changing veg to 20/24 from 24/24

[Diamonddss]

changing veg to 20/24 from 24/24. thats what im doing because of temp issues.
Outside its about 100 Degrees F
i have been struggling big tim keeping my room temps down
my flower room runs about 79 to 81F at night with lights running and about the same during the day as lights are off but outside heats up
But my veg is 6 t5's and the room is about 80 to 84F at night and peak hours of 3pm to 7 pm as high as 95 degrees. Im trying everything but im running out of money and time. Strictly using portable AC's with no wall unit no central.
So i switched today to cut the T5's off from noon til 4pm and might even have to go 18/6 i dont know wether it will help or not but i gotta try.
T5's dont give off much heat but surely it must make some difference. Im gonna ck it out later tinight after work

 

[Diamonddss]

if vegging averages 90 degrees how bad is that? Next year i will shut down flower for 3 monthsa during summer to keep veg cool as my flower room sucks much of the cold from the veg cause im not risking the ones already in flower

 

[FreezerBoy]

I'm in a garage. My summer temps can also get into the 100s though it's rare. I run 18/6. Sunrise is 9pm and sunset is 3pm the next day. This way the lamp shuts off just as temps start to rise in the garage and comes on after temps have dropped considerably.

90º won't kill you but, lower is better.

 

[Diamonddss]

so even though 24/24 can give more growth betwwen high temp and energy cost its not worth it to me esspecially in veg.

 

[gedogen]

some people say that the difference b/t 18on and 24on is negligible. in your situation it makes perfect sense as the benefit of not burning up your crop far out weights any lost lights on time.

also i've heard it might be a good idea to step down your time gradually to 18on 1 hour every couple of days - though i doubt you'll have time for that.

 

[Hank Hemp]

Go 18/6 with the 6 being the heat of the day. T-5`s shouldn`t heat you up to bad. The heat will cut your yield. If you have good venting and fans on the plants you may be ok. Heat will be your main problem as the summer goes on. Just looked at your pics, nice looking doing good.

 

[Diamonddss]

thanks to all of your replies.
At 8am this morning temp was down to 72F in veg but as temps outside hit 100 it will rise dramaticly
My room is insulated great but the passive intake is straight from outdoors so last night i turn the dial down on the 8inch can fan down to its lowest setting on the dial. This will mean less fresh CO2 pulled in but i think will keep temps down even more. Its still blowing out pretty strong and the smell outside is still nil at nearly 4 weeks flower. The AC exhaust has no smell yet.

I posted a few pix
in this thread
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=118367&page=8

i have 2 afghan kush ryders that were suppoed to auto but i treated them like any other strain after finding they take 60 veg before auto so after 3 weeks veg they went 12/12
2nirvana WW flowering and 2 KC mango.

I have a few SAGE in veg i will sex in a few weeks.
This is my first ever attemptafter over 20 years of lettting others do it for me.
Ive learned more about these plants in 2 months than i ever knew

 

[Diamonddss]

well, temps are getting even lower after discovering that the port AC exhaust was leaking into my veg blasting hot air in the room and
a ventilation ck leads me to believe the 8 inch can fan is too large when turned up. I dialed it down to its lowest setting on my dimmer switch and thats making a big difference.

so question
the entire room is abou 9.5 x 5.5 x 7 H so thats about 365 cubic feet
The can fan is a stardard output 8 inch drawing air thru a can50 filter.
Max CFM: 493
the room is split in 2 with canfan and filter exhausting out the flower side and the passive air intake holes on the veg side. The idea was to keep fresh air flowing at all times.

Does the 8 inch sound too large?
Does 8 inch pair up with can50 ok?
If too large fan is it ok to just keep it dialed down or should i switch to lower cfm fan. If i keep the 8 inch it will be great when it does cool off to suck cool air in. It rarely gets super cold.
Switching it out would be difficult at this point.

im in over 4 weeks flower with about 6 plants so the room on the flower side is stinking up but so far no odor outside exhaust and very very mild odor out AC exhaust

 

[Diamonddss]

so i couldnt figure how 2 11,000 btu ac's could not keep such a small room cool.
Well they are both single hose and pull alot of passive air themselves . So i was running both and an 8 inch can fan. I was sucking in so much hot air so fast that it could not stay cool. It it now 100F outside but my rooms are 71F.
I TURNED OFF THE CAN FAN AND PROBLEM SOLVED. The ac's are already sucking in enough fresh air. Im gonna just run the can as a scrubber without exhuasting. I cant believe it took 2 months to discover this. I have spent hours and hours trying to keep it cool and broke a 14,000 btu portable just from blast 100F air at it all days.
So if figuring ventilation you must account for the cfm's your ac has if it causes negative pressure. I was wayyyy over doing it because i kept reading about folks doing the oposite

 

[Diamonddss]

the more i think about it the stupider i feel. I lost about 22 expensive due to the heat and it was all my fault. My 5 pack of mazar freebies was burnt. 7 SAGE seeds and 10 kiwi hindu kush.
But all and all i got flowers coming and a few new mothers now so live and learn.
I knew $340 extra on my power bill was not right for such a small setup.

 

[Diamonddss]

woke up this morning and 66F in flower. had to turn one ac way up. Thats a first so now the debate of wether to stay 20/24 or go back to 24/24

 

[Cyber9]

I've read 20/4 will actually give you a slightly bigger yield then straight 24... gives your plants a chance to rest and grow in the dark period.

And it does have the added bonus of letting everything cool off a lil.. you can always have the lights off during the hottest part of the day, I turn my lights off from 2pm to 6pm.

Hope you get your temps worked out man

*Edit* You say ur room is 71f and its 100f outside... thats perfect man, you could even go upto 80f with no problems... and if you have 66 f in flower... were the lights on or off? 66f is a lil on the cool side, why you have to turn your ac up beats me... maybe im reading that wrong...

 

[Diamonddss]

sorry meant 71 degrees farenfeit 100 degrees Farenfeit out side.
now 66 degrees Farenheit with lights out and 71 to 75 with lights on.
So to compensate today i put the ac in the flower room on a timer of an hour on/hour off when lights are out
Now the room seems to hit about 80 when the air is turn off and back down to 66 when the air is on

the room measures 9.5 x 5.5 x 7 with a split for the flower room. So the flower room is approx 5.5 x 5.5 x 7

 

[Hazyfontazy]

go 18/6 its proven to be better

 

[Diamonddss]

go 18/6 its proven to be better

well, i am still not sure and cant speak yet from personal experience. But i ve read alot and my early conclusions are
24/24 gives most growth BUT
20/24 or 18/24 show almost as well with very little difference and use less energy and give your ballasts a chance to cool down.
But i have read many posting that the dark period is needed but no real explaination why. My first guys were 24/24 and grew like crazy.

 

[Hazyfontazy]

the dark cycle is very important to plants , in the dark period there is a shift from leaf production to root production as the leaves transfer stored energy down to the branches and to the roots,so therefore a period of dark will greatly improve root structures

 

[Vegan]

also i've heard it might be a good idea to step down your time gradually to 18on 1 hour every couple of days

 

[thekingofNY]

I got a good friend around here that does commercial. He's runs soil or promix now, and has tried every possibly light schedule. Hes concluded 18/6 is the best for fastest growth/easy cloning/perfect spacing/etc. Still untill recently I was running 24/0, But switched to 18/6 due to the summer heat. I LOVE IT! I won't be going back to 24/0 ever again. I think the plants realllllly benefit from the dark period. Maybe in the winter I'll do 24/0, but prob just stick with this for now on.

 

[bostrom155]

I got a good friend around here that does commercial. He's runs soil or promix now, and has tried every possibly light schedule. Hes concluded 18/6 is the best for fastest growth/easy cloning/perfect spacing/etc. Still untill recently I was running 24/0, But switched to 18/6 due to the summer heat. I LOVE IT! I won't be going back to 24/0 ever again. I think the plants realllllly benefit from the dark period. Maybe in the winter I'll do 24/0, but prob just stick with this for now on.

 

[TGT]

Cyber9, you say you have a period of a few hours where itis dark? Is this during flower or veg? Just curious if it still would produce the same and have no hermi problems as long as it was consistant.

TGT