Growbox

here it is

questionablehps.jpg
 
it looks shot to me, never seen one either but I've got a lot of electrical exp. and have seen a good one online. That inner tube is blown, the smokey black crap on either ends. Same shit you'd get on a normal incandescent blub. I'd bet money you'll be fine with a new bulb.

And even when I look at it again, is the base all backed out?
 
it had all the blackened stuff before, but I would like to know if it got worse or not.

hps may not even be practical for my situation though. I installed my extra fan, and it did absolutely nothing for inside temps. With just floros after a few hours the internal temp is 85, w/ a closet temp of about 80, and the temp outside the closet is about 76.

Now my overall apt temps will be going down a bit soon, as we have to switch from a/c to heating. So I guess i'm going to need multi-hundred CFMs. now, i'm wondering if that would just make the whole closet too hot while making my box sound like a jet engine.

any ideas on fans? or should I just switch to floros and save for a downpayment on a house?
 
depends. using CFL's with flowering decreases your yield dramatically Its possible and I'm actually doin it but I would much rather an HPS and senior members on the site swear by them. lets see a pic of your box.
 
Your grow box is in a closet? Isn't that a box inside a box? And your in a apartment? Thats kinda scary, smell might also be a big issue.
I can't help ya about the bulb problem, I change my hps bulbs every 9 months. Its a maintenance thing because bulbs loose their performance power for optinum growing rather quickly.
If you can't get the heat down, your gonna have problems. Maybe cfls will be your best choice. I never was able to do a micro grow with HIDs because of the same issues you have experience. Hell, even keeping whole rooms that has HIDs at the proper growing temp is diffacult. Good luck with whichever path you choose. I had a few ideals but they won't work if the box is in a closet.
 
Ive got a "box in a box". Im using all cfls and im in flowering now. i know the buds wont be as dense and my yield will be smaller but its what works for my situation. You may get some ideas from it.
 
thanks for the advice guys. I have used the hps in a couple of previous grows some years ago. I used an open closet that was maby a bit smaller. As I recall it got pretty hot in the room but didn't damage the plants. The bagseed from my first attempt stretched to about 5' though.

I don't remember odor being that big of a problem even when I had 4 plants going. I got an air purifier, and some odor killing gell
 
It turns out that my hps issue was just a blown bulb. So for future reference, that pic is of a blown hps bulb.

I'm still thinking about a possible solution to allow me to use the hps in my closet. it would be similar to a cool tube. I did some searching and found a guy who made a homemade cooltube that was effective on a 1000w bulb for less than $100

Now i'm eyeballing the 1" crack under my closet door and thinking about how easily I could run an intake and exhaust undneath. Running an intake would prevent the exhaust from spewing odor into my room

Of course if I got the thing up and running I'd still only be able to run it during cool months. I'd just close the heating vents in my room to keep the air from getting too hot.
 
Hey man, if you are just using a 250w, all you need is a pyrex bake a round tube. You can get the bake a round tubes on Ebay for 10 bucks, there 4" around and there's a ton of them on ebay, and the fans are 15 bucks from lowes. It works great with a bathroom exaust fan, with a 4" homemade adapter from the intake side of the fan to the bake a round tube. You can use it as an exaust fan for your box and use the PC fans for good measure when needed, or hook a hose to the other end of the tube have outside air cooling the bulb. Anyway Hope this helps!
 
yes, I'm already working on a very similar solution. I'm building the hurricane glass version of the cool tube. Here's the setup: 7' of 4" intake flexible vent tubing to a cheapo home depot inline vent fan. From the intake it's 3' more tubing to the hurricane glass. The hurricane glass has 4" x 6" reducers on either end. Then I have another 7' of exhaust from the other end of the glass.

This setup kinda/sorta/but not really works. After about 10 minutes the glass gets pretty darn hot. Once I have the tubing extended, the airflow gets reduced dramatically

Now I suppose there are a few ways of improving the system. I could move the vent fan to be directly against the tube, and skip the 3' of tubing. the problem is my limited area (Although I suppose I could position the bulb vertically to make room). Also I have the base end of the bulb facing the intake, and the top end facing the exhaust. Reversing this would probably be more aerodynamic.

I know that I could insert a 80mm computer fan somewhere near the bulb. I would need to seal all around the square edges of the fan. I just worry about the air resistance in the tubing and the glass, the computer fan still may not be enough.

So i'm thinking that 4" inline fan is a waste of time, and I'll remove it from the system.
My local shop lists the same fan for $100. I think a fan like this should be able to overcome the air resistance in my setup. any thoughts?
 
Your problem is the reduction if air to the bulb, if it were me, I would try it without the reducer on the intake side of the tube and see what it feels like with that. The vortex fans are great, but thats a lot of jack for me to spend for a fan, I have the 6" version from home depot and it works great for 25 bucks.
 
hmm so the fan would need to be suspended along with the tube. I suppose the fan could fit inside the mouth of the tube, but I'd need more foam tape on the fan exhaust to make the seal. I just wonder if the foam would be too close to the light. I figure I have about 2" from the tip of the light to the mouth of the hurricane glass, and the tube would go in maby 1/2 to 3/4" inside. The other advantage to this would be that I wouldn't need the additional 3' of tubing.

I'll try it out when I get some time. I'm not in a hurry to work it all out just yet since the temps are still in the 80s around here, and my girls seem to be vegging happily under the cfls so far.

thanks for the advice!
 
Hey, I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. To start with, I would'nt hook the fan straight to the globe, it is real hot there and foam could start a fire. I was saying to take the reducer off the other end of the tube to allow better air flow.

Always nice to here about happy girls!
 
problem is that the globe is 5" and the tube is 4". Hence the need for a reducer. should I just insert the tube into the mouth of the globe and duct tape it?
 
Hey, you want to keep anything flamable away from that glass tube, it will get hot, even with good air flow.

"The hurricane glass has 4" x 6" reducers on either end. Then I have another 7' of exhaust from the other end of the glass."

This is the hose you need to loose, or enlarge to 6" hose.
 

Similar threads

mountaingoat
Mountaingoats Stealth CFL PC-GrowBox
Replies
13
Views
19K
mountaingoat
mountaingoat
Hal Incandnza
Picture - My plan for a complete grow box, need advice/suggestions!
Replies
4
Views
5K
Muttt
Muttt
C
Building my growbox...
2 3
Replies
49
Views
26K
808sWAGG
8
Tokist
Cheap replacement for mylar!(?)
Replies
12
Views
6K
kewllover
K
J
Need extraction advice for my first growbox
Replies
2
Views
6K
Farscape
Farscape
Back
Top Bottom