Keeping temp down

So im going to be starting my first grow soon and im not sure if im going to have a temp problem. I live in Florida so it stays hot here and I havent ran my AC in about 2 years. I'm going to have plenty of fans on my plant ( only plan on growing one to start out with) but I was wondering if there was some cheap and easy ways to get the temp down during the high points of the day. For instances , i'm going to be using somthing like the rubbermaid box setup but with 2 big trashcans instead so im afraid of the small space and heat collecting. If I put ice around the outside of the trashcan a few times a day do you think that would be enough to get the temp from mids 80's to the 70's? Or does anyone have any other suggestions besides running the AC? Trying to keep electic costs down and I can get ice for free.. Thanks

The key to keeping your temps down is moving air through the grow space. Ice not only will be an impractical mess but would increase humidity- something you're already going to be contending with in FL.

You need to maintain the grow at about 80F or under. With sufficient airflow, you should be able to keep the op no warmer than the air that is being drawn in. If the air that you draw into the op is warmer than that, I'm afraid air con is your next option.

Flowering lights-on should be done at night to take advantage of cooler nighttime air to pump through the grow.

What you need is intake at the bottom passive or active and some kind of extraction at the top. Most importantly you need to take care of the heat directly under the bulb, try buying a small occilating fan or clip-on fan, it will reduce the immediate heat where it matters. Blowing the plants around when heat is still hitting them unchallaneged will just mean that you'll be helping to dry them out even faster.

MegaOctane makes a good point; a fan moving air around in a sealed space doesn't cool anything, it just evens out the temperature in the whole airspace. A circulation fan's motor will be adding heat to the air to boot.

Air has to be brought in from outside the grow and exhausted somewhere else, where it can not be easily re-drawn into the grow.

Yep...good info. And I'm glad that you pointed out the humidity risk when using ice. Someone had mentioned putting frozen 2L bottles of water in the room to reduce heat...and at the time I thought it was a good idea. Later, I thought about the unwanted humidity increase during flower and I forgot to go add it to the thread. Thanks. :)


The Fog :rastasmoke: