Cooltube cooling dilemma! Help how to cool my lights

[goofy81]

Hi
At the moment I'm running my filter on the ground on a milk crate with a fan on top exhausting the air into the ceiling. The air intake is a hole on the ground as can be seen in photo.

I'm planning to use cooltubes. With 2 on each side and 1 in the middle stacked in 2. (The diagram just shows how everything is connected, not how everything will be positioned).

My dilemma is, how can i cool the cooltubes?
1.I cant pull the heat into the ceiling because its NOT carbon filtered.
DO i have to buy ANOTHER carbon filter?

2.If i mount the fan in the wall so it pushes into the lights, will the air thats pushed out from the lights make my room even HOTTER?

I'd also like to know if my fan is powerful enough for that setup? As I have all the cooltube equipment but its not yet connected.

Please educate me on how to cool my cooltubes!
thanks

 

[OVERMAN]

intake the lights from another room, your going to need a few fans or a much bigger one, look into the manifold design. I doubt if even a max fan 12 could handle that many tubes, 2 would im sure.

 

[goofy81]

Thanks for the replies.
Botanist85, because this is a vertical grow, i wouldnt want tubes running on the ground. But i guess i might have to.
How many cooltubes can i run in series before anything gets WAY too hot?
My diagram is wrong i just realized because i only have 8 cooltubes, so in this case, would that fan be enough for those 8 cool tubes? The centre light will have to run without a cooltube.

IDEALLY, i think the filter may have to be IN the ceiling and my 400watt exhaust fan should do the trick, but really that is a last resort as the filter is heavy. But if i do go ahead with this method, how often would i have to be cleaning the inside of my filter, since all the crap/bugs will get trapped inside. Would i need a dust filter (made out of panyhose) underneath the cooltubes? (which will be sucking in from the bottom?).

Overman, for the manifold, am i better off buying PVC and making my own up somehow with equal length tubes?

Thanks for the quick responses

 

[goofy81]

Anyone still reading?

I've found out my Fan is 460cfm on low and 570cfm on high. Is this enough? how much cfm is needed for cooling 8 , 2 in series the rest in parrallel?
Also, would intake with a hole in my DOOR be good enough? i'll be turning the airconditioner in the next room on.

 

[BurmeseDragon]

That is a lot of heat energy, it's hard to visualize how your plants are placed around so many vertical lights. I never saw vertical lights above and below each other.

I'd strait up have those hooked up to be exhausted strait through the carbon exhaust then use that small exhaust fan to move air around inside the grow......probably at the ceiling and run through a smaller carbon filter out of the room...that isn't drawing from the lights (as heat will build up there the most and I wouldn't want to blow it down and around, where it takes longer to get drawn out).

That better be a massive exhaust fan to draw through 6000 watts....worse yet 10 600 watters which isn't bad for HID...6 thousand watters would be worse as they are less efficient and that means more heat energy than light energy produced.

Just don't let that massive exhaust fan required for all those lights on the same exhaust line, to suck up your plants like a vacuum...being vertical and down by the plants.

No I'd use that 800 and something cfm, that is a good 8 or ten inches...what ever is the largest.......not only are you sucking through the carbon, which is best to blow through but most scrubbers are not linear systems........making your own is linear and able to suck through or blow...and it is best to blow through.

It's all about pressure and fans don't blow as well as they suck, you don't see boats sucking water to move you see them blowing it behind them........it's just more efficient.

What ever the diameter of your largest fan is, buy a duct that is that large and pack it with carbon....it's a strait shot and doesn't matter what the CFM rating is, you can tell if it is to much and mostly about how tight it is packed in.....carbon grains don't get tight if it's the normal pellets........cheaper than paying for a pre-fab, that is not efficient.......they draw from the sides which is a bad design.

A strait draw, uses most of the carbon inside...it reduces the efficiency from one side to the next......unlike drawing which never really uses the bottom that rarely sees any pressure and therefore just taking up space!

 

[mg75]

I have a hard time cooling 4 600's using outside air (40-50 degrees f) and one 600cfm fan. I think you need at least 400cfm per 2 lights. You might need an A/C as well (unless the air you are bringing in is below 0. 10 600watt HPS will create a LOT of heat.

 

[Dhude]

I run different vent schemes based on ambient weather/seasons.

1. Winter: growroom air->hoods->filter sitting in lung room
This setup just kicks the heat back into the lung room (a garage) keeping that room and part of the house heated. When running this I also have a 4" fan running on a temp controller that will exhaust the lung room if gets too warm, while passively pulling outside air into the lung room.

2. Fall/Spring: filter inside grow room->hoods->exhaust to outdoors. 4" fan exchanges air in the lung room for about 1 hr before lights on. This allows me to get the lung room down to the ambient outside temps, otherwise it would stay 15deg warmer than outside for at least a couple hours after sunset.

3. Summer: Lung room air->hoods->fan->outdoors exhaust, AC in grow room PLUS, another fan going: filter in growroom->fan->outdoors exhaust. Also the 4" fan exchanges air in the lung room for about 1 hr before lights on.

A 460cfm could do about 4 600s in a line, with minimal bends/filters etc. Start adding filters and 90deg bends, and you're talking more like 2 lights per 6". By the time you get to 8-10 lights, you're going to be running a manifold system if you're smart and able, using a 10"-14" fan.