600 HPS Cool Tube Grow Light System

[Al B. Fuct]

Al - you make a good point about the air pressure. I'm using the cooltube to exhaust the cabinet w/ fresh, air-conditioned air coming from inside my house. Since this is a veg cab, I wasn't worried too much about the smell. However, I am using a big exhaust filter.

Yep, you're quite right, vegging plants don't stink much. Your filter may not be needed, but soon as you removed it, some nosey-nose would pick it up.

My cooltubes are for a pair of 1000s in a flowering area. They are getting a completely independent air circuit- cool 'clean' air in from outside the op airmass, pressurised tubes with blowers upstream, dumping air also outside the op airmass of course. No filtration needed as I'm not drawing 'stinky' air through the circuit.

[Al B. Fuct]

should i be using [silicone sealant] for every connection made even to the fan?

Sure can't hurt. If you have to disassemble at a later date, you'll have to cut the stuff free with a razor knife, but that's no biggie. It doesn't harden like epoxy or caulk.

hm if i am going to get the smaller fan, and as you say it should be mounted blowing over the socket...would it be a bad idea to mount the fan right on the cooltube ? or maybe with a small piece of ducting in between it so it was blowing as hard as possible directly up the socket and over the bulb.

im not sure if the vibrations from that would damage the bulb or not, could block the light a little too i guess

Remote mounting the fan will provide some vibration isolation, good idea.

[PharmaCan]

Criom - I doubt the occasional cool air you might suck from the a/c duct would be worth the loss of flow due to such a long duct. Also remember, that a/c duct is blowing warm air some of the time too.

This probably goes without saying but, wherever you mount the fan, be sure to take into consideration if you want the light to be moveable.

[Al B. Fuct]

This probably goes without saying but, wherever you mount the fan, be sure to take into consideration if you want the light to be moveable.

Damn glad you mentioned that, PC. I would have forgotten to take that into consideration (but I just blew a cone, too ).

[criom]

"Criom - I doubt the occasional cool air you might suck from the a/c duct would be worth the loss of flow due to such a long duct. Also remember, that a/c duct is blowing warm air some of the time too."
it would not be occassional cool air...i would litterally seal the duct directly to the output on my window air conditioner and run that 10 feet to the intake on the cooltube. in addition i could boost that flow with the Suncourt 6 Inch, i think that plus the high powered fan already built into the air conditioner unit would create a pretty strong flow..

or i could use the fan to suck the cool air towards and out..


edit: said air conditioner runs 24/7 at the highest cooling rate...

[Al B. Fuct]

criom, like PC, I think ducting a/c over the lights is overkill. I think you'll keep the surface of the cooltube very cool compared to op airmass temp just by pumping ambient temp air through the tube (unless it's summer and you live in Las Vegas ).

That's your goal, BTW- stopping transfer of heat from the lamp to the room airmass. Cooling the surfaces exposed to the op airmass is how this is accomplished.

You won't stop the radiated shortwave IR with a cooltube- your hand will still feel warm in direct light- but you will stop the longwave IR that normally heats your op airmass.

Reserve drawing air from the a/c as a last ditch trick if the cooltubes don't get your room temps down to the necessary 80F max- but don't put it on the lights, put it on the plants.

[Al B. Fuct]

here's an interesting read on thermal radiation on Wikipedia.

[criom]

i guess thats part of my problem is that im trying to setup a sealed room and i cant have any intake or exhaust...so i cant put the AC right on the plants...or anything else really.

but i will definitely keep that in mind...hopefully like you say it wont come to that

[criom]

damn thanks for the wiki link, now ill be up all night doing math

[Al B. Fuct]

i guess thats part of my problem is that im trying to setup a sealed room and i cant have any intake or exhaust...so i cant put the AC right on the plants...or anything else really.

mmmm... there's gotta be a 'gozin' and a 'gozout.'

Nothing gozin if nothing gozout.

I hate to spring this on ya, but if you can't vent the space, you can't grow in it. You must have an effective way to bring in fresh, CO2 laden air and exhaust humid, CO2 depleted air (and leaving a closet door open a couple of hours a day doesn't count).

The air volume requirements for a grow op far exceed the size of the building you'll use to house the op. Can't grow in a totally sealed room, simple as that- unless you happen to live in a blimp hangar...