I'm lost...Help...CFL Grow

Ok hereâ??s the thing I have a 2ft X 2ft X3ft box (1/4inch plywood with 1inch X 2inch framing) raised off the ground 2.5 inches. I have 8 cfls in it 4 are 5000k (hanging in the middle in an X pattern) and 4 are 6500(one hanging in each corner). I have an exhaust fan (6inch fan max cfm 240) it was sucking from the ground threw a 4inch dryer hose(kinda squashed to fit under the box) which I thought was decreasing the performance of the fan) so I moved it into the door of the box about 10 inches from the top. It's in the door straight not hosed or anything. I have a 4inch hole in the floor of the box with an intake fan, (I butchered a 5 inch desk fan to make this one). Then I have a 2 speed oscillating fan (on high) on the wall for air movement and it blows on 4 of the cfls (5000k ones). The intake fan and the oscillating one are on the same side and the exhaust fan is in the middle of the door and the other fans are just inside the door on the right. When I had the exhaust fan in the floor running threw a squashed dryer hose it keep the box tem to 89 to 90 at the hottest with the carbon filter on it, now that is in the door with out any restriction the box temps are the same, when I put the carbon filter on it, it shoots up to the mid 90. So WTF is going on, where did I mess up and what can I do to fix this, for lil to no moneyâ?¦.????
I was thinking I only could use 4 of the cfls, but I have always heard that the more light the better. This box will be used for everything (veg and flower) I will just be changing the cfls when needed. Any help will be greatly appreciated and rep will be given, Cause I really need to star growing for medical purposes.

Thanks,
LifetimeSmoker :S5:

Lifetime you got any pics..it would help. I made a guy a cabinet that came out pretty good using 4 CFL's but the one im working on now has 12 CFL's and its about 15 inches deep, 30 inches wide and stands about 4 feet tall. Im thinking heat will be an issue but havent gotten to the temp testing stage. You want to keep your intake near the floor as the air is cooler but the exhause should be at the top since heat rises. It also sounds like you carbon scrubber is blocking your airflow, you may want to try a more powerful exhaust fan to pull through the scrubber, and rposition you fans accordingly. I'll post some pics later of the one in progress that I am constructing. Hope this help.

I'll go get some pics now. Where can i get cheap(but good) fans to do what i need done. all my local store sell junk that won't do what I need.

Thanks trynagethigh for the quick responce.

I would suggest mounting your 6" exhaust fan in the roof of the box, sucking air out from there and then thru your charcoal filter.

I had a very similar (almost identical except 4' tall) box that was vented with one of those real cheesy 4" inline fans and the temps stayed fine.
Good luck

PC :smokin:

PharmaCan- I can't put the fan in the top of thebox, due to tryin to stay low key. I put it the next best place I could think of was in the top part of the door.

Here are some pics of the box, let me know if you need more info or anything.

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Thanks for the help so far.....

The problem is... doors really don't seal all that well, regardless of how well you try to seal them, so you are sucking a lot of your air from outside the cabinet. If you put the exhaust fan as high up as you can on the back wall, it will work better.

Lower your inside fan so that you are blowing up towards the lights. Right now you are blowing the light heat down on the plants. Up is mucho mejor.

Nice looking box. Very good work! :thumbsup:

PC :smokin:

Ok well I'm kinda stuck with the exhaust fan location, so is there anything else I could do to make it work better like hooking up a dryer hose and putting it all the way at the top to help it suck the hot air from the top. I will try to move the oscillating fan lower and on the back wall to blow the hot air up and towards the exhaust fan.

Thanks for the complements on the box. Itâ??s nice but I put it together real quick and I could have made it look more like a piece of furniture, but at least it matches my bedroom set LoLâ?¦.

Also thanks for the helpâ?¦

If anyone else wants to chime in feel free Iâ??m up to all types of help. Also how many light should I have on, should I run all eight or should I only run 4 at a time? What is the ideal temp and whatâ??s too high for good growth.

Again thanks

LifetimeSmoker

So with out the carbon srubber on the temps are at 85.6. I moved the fan down to the botom pointing upward and the temps went up to 85.8 to 86.5. WTF am I doing wrong??? Where can I get a good (cheao) exhaust fan from (online)? My exhaust fan moves 240cfm and it's still not enough I thought it would be for the space in the box. Could it be there is not enought air coming in? I need all the help i can get.. Will the plants be ok in 85 to 87 temps?

You only have 18cu.ft. in that box. A 240 cfm fan is overkill, so most likely your problem lies elsewhere.

The Intake you described kinda sucks. If you could raise the cabinet a few inches you could put a 90 degree elbow coming out the bottom and then hook you intake fan etc to that.

Improving your intake is your next logical step.

My temps get into the mid 80's every day and my plants don't seem to mind. But that bepends a lot upon the strain.

PC :smokin:

Ok, well i'm going to try and find another cheap inline fan around the same cfm and use it for the intake run a y-pipe from it to the 2 intake holes in the bottom of the box and see what happens.
Thanks PharmaCan for all your help thus far...