're drying out the space! I'm planning to add an RH monitor to turn the humidifier on and off and maintain total control over the environment.

Another thing I've been thinking about is I've designed my intake in a way that will allow me to put those reuseable blue freezer packs under it as a way to cool the incoming air. I thought that might make a good emergency fallback if everything else fails. LOL

The other conclusion I eventually came to with my design is that you need as much headroom as possible or you will eventually just regret it. I changed my design from a multi-chamber to one big open space and I feel much better about it. Especially using LEDs, you need to maintain at least 14-16 inches from your plants or the PAR will nuke them. I decided that I'd rather be able to grow bigger plants and keep the light at a safe distance than have painfully cramped grow/veg chambers that force me to grow tiny plants.

Plus I'm designing mine with a SCROG frame option to give me even more control to maximize the confined space. Though at this point I'm fascinated by Light Addict's Flux technique and may do that instead. Or maybe both? LOL

But that's just my own personal thinking for whatever it's worth. Just sharing because we're doing pretty much the same thing and I've already gone down a bunch of dead-end design paths. I've been lurking on forums doing research for years, but the biggest source of info was seeing people's lamentations about the shortcomings of the smaller SuperClosets and figuring out how I could resolve them. In the end the key issues seemed to be 1. heat buildup/air flow 2. odor control 3. headroom. Design around those issues, and all the rest will fall into place. Or so it seems in my Google Sketchup model...

Sry about writing a novel! LOL And now back to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress...

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

This is the same problem the smaller SuperClosets have: PC style fans just won't do the job unless you can keep your room temps super cold. Like, if you live in a chilly climate and have a garage that's routinely 50f, they work great.

Ultimately I think you may have little choice but to upgrade to a real exhaust fan. Unfortunately, I think you'd have to have the fan outside the box to prevent it from eating up an unacceptable amount of your box's headroom. Which also means reduced stealth.

For my own in-progress armoire design, I was originally inspired by the Superclosets but decided to design my own, mainly due to the SC's design flaws concerning heat.

There are some very nice 4" and 6" fans that are designed to be as quiet as it's possible for something blowing air to be. They're a bit spendy though. I was originally thinking about a 4" Soler & Palau TD-100x. Most fans require you to do your own electrical wiring, but this model is available in a pre-wired version for $127. But, it's only 140 cfm, and after seeing the issues you're still having with 110 cfm and what BID told me about his set up, I may go to a 6" Vortex S-Line ultra quiet 347 cfm instead.

These things are like the cadillac of inline fans! LOL SO much good design behind them. But super spendy at $188. But considering the amount of extra power and features you get for not all that much more expense, I'm realizing that the Vortex is really the way to go. Throw a speed controller on it, and it should handle anything you throw at it.

Good call on the humidifier, BTW. That's another problem with small spaces - you're pulling so much air through it to keep the temps down that you're drying out the space! I'm planning to add an RH monitor to turn the humidifier on and off and maintain total control over the environment.

Another thing I've been thinking about is I've designed my intake in a way that will allow me to put those reuseable blue freezer packs under it as a way to cool the incoming air. I thought that might make a good emergency fallback if everything else fails. LOL

The other conclusion I eventually came to with my design is that you need as much headroom as possible or you will eventually just regret it. I changed my design from a multi-chamber to one big open space and I feel much better about it. Especially using LEDs, you need to maintain at least 14-16 inches from your plants or the PAR will nuke them. I decided that I'd rather be able to grow bigger plants and keep the light at a safe distance than have painfully cramped grow/veg chambers that force me to grow tiny plants.

Plus I'm designing mine with a SCROG frame option to give me even more control to maximize the confined space. Though at this point I'm fascinated by Light Addict's Flux technique and may do that instead. Or maybe both? LOL

But that's just my own personal thinking for whatever it's worth. Just sharing because we're doing pretty much the same thing and I've already gone down a bunch of dead-end design paths. I've been lurking on forums doing research for years, but the biggest source of info was seeing people's lamentations about the shortcomings of the smaller SuperClosets and figuring out how I could resolve them. In the end the key issues seemed to be 1. heat buildup/air flow 2. odor control 3. headroom. Design around those issues, and all the rest will fall into place. Or so it seems in my Google Sketchup model...

Sry about writing a novel! LOL And now back to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress...

bro! thanks for sharing, your 100% correct I'm finding all these issues as I go. I plan on eliminating the middle shelf this will give me about 11" inches headroom (that's what she said, lol). I'm seeing the height being a issue, would love to one day grow tall sativa, but I want to keep a perpetual grow going (hopefully harvesting 2 girl's every 4 weeks) so i need to keep an active veg room. I'm been toying with the idea of a can fan and funny that you mentioned the vortex because this is the one that caught my eyes, but my space is very limited so this option is out for the meantime. on the good and bad side, is that my veg chamber cheap PC fan on the exhaust gave up on me (really a cheap fan that I got@ compusa, so cheap I got my $ back in a rebate). Now this gives me the opportunity to bring the "real heavy duty" (not cheap) fan in the flowering chamber on to the veg chamber and going to get 6" 235 cfm fan for the flowering.

After changing the reflective insulation on the wall to the TPO my temperature are down to the 88 max. ( I loved more the metallic reflective look, but it was killing me)
BTW funny on the outside temperature being low.. my wife is complaining about having our bedroom super cold (this is where I have the closet setup) ultimately my goal is to build a box similar to the BCNORTHERNLIGHTS bloom box.

be careful with the icebag I tried this, but ended up with melted bags and high humidity in my flowering chamber. but I had the bag straight under a fan you have yours by the filter.

great design on your Sketchup model. I like the filter box and going to see if I can work something similar. do you have your box built or it's still in designing stage.

 

[Boscoe]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

My box is under construction, but I'm taking my sweet time building it. LOL

For the vortex fan, I'm actually going to put it outside, on top of the box, and will eventually build an extra enclosure to hide it. Not a priority though. Thanks for the head's up on the icebags! I'd actually be keeping them outside the box so they're not subjected to the higher temps inside, but hopefully with the 6" fan they won't be needed at all.

Those BCNorthernLights boxes ARE extremely nice...

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

Alright installed a 6 " 235cfm fan on the exhaust and move the 112cfm to the veg exhaust. Fingers crossed I'll be happy with 82-84 @ max. Also saw a post on a dyi micro filter.

 

[armoire grow]

Re: First grow closet on a armoire closet with CFL

ok so trying out to pull air through the charcoal filter instead of pushing it out. Let see how my experiment works. The photos are pretty self explanatory in the DYI.. (if you can call it a DYI, more like jerry rig.....)

once I get a chance going to get a clamp and run the charcoal mesh through the outside instead of inside, this is just experimental.

opinion, criticism, .02 cent, etc... are well receive.