I need help now!!!!

[Mnoutdoorz]

Well I spent the whole night awake watching over my plant. My 400watt hps showed up so I threw it in and wow did the temps ever sky rocket. My cab is usually about 73 or so in the dark and with the cfls it was usualy around 78. With the hps now they jumped to 90!!!! I know this is ok but I'd really like to drop it to a more manageable level. What's the best way to do this? My cab is 4x4x2 I have 2 fans inside moving air around and a squirrel cage fan off of an old hockey table. Would getting a better exhaust like a 265cfm squirrel cage help or would it be better to just get a cool tube and hook that up? Also I think if i go 12/12 that'd help with the heat. Right now we have a big rubber maid container full of water that's adding back some humidity that the hps cooked off and helping keep the temps right at 90 and not over. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Mnoutdoorz Reviewed by Mnoutdoorz on 06-30-2006. I need help now!!!! Well I spent the whole night awake watching over my plant. My 400watt hps showed up so I threw it in and wow did the temps ever sky rocket. My cab is usually about 73 or so in the dark and with the cfls it was usualy around 78. With the hps now they jumped to 90!!!! I know this is ok but I'd really like to drop it to a more manageable level. What's the best way to do this? My cab is 4x4x2 I have 2 fans inside moving air around and a squirrel cage fan off of an old hockey table. Would Rating: 5

[Zandor]

Adding an air cooled light hood will always help the heat. Is your transformer (ballast) remote or is it mounted to the hood as some are?

If the air cooled hood or Cool tube has enough air pushing through it and back out the room then it would drop about 8-10 degrees or more. Depending on how large the glass is. A 6" with a 6" blower will cool more then a 4" with a 4" blower would (only makes since).

After that upgrade if that is not enough then add the other exhaust fan. It's best to have a fan that can exchange the air in the room in under 1 minuet.

[Mnoutdoorz]

K well my cab is 32 c.f. Do you think a hydrofarm 180 or 265 would be enough? If I were to get a cool tube would i need to buy an inline fan in order for it to work right or could i have one end be a passive intake that draws air over the bulb then into ducting into my squirrle cage?? I've found the new fans online for $80 for the 180 and $95 for the 265. I'm probably going to pull the trigger and order something offline today to help this problem as soon as i can.

[Mnoutdoorz]

K my local hydro shop has a 265 dayton for $99. Does anyone think this would help my problem? I mean that should exhaust the room more than 8 times a minute. Anyone have a dayton? Are they nice? How loud are they?

[Login Failed]

Dayton is an excellent product, as far as noise it varies between models!

See if the shop owner has one running or can hook it up so you can hear it.

[Mnoutdoorz]

Yeah I'm sure it's not any louder than what I have now. By looking at other fans I believe the one i have is under 100cfm so that 265 I would think would help alot. I moved the ballast outside of the box and it only seemed to help a little.

[Opie Yutts]

You can't just "throw in" HID lights. They are of course the best way to go, but require much more ventilation.

The answer is cool tube, and a 250 CFM fan pushing air through it. Air from outside your grow area, close to the floor. Pushing to outside your grow area close to the ceiling, but preferably to the outdoors. Cool tubes are great, because if done properly you can let your plants actually touch the glass. As you probably already know, this is good.

Heat problems are very easy to resolve. More, or at least more efficient, ventilation.

[Zandor]

Opie is correct. A sealed air system for the light is proper cooling. Passive may work if you suck the air out through your cool tube with a large enough blower.

Cool air in from the ground level and hot air out at the top.

But it's better to have your light system sealed and have a blower outside the grow area and use dryer vent pipes to connect all the air from the blower to the light then use a second piece of vent tube to take the air away from your plants.