Hey all,

Fired up my 1KW HPS yesterday for the first time (air-cooled hood, but not vented at this point). My temp-shooter indicated the hood was at 178 degrees. Yikes... and I'll be firing up a second one soon, so need to work the cooling out. Room temps were up over 82 late in the day, and basement temp was up over 75.

So, ok - I need to air-cool the hoods. I've got the bulk of it figured out, the duct runs, a Can Fan 260 cfm fan, etc. But what concerns me is the heated air. Drawing air in from the basement, and exhausting it to same will increase the basement temps. And that same air is used to vent and cool the grow room.

I was walking around, looking this over, when I had an idea. Looking for any downsides to this - please speak up if you see any.

The area where I will set up an intake for light cooling is near a supply duct. The area where I'm thinking to exhaust the heated air is near the main return duct. So I'm thinking I'll splice a wye in the supply line, and run that through the wall and into the first light. Then duct through the second light, the cooling fan, and exhaust the fan to the return duct. In other words, drawing air from and pumping the heat into the HVAC system instead of the basement.

My furnace is on 8 months out of the year. I figure the additional heat will reduce my energy consumption for those 8 months. I run the fan at low speed 7/24 when not heating/cooling to constantly circulate air in the house and keep temps even from room to room. I do see loading the AC system more when it's on, but it's running only 10 or 12 weeks out of the year.

I do see less effective light cooling when the heat is on, as I'll be drawing already heated air into the light hoods. So will this work? Or will I cause HVAC issues drawing and pumping air through it? Thanks for any advice you can offer.
cavadge Reviewed by cavadge on . Can I use my HVAC system to cool HPS lighting? Hey all, Fired up my 1KW HPS yesterday for the first time (air-cooled hood, but not vented at this point). My temp-shooter indicated the hood was at 178 degrees. Yikes... and I'll be firing up a second one soon, so need to work the cooling out. Room temps were up over 82 late in the day, and basement temp was up over 75. So, ok - I need to air-cool the hoods. I've got the bulk of it figured out, the duct runs, a Can Fan 260 cfm fan, etc. But what concerns me is the heated air. Drawing air Rating: 5