Lighting and Venting Advice

Tdogg4200

New Member
Okay so Im trying to get some good lighting going for my plants, right now I only have 150 watts of cfl light. What is a good deal the I can get on good light setup+venting. Looking at htg supply but my total was like 450 which is not it my budget.. more like 300-350. If I go with HPS i need to vent and thats like 100$ more.

so im asking..
What is a good setup Light+fan within 300-350$ pretty much lol
 
what size grow area do you have?

my old cab was 1.5 x 3 x 6 feet and I had a 150 w HPS
I never vented the light and never had heat probs (though I do vent the cab, jsut not the light).

what size hps were you thinking?
 
Hydroponics Calculator - on Brite Ideas Hydroponics

The above link is a grow room calculator that will help you determine the optimum lighting and air flow for your grow space. If you click on the products page you will see the used products button to click on and see a recent pic of Brite Ideas' used equipment selection. You can call them to check inventory and they offer free shipping on orders over $150. Most of their used stuff sells at 50% of retail cost.
 
what size grow area do you have?

my old cab was 1.5 x 3 x 6 feet and I had a 150 w HPS
I never vented the light and never had heat probs (though I do vent the cab, jsut not the light).

what size hps were you thinking?

I was looking at 600 Watt hps.. but the cost for the fan and everything is just too much.
 
Look at the T5's. They will produce great bud, within your budget, and no cooling needed.

Dunno about NO cooling required... Two 2' four bulb T5's added almost 6 deg to an 18x36x50 cab. This is with about 370 cfm of air flow. I wish I could have found a way to properly ventilate them, as vertically they DID produce a LOT of budding below the canopy. So yes SN, T5's DO produce great bud and are hands down better than any fluorescent light before them...now I'm hearing there is a SUPER high output T5 that puts out like 50% more lumens per bulb. The we have the LED debate. I'd love to jump on board but it seems for every good thing I hear about LED there are 3 things I hear bad about it. A viable alternative to the heat output of HPS and MH is desperately needed for people who like me, are limited to grow area and and have to find ways to vacate the heat from the cabinet.:thumb:
 
Dunno about NO cooling required... Two 2' four bulb T5's added almost 6 deg to an 18x36x50 cab. This is with about 370 cfm of air flow. I wish I could have found a way to properly ventilate them, as vertically they DID produce a LOT of budding below the canopy. So yes SN, T5's DO produce great bud and are hands down better than any fluorescent light before them...now I'm hearing there is a SUPER high output T5 that puts out like 50% more lumens per bulb. The we have the LED debate. I'd love to jump on board but it seems for every good thing I hear about LED there are 3 things I hear bad about it. A viable alternative to the heat output of HPS and MH is desperately needed for people who like me, are limited to grow area and and have to find ways to vacate the heat from the cabinet.:thumb:


I'm surprised they added 6 degrees with that much airflow. What ambient temps are you dealing with?
 
Once the cab gets to operating temp (after about 45-50 minutes of lights on) when I had the two T-5's on the left and right and the 400 watt HPS overhead would run 92-93 deg in the lower area and it's hit 97 in the upper area. The upper area has 4 2' T-5's and a single 2' T-8 grow light. I'm about a week into the cab air flow mod and the temps are now running 84 deg in the lower area and a high of 86.2 in the upper area once all is up to operating temp. I was able to do this without adding anymore air, only redistributing the passive returns. So far, so good.
Peace

DSCF8391.JPG
 
I'm surprised they added 6 degrees with that much airflow. What ambient temps are you dealing with?

Indecently, when I was researching viable alternatives in grow cabs, I was impressed at just how big a light they can get in some of those cabs about he size of mine. After choosing to build mine, and growing through two grows in it now, I am absolutely mystified at how they claim to remove 600 watts plus of heat using a few pancake fans. I mean, gee, they sure look cool, buto t in the real world, closed up and operating full bore, I'd bet the truth is several deg higher than their salemen would ever choose to admit. I've had a helluva time with heat issues for the nutrient reservoir to battling high cab temps and heat stress on the plants. From using No-Wilt to products like Pro Silicate attempting to make the plants more resilient to heat. It boiled down to installing a chiller to take care of reservoir temps. My finding were once the reservoir hit 81 deg, root problems reared their heads. Even with using reflective insulated bubble wrap on the reservoir, I still had heat issues. Now, I'm a cool 68 deg for now in the reservoir, and the cab temps are tolerable. BTW, thanks for chiming in. Once I figure out the flood schedule using Hydrotron, I think I'll be in good shape.:yahoo:
 
I'm not a hydro person, but I know res temps are best kept at 70 or below, so you should be good now.

Still curious about your ambient temp, that is, what are the baseline high/low temps where you live at this time of year? In other words, temps outside of your cab.
 
I'm not a hydro person, but I know res temps are best kept at 70 or below, so you should be good now.

Still curious about your ambient temp, that is, what are the baseline high/low temps where you live at this time of year? In other words, temps outside of your cab.

On average, winter temps outside the cab are 72 for a high (during the day) and after 11 pm I allow the area to get to 65.

In the summer, temps are maintained at 76 deg outside the cab pretty much 24/7:reading420magazine:
 
Just curious, were you using 6" or 4" ducting with that 370cfm fan?

4" ducting. CFM is divided as follows. 180 inline turbine fan. This really moves some air and is connected to a 5 amp reostat to slow it down some. A 6" 120 cfm drawing air into lower area above 14x24 darkroom register via offset 6" return to block light and finally a 65 cfm fan drawing air into upper cab. This air is vented into the left return plenum leading to the 180 cfm turbine in crawlspace. Oops. My math is off. 365 cfm of fan is the correct amount. Lastly there is a small 4" fan mounted to the left cab simply to blow air on plants and keep them moving. This is set to run with lights and off at nights. Same with the cab above. I haven't counted either of them as they just kinda keep things moving around:yahoo::peace:
 
Sounds like the changes you made worked very well.

I didn't realize you were adding up the cfm's from various fans, and thought you might be bottlenecking a single 6" 365cfm fan with 4" ducting.

Dude, thanks for your time chiming in. I have considered either increasing fan size if this didn't work and I may still. Lemme pose this at ya. The way that 170 cfm inline 4" turbine moves air, I have considered placing 4" to 6" increasers on that 170 inlet and outlet and just increasing the HOSE size to 6". Reason being is that little 4" turbine fan will suck the gonads off an elephant. A heckuva lot more air than any other fan I have. I run it at maybe 70% of it's rated rpm. (converting just the 4" to six inch would probably quiet it considerably). Keep in mind I only have a footprint of 4.5 sq ft. I mean, I must be exchanging the air in the cab several times per minute and it takes that just to keep the temps down. Co2 really never will be an option for me I fear. :roorrip:
 
You may gain some decrease in noise and increased air flow by using the adapters and going up to 6" on the duct, especially if it allows you to run the 4" without using the speed control.

You don't need CO2 to grow nice plants.

There's pros and cons to using it, just as there is to not using it.
 
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