Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

[NaturalSpirit]

Damn that is the best mailman ever! I am curious How your boards turn out! Have a great day and stay medicated .

 

[BamBam9647]

Awesome K!!!
I've just bought a Q7S dry herb vaporiser, looking forward to testing it out on my next harvest.
Congrats again, and I look forward to hearing how she smokes !

 

[Katins]

Re: Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

Thanks BamBam. Your grow is coming along nicely as well.

Did an upgrade on the filter. Nothing fancy, just changed the carbon media with around 1.5 mm particle size. Put my stuff that is curing inside the box and opened the lid, as I needed to burp it anyway. 20 min walk outside, came back and not a hint of smell in the room nor around the box... Works like a charm for smells, will see if the airflow be enough to keep the temps below 85.

Prepared the wiring for my new QB120 board. Damn that took me a while... As the genius of me while building the box, did half of my initial wiring with only yellow ground wire, as I ran out of blue and brown ones..
Now I need to decide how I want the boards to be mounted. Or, in other words, to think of how to do it with least effort and costs..

The stuff is curing nicely. Smells start improving. Still smells like fresh charred straw though..

 

[Katins]

Awesome K!!!
I've just bought a Q7S dry herb vaporiser, looking forward to testing it out on my next harvest.
Congrats again, and I look forward to hearing how she smokes !

Oh, by the way, let me know how you like the vaporiser. I like the size and price of it, I might think about a Xmas present for my precious me..

 

[BamBam9647]

Oh, by the way, let me know how you like the vaporiser. I like the size and price of it, I might think about a Xmas present for my precious me.. .

I will do!! Looking forward to trying it and heard great things. ..

 

[Katins]

Re: Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

A little update on the box

The amount of light is crazy. I get same lux at the bottom that I was getting at the top from CFL's. But damn they are hot... temp inside goes up to 94-95 F

 

[LedGuy74]

Looks nice should do you great. Is the driver mounted outside or inside the box? My panels personally stay cool and one of my drivers stays nice to the touch while the other gets hot.

 

[Katins]

Looks nice should do you great. Is the driver mounted outside or inside the box? My panels personally stay cool and one of my drivers stays nice to the touch while the other gets hot.

Thanks!
It is outside. And the board is warm to touch with the most sensitive part of arm. But still.
Dimmed to 3/4 of its power, will see where the temps max out now.

 

[HortiShorti]

I'd recommend putting intake fan at the bottom of the box while maintaining exhaust on the top.

 

[Katins]

I'd recommend putting intake fan at the bottom of the box while maintaining exhaust on the top.

Thanks shorti. I was considering this during initial build. But since it also acts as a fan to blow on my plant, I put it in the middle. Below that, there is only a pot. And if I put it lower, it would not change the temps, I am 99% sure.

So at 3/4 of the light output (30k lux instead of 40k at the bottom of the box) the temps max out at 89-90 F. And the air is dry as Ghandi's flip-flops... 28% RH.

 

[Katins]

Re: Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

At almost half of light output, around 23k lux measuring at the bottom of the box, temps at the presumable top of the plant fluctuate between 86 and 87 F. Shall try and put a glass under the lights. Like the one I had under CFL's. Maybe it will be enough of a heat screen without raising the temps of the LED board. And maybe it will let me run the lights a bit higher than 23k lux.
At the top there is 55k lux now. More than double of what I had during this first grow. So even at half of output, I shall be able to consider it an upgrade.
Just noticed that instead of the declared 5000 K I have 7200 K in that board. A bit odd

 

[HortiShorti]

Thanks shorti. I was considering this during initial build. But since it also acts as a fan to blow on my plant, I put it in the middle. Below that, there is only a pot. And if I put it lower, it would not change the temps, I am 99% sure.

So at 3/4 of the light output (30k lux instead of 40k at the bottom of the box) the temps max out at 89-90 F. And the air is dry as Ghandi's flip-flops... 28% RH.

My idea is to not use the fresh-air intake as a fan to blow the plants. I'd remove and patch the current ventilation. Intake at the bottom, exhaust at the top(hot air rises, think about convection & air currents in nature). Heat will be almost non-existent.

To move air around inside the cab, just get a 4" personal fan and hang on the wall over the canopy.

Should be less than $30 total modification

 

[Katins]

My idea is to not use the fresh-air intake as a fan to blow the plants. I'd remove and patch the current ventilation. Intake at the bottom, exhaust at the top(hot air rises, think about convection & air currents in nature). Heat will be almost non-existent.

To move air around inside the cab, just get a 4" personal fan and hang on the wall over the canopy.

Should be less than $30 total modification

Not trying to be a smart ass, but hot air rises and the heat source is at the top. Exhaust is higher than heat source. How would the lowering of intake help with heat...? Really, am I missing something?
I am measuring heat 2" below the LED board. Just to be sure that if I ever need to use that space at the very top, I would not burn the plant. Will test with the glass screen tomorrow and pretty soon I shall soak up a White Widow fem bean

 

[HortiShorti]

Not trying to be a smart ass, but hot air rises and the heat source is at the top. Exhaust is higher than heat source. How would the lowering of intake help with heat...? Really, am I missing something?
I am measuring heat 2" below the LED board. Just to be sure that if I ever need to use that space at the very top, I would not burn the plant. Will test with the glass screen tomorrow and pretty soon I shall soak up a White Widow fem bean

I always thought the goal was to expel hot air. The coolest air will always be at the bottom of any room, relative to the ambient temps. This is why you will always see intake ducts at almost the very bottom of any grow tent.

Hot air has to go somewhere; cycling it through the box will only serve to maintain higher temperatures.

Henceforth, pulling air in at the lowest point, with an exhaust fan at the top, will always provide the coolest possible temperatures around the canopy. An exhaust fan at the top will dictate that heat is expelled before circulation, providing a constant flow of the coolest air(as defined above) throughout the box - while also creating a passive heatsink around the light as the heat will be dissipated outside the cab.

Right?

 

[HortiShorti]

From the pictures, I only observe one fan within the cab - and if that fan happens to be your intake fan, I'd imagine that lowering it will reduce any possibility of the intake being prematurely heated by the radiant heat coming from the light.

I'm only working with the details provided, along with the heat you're reporting - which sounds excessive for the QB120's so I was working on the assumption that either your current exhaust or current intake were inefficient.

 

[LedGuy74]

Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

Thanks!
It is outside. And the board is warm to touch with the most sensitive part of arm. But still.
Dimmed to 3/4 of its power, will see where the temps max out now.

Yeah it is a bit different too. You have a much smaller space whereas I have a 8sqft sized tent with lots of airflow. Like Horti suggested the best way to help with that heat is to cut an intake and add a small fan to push air in... How hard is the outtake pumping air out? But I will say this... I have veg'd in 90's and 100's just fine indoors without any added c02 or any of that... Of course that is strain dependent but I personally wouldn't hesitate to go ahead and get another grow going (unless it's autos maybe) while working on the temp solution because you would want cooler temps by flower for sure.

 

[LedGuy74]

Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

Not trying to be a smart ass, but hot air rises and the heat source is at the top. Exhaust is higher than heat source. How would the lowering of intake help with heat...? Really, am I missing something?
I am measuring heat 2" below the LED board. Just to be sure that if I ever need to use that space at the very top, I would not burn the plant. Will test with the glass screen tomorrow and pretty soon I shall soak up a White Widow fem bean

Heat rises you are right so you want your outtake up top pumpin air out of the box and you want an intake at the bottom pushing cool air into the box Make sense? You can keep your current intake where it is and add a second one lower because those are pretty small intakes you'd probably benefit from two. Also if you still have the carbon filter on I'd recommend removing it until mid flower or so when the stank starts to hit it allows the outtake to work a lot better and prolongs the filter.

 

[Katins]

Ok guys, don't forget that the box is only two cubic feet stacked one above another, and the QB is powerful enough to work in a 2x2 tent. How much of an intake twmp diff I can get by lowering the intake? I would guess it would be tenth's of degree whereas I need to lower it by more than 10. But I can use a duct to lower it from an existing intake and make a proof of concept.
My intake is effective, if I crank it full throttle, I loose the negative pressure and can feel the air escaping every hole of the box. This is my exhaust that is somewhat inefective. And this I know well. However, the only fan I can use is a PC fan, because of space and noise issues. So I need to think of another way to overcome the heat problem.

 

[aspiegeek]

Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

Ok guys, don't forget that the box is only two cubic feet stacked one above another, and the QB is powerful enough to work in a 2x2 tent. How much of an intake twmp diff I can get by lowering the intake? I would guess it would be tenth's of degree whereas I need to lower it by more than 10. But I can use a duct to lower it from an existing intake and make a proof of concept.
My intake is effective, if I crank it full throttle, I loose the negative pressure and can feel the air escaping every hole of the box. This is my exhaust that is somewhat inefective. And this I know well. However, the only fan I can use is a PC fan, because of space and noise issues. So I need to think of another way to overcome the heat problem.

You'd be surprised. I was growing in a cabinet and by lowing my intake fan from the middle to the bottom it dropped my temps under 400W CFL's by 10c or so.

My plants are tough girls so they managed but it did make a big improvement in growth by lowering the temp that bit.

Pic before I moved it:

Pic after:

 

[Katins]

Re: Katins's First Bagseed Micro Grow - Soil & CFL's

You'd be surprised.

But I wasn't

Running the box at the moment and all things being equal, with the same settings that gave me 86-87 F yesterday, lowering the intake only raised the temps by a degree. Up to 88-89 F