@Fuggzy -
"This vent you have going to the window, what are the exact dimensions? It is important there is no resistance on your air flow. It could cause problems like higher heat levels, carbon filters not working, and general low air circulation."
Answer: From my inline fan, i have a 6ft 4" diameter duct, which is crinkled up to about 3 feet to exit the tent. It attaches to another 4" duct that is about 9 feet long to the window. I could def shorten this duct. Please see the pictures I have attached it my explanation is not good of the setup
"If returning this and getting something different is a reality, I'd be happy to help you find an affordable air cooled system. Maybe $20-40 more with a digital ballast, which will also reduce heat. "
Answer: I def would be interested in some help finding air cooled. Link me with something nice and ill buy it. Not to expensive i hope but if its what I need I want to do it right. I am getting a 400W MH 6500K bulb in the mail tomorrow from HTG. I wanted to use this instead of all the CFL's for veg. Then when I switch to flower I was going to put just a few CFL's around the plants with my HPS bulb. At least that was the plan.
"Try taking this, attaching it to the cfl fixture, and blowing it across the bulbs. To go with the thermal dissipation, by blowing the air on the bulbs it helps keep heat from pooling right around the lights."
Answer: This would be tough to do because i just have them hanging by an extension cord above the pots. I do however have the Oscillating fan aimed directly at all 3 of the hanging light bulb sets. Not sure if that is doing anything though.
"Where is the tent located? In a closet, open room (bigger than closet), basement? I personally am in a closet that measures 7' square'ish. The closet was getting a bit hot, so I ran 6" (4" for you) ducts from the circular holes out of my tent, and in to the hall the closet is in. This allowed me to direct cool air from the AC to the intake ducts. I have sense changed that idea, but it worked pretty good."
Answer: I am in a 10 x 15 foot Open room, with nothing else in it besides the tent.
"Heat is heat my friend, nothing you can do but get rid of it. How many watts are you using?"
Answer: 2x 42W bulbs over one pot, 2x 42w+1x23w over two pots that are next to eachother, and in the corner 1x42w + 1x13w. So all together 246W of CFL. These are the actual watts not the equivalent rating.
"This is a good temp. Can you get a reading of the actual air entering you tent, like in the actual vent."
Answer: 74.2F it looks like, i think because the fan blows the air around it might be raising the actual temp alil where i tried to take the reading. The room the tent is in right now is 71.4F
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@Anthropolis
Let me think about it for a moment, and I'll see if I can round up anyone maybe better at tent issues.
One thing that could definitely help is, they make these tubes that contains your HPS bulb, they're called Cool Tubes or some variation of that name. It's a different reflector kit that would allow you to draw air right through the lamp and then out the window. Yeah it technically makes more heat, but it takes almost all that heat out, where now the heat from the cfl's seems to be adding up too much in the tent.
Answer: Yeah man, i am a complete beginner with just about 40 hours or pre-research into doing all this. I bought the Kit from HTG, thinking they would have gave me the best shit i could get. Come to find out the reflector doesnt even have an option to attach anything to it to cool. Figures. Unfort. I threw away all the boxes already, not sure if they would accept the return with it. But, like i said to Fuggzy, If i have to buy another reflector etc to do this right that's what i'm going to have to do.
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@Duggy
@brownie420 you are running over 250w of light which will produce quite a bit of heat. You could try adfing a clip on fan to blow upward across the lights to help push the hot air out which may improve airflow. Is there noticeable negative pressure ie. tent sides sucking in..?
Answer: I have the oscillating fan blowing across where they hang down. I know its not ideal, i originally had the cfl's with reflectors but it was like MOLTEN HOT under the reflector dome so i took them off and let them just hang above the plants.
The tent does suck inward when I close the main entrance and zip it up, the fan inside blows on the walls and i can see it form its regular shape then get sucked back in. So I'm almost 100% positive that's a yes to the neg. pressure.
You can try add flexible ducting to the 4" vents to prevent light leaks..
Answer: I got some extra flex 4" duct. I wasn't sure if that would make the flow of air coming in crappier so i never did it. Once i get the temperatures down a bit I will make it so no light can escape for sure!
Should I be opening the rectangular mesh vent at the bottom in between the two 4" corners ones? I put 2 small fans blowing the house air in to see if it would drop the temp any :/
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@budelee
Hey
@brownie420 is the exhaust flap and intake flap opened on the same side of the tent..if that makes sense..the "flaps/ports" should be at opposite corners/sides...prolly not that easy huh.just a thought...
Answer: The hot air is expelled through the top left hole ontop of the tent that goes window. I have only been using the bottom right hole as the way air gets inside. But today i tried to also open up the middle wierd rectanglur mesh one in the middle to see if it would help. Then i put two small fans outside blowing in. I was completely out of ideas and panicking so i gave it a try
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@Anthropolis
Ah, great tips! Just realized those are 42w cfls, they're definitely going to make some heat! If it's getting bad, you can always take two out for a day and see if it helps. I might even also just try for a few hours, taking all the cfls out and firing up the hps. There's a small chance it could possibly make the tent less hot, since the hps ballast sits outside the tent, whereas the cfls have their ballasts built in and that's what makes a lot of the cfl heat. But I'd be sure to be there and check up on it just in case I'm way wrong.
Answer: I actually had 3 42w CFLS at first over each potted plant... so 9 total. 378W.. I was trying to match the 400w MH. Not sure if that's how it works but I read as long as it doesnt burn the plants or bleach them it would be okay to use lots of CFL, So i bought 10 for 100 bucks to get used to growing. I ordered a 400w MH 6500k bulb which should come tomorrow. I would remove all the cfls and just use that, until flower where i would switch to HPS and throw a few cfls around the plant. But that's so far away at this point before i do a serious grow i need to get the heat situation handled, and fix my equipment to get air cooled hood etc.
Guys... I just wanted to say thank you soooooooooooo freaking much for all the fast support, knowledge and just plain awesomeness. This site has been so good to me, the community is fantastic. So supportive of us newbies.
Thank you for your continued support everyone and the replies once again!
-Brownie
I attached some pictures below sorry for the lighting in the room its dark outside right now. Also notice the temp is down to 83-84, that is because i had the doors to it completely opened for 5 minutes while I took photos. Once its closed up it will go back up in temp.
Crap thats some good answering, have a rep slap to help get things moving.
I might get a Can-Fan that blows 340m3/h instead. I think that might be a bit better for the tent, the filter is only 30cm for that setup.
