Yet another Jam-Cab -- lighting and vent questions.

Hello gang.

I've been reading, lurking and researching here and elsewhere for several months. Equipment gathering and construction of CCIE's Jamstigator Cabinet Clone #471 is now underway, but two issues remain:

1. Vegetation Period Lighting
   My flowering light is an electronically ballasted, cooltube-enclosed 400w Hortilux rigged to be droppable to within 1' of the cabinet's floor and backed by four currently-empty, adjustable-height workman's light sockets. I haven't installed anything yet for the veg stage, and I'm stuck between two ideas: For the same price I can either buy a 6500k MH bulb and four cheap 30-watt CFLs, or skip the MH and veg exclusively with 4 85-watt CFLs.
   
   With the MH combo I'd use only CFL until past the seedling stage, then switch on the MH and use both until time to flower. With the large CFLs I'd be vegging with 16,800 lumens vs 40,000+ with MH/small, but I'm not clear on whether switching on the flowering light during veg to boost the CFLs would be a good idea.
   
   
2. Ventilation
   At the moment I have a borrowed 4" cheap in-line fan ducted to the cooltube* for testing purposes. Before I purchase the final fan and finalize the ductwork, I have an observation and question for Jamstigator: The Lowe's cabinet's grow space is 46"x53.375"x20", which equals 28.41 cubic feet. The airflow recommendations I've seen are either 40CFM per 100watts of lamp or CFM equalling triple the volume of the grow space. The 4" 177CFM Vortex exceeds both, but you've chosen to use 6" ducting and the 470 CFM model. Did you judge the smaller fan to be inadequate, or were you looking to run the 6-incher at partial-power to reduce noise? Also, how noisy is the fan you're using, and, if you've used one before, the 4" model at full speed? The cabinet is in my bedroom, and I'd happily spend 50 extra dollars not to have Godzilla snoring in my closet.

*- The DIY '1000w homemade cooltube' on the FAQ board is working excellently, by the way. I modified a cheap reflector to incorporate it, and the tube is cool enough to be grabbed after hours of operation. That's with the cabinet empty and no carbon filter producing resistance, however. -

about your lighting: instead of getting a MH get a HPS because they are a hell of a lot better for flowering. CFL's and MH are better for vegging.

I apologize if it wasn't completely clear, but I already have a flowering HPS. :) Item one in my post describes two possible setups for the veg stage.

In other news, Seeds Boutique came through like a champ today with two-week delivery, an extra seed of my chosen variety, and a free pack of fifteen Skunk #1 seeds. None of the seeds were crushed or broken, though two of the free Skunk seeds looked a little immature. Pity the Skunks, for they'll soon run the gauntlet of my inexperience.

Hah, yes, I purposely bought a fan with too much power so that I could dial it down. It's still loud (but it's white noise, so my brain has filtered it out now), but I doubt it's as loud as a 4" fan screaming along at max speed. And if I need more power someday, well, tada, I have it. Very observant of you to notice that, you're the only one to ever mention it. I also figure the fan will last longer this way, since it's not being used at 100 percent capacity. You can walk a lot farther than you can run, and fans probably can too.

As for veg, just go with CFLs. Cheap, easy, no hassle, works great, cost-effective. I actually bought some 125 (real) watt gigantic CFLs with reflectors from farmtek.com, for veg, for about a hundred bucks each (including reflector), but when they die, I'm just gonna use standard household CFLs.

I guess if you have a LOT of plants to veg, a MH bulb might be worthwhile though. Another plus to that is if your HPS bulb dies during flowering and you don't have a spare on hand, you could throw the MH bulb in there and use that until you get the HPS bulb replaced. It wouldn't be ideal lighting, but it'd be a far cry better than not having any big bulb. That kind of eliminates having to have a backup HPS bulb laying around, AND you could use it in veg too. Guess that's one of those things nobody can really help with, just a decision you have to make. ;)

I like the name 'Jam-Cab'. Lol! But really, I did nothing particularly innovative, just synthesized stuff I read that others had done, mostly from posts on overgrow.com, before it disappeared from the net, then semi-documented it to save others some hassle figuring the shit out.

CCIE the setup sounds tight. Love to see some pix.

If you could, surf over to one of my sites:

http://tinyurl.com/q4cf2

And just use that form to shoot me an email. (I just don't put it up on message boards is all and wouldn't ask you to do the same)

I have an off topic question for you.


:thumbsup:

Thank you for the reply, Jamstigator. I've decided to use the 85-watt CFLs and, after discussing the matter sans context with a mechanical engineer friend, plan to use the smaller 4" ducting and fan in conjunction with soundproofing material in the upper chamber.

The cabinet's completion will require several more weeks, MindYaBidness. Pictures of it now would feature wires, scattered sawdust and power tools. I'll include pictures of the final result in my grow log, when I finally begin it. Watch for titles like, "Help, they're all brown!"

Also, feel free to ask the off-topic question in the thread. I don't think the mods will mind since most of the discussion so far has been relevant.