Critque my cabinet plans!

[ugexe]

Let me first start by saying this will be my first controlled grow... i've only done some guerilla growing prior to this. Anyway the cabinet I plan on using is http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=213584-2115-40926&lpage=none

The inside will be covered in mylar. I have the 6 plant aero machine with a 400watt HPS (Hortilux bulb) lamp over it. Thats the basics of it. As for ventilation I plan on using a 265cfm dayton fan and doing a little homemade carbon scrubber filter for it. I'm planning on using one of those temperture switches so when it gets above the temp range it will turn on the fan and open the exhaust and intake vent (the ones that have a solinoid to open the vent when it gets power). The intake will just be a passive one, with a pipe leading up towards where the SCROG screen will be. I'll probally also do the whole homemade yeast CO2 deal since there is room. Something else I considered was getting 2 of those humidity switches... I have a small cool mist humidifier and a small desktop dehumidifier that I could hook up to those switches to keep the cabinet at the right humidity level at most times... but i'm not sure if humidity control is worth that big of an investment (the switches are $120ish each). As for what i'm growing... it was going to NL but I got jipped there so its probally going to be some high mid bag seed.

So thats about the jist of it. I have most of the stuff together, but I wanna see what you guys think I could do to improve my design! It was quite fun coming up with it I must say.

[E Man]

Hey Ugexe,

Man, you got it planned to a tee. I'd like to see a pic of it when its done. Do you have a fan besides the Dayton to simulate the gentle breezes of summer? A 265 cfm fan will squeeze out a cabinet full of air every 7 seconds. It seems like the air rushing in through the intake will be haulin' ass. Don't know for sure but it might be something to plan for. Don't want to blow the buds off the plants...lol. I also have a question, if I may. What is the homemade yeast co2 thing you mentioned?

E Man :rasta:

[mightymarijuanabuds]

rememebr if you use passive intake that you need 3x the intake area as the exhaust.... ie 4'' fan = 3x 4'' intake holes or one 12'' intake lol

[mscaboo]

i would go with one of those new co2 buckets instead of the homemade yeast version.

[mscaboo]

www.co2boost.com

[JLP100]

That fan may be a bit much for the 400. If it were me, I'd get the smaller size Dayton's (the 120 or 130's?) I forget what the next size down is but it is approximately half of the 265 and I would buy two, one for sucking and one for blowing. I use the smaller size on 3 400's during veg and 2 1kw's for flowering in a small room and you are putting this into a cabinet remember.

[ugexe]

Well I have the cabinet base put together. The bottom half of it is all mylared up, got the light hanging, and the hydro setup in. Just need to put in the chicken wire for the screen and get my ventilation system figured out finally! Those co2 buckets seem rediculously expensive...I could go the bottled route for less; the only thing holding me back is that the space is so small it might take quite a bit of tinkering and whatnot to get it right and to fit. I also got this in the mail today http://cgi.ebay.com/IONIC-BALL-AIR-PURIFIER-IONIZER-CLEANER-W-BREEZER-OZONE_W0QQitemZ9736512515QQihZ008QQcategoryZ14949Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I figured it was going to be garbage and not an actual ozone generator but it does indeed have a bulb in there glowing a pale-ish blue and gives off that odd smell. For $20 maybe it will pull its weight...

A question though... how are you guys running the cord from the cabinet to the wall? Are you just running a cord out a hole, or is there a more professional concealed looking way that i'm missing?

[jamstigator]

A 12" diameter hole would be 113 square inches. A 4" diameter hole is about 12 square inches. So you would never need a 12" intake hole for a 4" fan/exhaust, as that's TEN TIMES the exhaust area.

Personally, I would use a 6" inline centrifugal fan, and then dial down the fan speed to keep the noise level lower. A 6" fan spinning slowly pushes/pulls as much air as a 4" fan spinning at full speed, but it's not as noisy. Another benefit to that is if you actually end up needing more fan power, well, you've got it right there, just dial the speed back up as needed.

I'd suggest using some lightproof darkroom vents for your intakes. Doran makes an 8" x 8" darkroom vent that is affordable (~$25-ish). I needed two of these to provide enough intake flow for a 6" fan. I also use standard furnace filters on the intake vents, to keep dust/hair/crap out of the cabinet, which reduces airflow and probably explains why one darkroom vent was not enough. There are other intake solutions (elbows and PVC pipe for example), but those Doran vents work great when mounted on the side of the cabinet, look professional, don't take up any precious floor space, and they really are completely lightproof.

For the electrical cord, I hole-sawed a hole in the bottom of the back of the cabinet, then used Great Stuff to seal around the cord, and since the cord's in the back it's not visible, so that's reasonably stealthy. If someone's pulling my (250-pound) cabinet away from the wall, any thoughts of stealth are probably shot anyway. ;)

Unless you're selling a significant amount, I wouldn't bother with CO2. Sure, if you use a cooltube with separate ventilation systems for the light and the rest of the cabinet, and keep the CO2 levels up, you can get a boost at harvest time. But it adds to the expense and complexity. If you're growing for yourself, you won't need CO2, unless you're just chain-smoking stogies. And even if you ARE selling everything you harvest, I don't know that the extra cost/complexity is worth it, but that's really your call. The co2boost thing looks interesting, and simple, but that's another $100/crop. Definitely not worth the cost unless you're selling, and I'd want to hear from someone I trust as to how much it boosts harvest weight. 25 percent? 10 percent? 1 percent?

[included]

Let me first start by saying this will be my first controlled grow... i've only done some guerilla growing prior to this. Anyway the cabinet I plan on using is http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=213584-2115-40926&lpage=none

The inside will be covered in mylar. I have the 6 plant aero machine with a 400watt HPS (Hortilux bulb) lamp over it. Thats the basics of it. As for ventilation I plan on using a 265cfm dayton fan and doing a little homemade carbon scrubber filter for it. I'm planning on using one of those temperture switches so when it gets above the temp range it will turn on the fan and open the exhaust and intake vent (the ones that have a solinoid to open the vent when it gets power). The intake will just be a passive one, with a pipe leading up towards where the SCROG screen will be. I'll probally also do the whole homemade yeast CO2 deal since there is room. Something else I considered was getting 2 of those humidity switches... I have a small cool mist humidifier and a small desktop dehumidifier that I could hook up to those switches to keep the cabinet at the right humidity level at most times... but i'm not sure if humidity control is worth that big of an investment (the switches are $120ish each). As for what i'm growing... it was going to NL but I got jipped there so its probally going to be some high mid bag seed.

So thats about the jist of it. I have most of the stuff together, but I wanna see what you guys think I could do to improve my design! It was quite fun coming up with it I must say.

Your setup is somewhat similar to mine....

http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=55703


You're going to want a dedicated fan for your light. I have two 180cfm fans... one is exhaust for the cabinet, the other it dedicated to passing air through my sealed hood.

It's still barely enough. I also have a 6" axial fan for a passive intake.... but I can turn it on and it's a 265cfm intake fan in a heat disaster.

In addition to those, I keep two 6" fans running at all times inside the cabinet to circulate the air.

With all this, my climate controller (AIR-3) keeps my exhaust fan on most of the time. My CO2 is not even hooked up for this reason.

I'd recommend a cool tube hood for your light....

http://tinyurl.com/ovb3p

.... with a dedicated fan for it.... a 265cfm squirrel cage with intake should do nicely. I like Active Air blowers over Daytons...

In addition to that, I'd run another squirrel cage for exhaust at the top of the cabinet... a 265cfm with no carbon scrubber... or something in the 400-500cfm range if you have a carbon scrubber.

Then... I'd have three 4" passive intake fans at the bottom of the box (cheap computer fans work great... just don't plug 'em in.

With a setup like this.... you could probably effectively run your CO2 and maintain a decent temperature in the cabinet (under 80 degrees or so).

I'd use a bottle/regulator setup for CO2 though... that way, you can make sure that none of it goes to waste. With a controller like an AIR-3 (only $170), the CO2 will shut off when the exhaust fan goes on... and when your light goes off.

Good luck!!!

Have fun too!