250w hps in a cab, how much fan noise?

ok, so cab will be about 3'wide, 6'tall, 2'deep

basically, i'd much rather use my hps for my flowerin cab than cfl's, BUT i need to make the cab quiet, SILENT would be best.

so i'm thinking, a cooltube, exhausting out the back with a pc fan (92mm or 120mm), on a variable-voltage wallwart.

plus another 120mm fan for regular exhaust at the top of the cap, with just passive intake holes all along the bottom back


here's my question: i really don't know how much heat the hps will put out, i've got it on the way from insidesun. am i going to have to run my cooltube exhaust so loudly that it is noticeable? ideally, what i'm going for is for someone to be in the room, and not hear it


LOW-PROFILE is what i'm aiming for, and i'm not sure if i can handle the heat of hps or not

If using a cool tube theres no reason to exit out the back, and it might be too wide to get a couple of 90's in there - Ideally you would want the intake to come in and exhaust out the sides of the cabinet - a straight shot through the tube with a fan on either end - then a couple of PC fans might work, but not if there are any turns..

I don't think the PC fans are gonna cut it for you - plus they will be loud. If you want a powerful, virtually silent fan, check out the Panasonic Whisperline models. The only thing I hear is the air moving in the duct, the fan makes hardly any noise. A couple of 120mm fans will be much louder.

um, well, that's definitely out. i can't have fans blowing out the sides of the cab. that's definitely not discreet. i'll have to do a lot of playing with it, and perhaps just go with flouro in the end.

i don't intend to have anyone in that room (my bedroom), but it is possible on occasion someone might be in there. have to think about this.

i'm starting out right now germinating 6 seeds in my closet under a few 26w 6500k cfl's. the seeds just cracked in water and they're being put into soil now. i intend to get a clone mother from this batch. i already bought a cab for vegging and will use cfl's in there, but i was wanting to move out of the closet and into a cab for added security. i already changed the doorknob on the bedroom for a locable one. now just have to keep things on the down low as much as possible

i rent, and my one big fear is if maintenance had to get into that room. there's NO reason they should, there's absolutely nothing in there to fix, but you never know. if they did i'd have to lock everything and make it perfectly discreet. if i had my flowering room in the closet, and they needed to get into the closet (again, there is absolutely NO reason this should ever happen) it would be sticky; i'd have to tear down, and put most of my goods in my car i guess.


anyway, i just don't want to get busted.

on the upside, i have chronic lyme disease (ok, that's not the upside), but i'm hoping to be able to talk my doc into getting me into legal med MJ program

Hmmm Well a 250 in that size cab is gonna get hot - you'll need a really good fan. And a quiet one ain't gonna be cheap ($100+) And it'll never be silent - you'll hear wind noise at the least..., in any setup. For silent you'll need to use CFLs and not too many of them. Any chance you could have it in the room, not in the closet, but locked? Say you keep expensive tools or computer parts or something in there? Then you could hook everything up to a power strip and if you had to, just turn it off when people come over? Or get a fishtank somewhere in the room, preferably close to the cab - they are great at masking noise...

that's what i have right now. when i'm in the appt i lock and put the chain-lock on the door so not even maintenance could get in (i wear headphones a lot so wouldn't want to turn around and see maintenance in my appt :) )

and when i leave i lock the bedroom door

i can't fathom a way to lock the closet, and when the light is on, the closet will be partially open and a big standing oscillating fan running

so yeah, i think it's pretty straightforward

i will veg under cfl (possibly t5ho later) and have some pc fans for cooling in a cab

options for flowering

1. in the closet; gives me the most space, airflow, room for multiple plants and different techniques like lst etc. more yield i can only imagine, much more airflow

2. in a cab with the hps outside the closet, but fans will be clearly audible, and cooling may still be a problem

3. in a cab with cfl's, less growth per watt, less airflow, but more discreet, but still very hard to make totally discreet

i still need space for supplies, so even if i had these two cabs, i'd probably need to keep another cab in the closet just for supplies and drying.


i think i'm leaning towards: one cab with cfl for veg, and keep using the closet with the hps, probably with 2plants flowering at a time, and also have some space in there for supplies and drying, possibly in another cab inside the closet

and i'd need to rig a way to lock the closet if i had folks over. any suggestios on how to lock it? it's a 2-hanging-sliding-door standard closet, so a bit awkward. i really don't want to drill and put massive padlocks on the doors; that's a lot of damage and very suspicious. i need some trick way to lock it discreetly. i'm thinking of rigging it so that with the doors closed you can't pull them open, you have to swing them out a bit, like a bar on the inside of one door, and a block of wood stopping it on the inside of the other. and you have to pull the outside door out, and the move the door along. there are problems with that idea though, i'll keep at it

appreciate suggestions

i don't need a lot of bud, it's just for myself and i'm not a heavy smoker. i definitely am going to be cloning and keeping a mother

am growing northern lights. lots of grow equip coming from insidesun. also found out we have a

go with fluro s , i could n t beleave how bright they r , many thanx

But what will you do about the smell? Covering the fan noise isn't so hard, neither is covering up any light leaks but it's going to be hard to keep incense burning 24/7 once the plants begin to mature.

And when you get around to installing the fan(s) be sure to set them so they blow at the floor of the cabinet and not the leaves. The leaves can handle the heat but roots can not plus you get the added value of less aroma created by keeping the plants from moving as little as possible. Leaf movement is what creates a good share of the smell that escapes from a grow and if the fans are aimed at the pots there is far less smell to worry about.

Im in the same boat got a cabnet and dropped 1000 in top equiptment but got it set up and as of 1 hour ago I started the light and it got to 115 deg (400 w mh) and in line duct fan dropped it to 95 which still wont cut it. I got a fish tank to over up the noise from my mom but with the ballast, fan, h2o pump and air its really gettin loud so i might have to go to soil and cfl....shit

but yea you prob wont get away with it too easily just my .2cents

growing in your mommys house.....BIG NO N0!!