It's Hot Inside My Cabinet!

[momzer]

Experienced closet grower just can't get the new cabinet to cool it!
Recently married & had to give up closet to wife!

Decided to build my own grow cabinet.
(I thought I was doing everything right!)

Set up: Metal 2 Door Storage Cabinet-78" High/24" Deep/36" Wide
1 Shelf, 12" from top, holds a home made fan box lined with styrofoam containing a : Windtunnel Inline Fan 6" 409 cfm with exhaust through hole in top of cabinet. I'm using a variac to control speed.
Below the shelf hangs an air cooled reflector w/600 w. bulb.
Fresh air enters reflector through hole in L side of cabinet, exits reflector to right angle, 6" hose goes through hole in shelf and into fan box.
Mounted to the right of the reflector 5" below the shelf is a Panasonic Whisper Fan (80 cfm) with home made carbon filter box (not filled yet) facing up.
The Panasonic exhausts through hole in R side of cabinet.

Passive air vents=2) 4" holes on the bottom back of cabinet + 1) 6 x 8" vent at top back of cabinet.

Temperature inside cabinet is 103.6 degrees & climbing!!!
Room Temperature=78-79 degrees

Any ideas?

P.S.-I noticed that variac & ballast were creating a lot of heat.
I rewired cabinet and put those two items on top, outside unit.
It should help a little.

 

[WarBux79]

can you take some pics? Its a lot easier to help with pics. Your air cooled reflector is being vented into the same room the cab is in right? What are the ambient temps in that room?

 

[SnowBender]

Passive air vents=2) 4" holes on the bottom back of cabinet + 1) 6 x 8" vent at top back of cabinet.
.

Pics would be so helpful..
But if i read it right it sounds like the 6x8" opening at the top is causing an airshort and the "cool" (*see below) air is taking the easiest and shortest path and being vented without circulating. is any air even being sucked into the bottom 4"er's?

block off top vent. increase lower vents to match total combined fan exhaust size's.

*do the exhausts also vent to the back, near the intakes? if so its just recirculating/reheating the hot air behind the cabinet.

 

[momzer]

House is a constant 78-79 degrees-cooled w/ac.

 

[momzer]

Exhaust from light-vented through hole in top of cabinet.
Exhaust from cabinet-vented through hole in right side of cabinet.
Input to reflector-vent on left side of cabinet.

Will add 2 more 4" vents on right & left bottom
(current 2 are in the back.

Let's see if it helps.

 

[PotPie]

Hey Momzer, You might try a smaller wattage fixture also. I run a cab almost the same size as yours with a 400W HPS. I still have problems keeping it cool. I know you've already made the investment in 600W gear but it would definitely help the situation if you were able to lose 200W of heat load.

A water cooled fixture would help a lot too but I'm not sure it would be right for your situation since it need's a large water reservoir. I don't have any hands-on experience with water cooled fixtures but there a couple of growers here that use them. I seem to recall that Wheel0fFortune was using one.

Best of Luck.