Too hot in the tent! Help?

StarMan101

New Member
So I'm on my first grow. I have a small tent setup (19.5" x 35.5" x 65"). I'm having a heat problem in my tent. The tent is in a wardrobe in an air conditioned room, yet I can't get temp below 92 degrees (33 degrees celsius).

I have a Mars Hydro Reflector 144 (317w) LED light. I've just switched on the "Bloom" switch after a month of veg.

I have an 4" inline fan (High 116 CFM — Low 97 CFM) switched on high, pulling the air through a 4" carbon filter.

The fan and filter are mounted about 2/3 of the way up the tent right now. I've tried it right at the top too, didn't make a difference, I felt it is actually a bit better down low pulling the hot air out that's being blown out by the led.

I have a 4" passive intake at the bottom, but I have a mini fan right at the ducting trying to push as much cool air into the bottom as I can.

Im shocked at how much heat this light is generating! They might be coolish to the touch, but I think maybe it's making too much heat for this tent??

My plants are on the ground and the light is down around 8" above them.

Please help? I feel disappointed as I feel I've researched and bought the right equipment but I can't control this heat? Thank you in advance guys!

Just want to add... I was doing OK with temps until I switched on the bloom switch. Obviously the extra lights are making much more warmth.

Will I ruin the plants with this temp? They're small!
 
Im not the best grower but do you have your exhaust fan blowing outside of the wardrobe, with the led light in a small tent the heat will go way up, you will also need to raise the light to about 24" for veg(if i've read it correctlly somewhere in these forums),:thumb: i found that with my first led grow kept light same as with hps and the ladies never stretched ended up with plants just over half meter bushy as **** though but only got about 7g each when dried from 4 plants
 
Wow, 24"? The light will still be strong enough at that distance?

Yeh I'm venting the exhaust out of the closet and the intake is also out the bottom of the closet, so essentially the airflow is from the airconditioned room. How close should the lights be in flower?

I guess if I raise the lights the heat will go down, just worried about not getting the light intensity that they need

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Just looked on Mars Hydro site, it does indeed say 24", so I'll lift it higher tomorrow and see how the temp goes. Thanks!

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Hi StarMan101.

Sorry I've missed the opportunity to do so previously, but welcome to the 420 Magazine community of members.

I think raising the light will help with the heat, but probably not a lot. Temps in the mid 80's are about the upper end of the "optimal" range. Are the plants putting out a lot of smell right now? I think you mentioned them only being a month old and I know mine don't usually have a super strong smell at that point and so perhaps the carbon filter is not necessary at the moment.

I also can't help wonder if the air flow in the intake might just be inadaquate. If I'm envisioning your setup correctly, you have a tent inside a wardrobe. Essentially double bagging the plants. Would I be correct that the only air coming through the intake is what is contained within the wardrobe? I do understand heat is being vented out of the wardrobe, but I can't help wonder if intake into the wardrobe, to then be intaken into the tent isn't somehow restricted.

I hope you get your situation dialed in as easily as possible. I can empathize with thinking you had carefully researched as to avoid just such an issue.

Be well and happy growing!
 
Yeh intake is coming in from the AC bedroom. Plants were starting to make the room smell so I hooked up the filter just before switching to bloom.

If raising the light doesn't help, I'm not sure what I can do. I guess I can add an active intake but really in such a small tent and only a 300w LED, it seems like passive SHOULD be enough?

Sent from my SM-T700 using 420
 
what is the temp in your ac room? the ac room would need to be about 60 degree's to start making any difference to ur temps inside your tent. I have a 24"x24"x48" with a 300w led in my room that i use for seedlings and veg that gets to about 85 degrees no exhaust or intake all passive sat in a room with a temp of 65 degrees, my other tent is 1.2x1.2x2m running 900w led that reaches 80-85 degrees in the middle of summer with 4" exhaust and passive intake,

raising the light wont make any difference to temp as it is still in same confined space, you might need to get a stronger or larger exhaust fan, or a small ac unit for inside the tent. its the ambient temp that's keeping your temps high

hope this helps a bit with my limited knowledge

:420:
 
Thanks buddy, I've been keeping the temp at around 70, so perhaps I should drop it lower. I will have to look into other fan options. The store suggested that this one was as strong as I should use on such a small tent, something about the negative pressure being too much. I might try an intake fan. Thanks for your help!

Sent from my SM-T700 using 420
 
I think your main problem is the tent is inside the wardrobe which increases the insulation for the tent, you say your room at 70 but inside the wardrobe you might find the temp nearer the temp of the inside of tent which wont help keep temps down, you would need to have cool air circulate around the tent. I've found never to listen to people selling things they just want a sale unless they know the type of enviroment and positioning they can only offer advice, the only thing left from my original start-up purchases is my 1.2 tent everything else was useless in my enviroment. ie 600w hps with shade 6"fan n filter 600w mh took my tent to well above 105 degrees. hope I've been of some help Bud

:420:
 
Yeh, you've given me lots to consider. I think you might be right about the closet keeping the tent from cooling down. For stealth I would like to keep it in there, but might end up moving it into the room itself if it continues. I've just lifted the light to about 20" and will see if it makes a difference :)

Sent from my SM-T700 using 420
 
Sounds like the passive vent may be to small or might just make another one or two to increase intake air flow this should help.

Passive intake size is normally around double of extraction used.
 
I opened up all the passive vents, and now the temp is staying around 85 while lights are on. I think this is ok, little higher than I'd like but that's all I can do.




Sent from my SM-T700 using 420
 
You don't need to hide the tent inside the wardrobe. Use one or the other to increase your passive and active airflow. For now, just leave the wardrobe door open.
I do need to keep the door closed for stealth, but it seems to be ok now :)

Sent from my SM-T700 using 420
 
Try venting fresh air directly on the light? Or a fan maybe


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Sometimes facing the fan to blow across the lighting unit helps dissipate the heat. Like blowing on a cup of hot coffee to cool it down.
 
I had the same issue with about the same size space. Just wasn't getting enough air flow out of my 4" fan and filter setup. So this run I upgraded to 6" fan and filter. Really pulling air though there now but had to add a muffler as its much noisier than the 4"

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