cooling issues, what am i doing wrong here?

[Graham Purwatt]

hello ic,i need some help.i am running 2-600 watt hps in aircooled hoods in a 5'x5'x7' poly tent. they are exhausted separately from the tent with a 424 cfm fan,which exhausts the hot air completely outside the room that the tent is in,the intake for the lights is 1-6" dryer duct which draws cool air from the floor..the tent has a 170 cfm fan and scrubber and 2-6" dryer ducts for a passive intake.here's some pics,can anyone tell me what the heck i'm doing wrong here?,i'm running 84 to 85f with cool outside temps(not normal here),summer's coming and i don't want things getting hotter.do i need another intake for the tent?for the lights? i was hoping to get a bigger scrubber and exhaust the tent and the lights together and eliminate 1 fan.any help and suggestions are appreciated,thanks.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

 

[Lazyman]

How is the outer room exhausted? If you're recirculating heat from 1200W of light, the room will always get hotter if the "lung room" isn't exhausted. It's basically a 1200W heater in the room, so blow it outside!

 

[Graham Purwatt]

hi lazyman.fresh cool air comes from a side room,the exhaust blows outside,so it doesn't recirculate.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

Where are you exhausting your lights to?

 

[good drown]

hey graham, i ran 2 600's last summer with 90+ degrees outside.
i noticed a huge difference when i moved my 2 ballasts to the attic, and they are digital. i have a passive intake(12"), the lights are hooked like yours, a little farther apart a 6" vortex hooked to a can100 in the attic. works great!

 

[Graham Purwatt]

thanks gd. you know how hot it gets here.thats exactly what i'm shooting for,a larger scrubber hooked to it. i didn't consider the ballasts,they really don't seem to get hot and are not in the tent but i'll move them and try it,just kind of scaring knowing how hot i'm getting now and summer is coming.

the lights exhaust out to a laundry room

 

[messn'n'gommin']

Just a thought, but I remember seeing a thread several days (couple weeks?) ago that mentioned that the plastic lining of their Flexiduct had pulled off the wire ribbing and partially collapsed, reducing flow. Might be nothing, but worth a mention.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

thanks for the tip m&g, but no the flex is new and i'm getting a strong flow of air,just not quite enough. that is a good point though,i have seen that once you run heat through the cheap stuff it becomes brittle.i could see it pulling loose pretty easy

 

[good drown]

ok well since you are just blowing back in the house, the fan is pulling all that hot air right back into the room. you would have to seal that room's door off, to prevent that hot air coming back in. since i exhaust into the attic, that 6" fan pulls air into that room. if i shut the door and put my hand under the door, you feel all the cold air. it also pulls some from the windows, so when it gets hot, it starts sucking in that hot air from outside. my ballasts are the digital ones, and they were hot enough after running all day, i couldn't hold them without a glove. that defiantly dropped my temps by 2-3
if in your room is another, less powerful fan hooked to a carbon filter, it wont process all the air, since your 424cfm fan is more than double.

 

[Guest 18340]

Hey GP, being that we're both from the dirty south, I know your heat plight.
I run the same lighting and ducting setup as you only my room is 10x5x8 and AC is a MUST in the summer. Unless you can keep down the temps in the room the tent is in...
But temps outside are cool so your problem is that you're not sucking out the hot air fast enough thats building up in your tent.
Cooled hoods or not, heat still builds up and you have a good amount of wattage in a plastic box.
My suggestion? Open up all the vent holes in the tent and undo the intake tube from the first hood so that it's sucking the air from the tent.
Thats how I keep the temps down in my room on cool days like this. I run a 6" Vortex using the same tubing and size as you. Works like a charm.
I have a mini split AC in the room so I take the glass off and run them uncooled in the summer and just turn the air on.
Am I making any sense? I've been up since 7 smoking on C99 bubble hash so forgive me if my ramblings don't make sense. I feel your pain though, heat is no joke down here in Fla

*EDIT*
My room walls are wood, sucking the air outta your tent like I suggested will make the tent looked "sucked in". For what it's worth...

 

[good drown]

the problem with adding an ac unit, is it JACKS up your power bill, and then add that not so quiet noise that kicks on, behind a closed door. not very stealth. i would do everything in my power to not buy an ac unit. keep your house at 73-75 instead. i would seriously look into venting into the attic, without that, you are just re-heating up your house, then pulling that warmer air into your room

 

[RugerBaby]

is it 84-85F at the canopy or the tent/room?

 

[Guest 18340]

the problem with adding an ac unit, is it JACKS up your power bill, and then add that not so quiet noise that kicks on, behind a closed door. not very stealth. i would do everything in my power to not buy an ac unit. keep your house at 73-75 instead. i would seriously look into venting into the attic, without that, you are just re-heating up your house, then pulling that warmer air into your room

.

 

[good drown]

i got 1200w in a 30 square foot. then i have a 400w outside that room in a tent. the 2 600s hooked to a 6" fan in the attic, on full blast during the day, at night, my controller knocks it down to 75% the little veg tent i have is just a 400, hooked to a speed controller, knocked down to about 40%
how much power does that a/c draw? thats another reason i would avoid one.
i keep my house a comfortable 75 during summer, so no cooling in the room needed

 

[Guest 18340]

Dude, back up a little. No need to challenge my AC use when it does not apply to you or him. He can't very well put an AC in a tent thats in a room can he? And no one is telling him to. Read my suggestion to him.
My situation, where my room is located calls for using an AC. So I chose to use the most quiet, most efficient units made; a mini split with an inverter.
Half of one single plant gets me enough $$$ to pay the electric bill for the grow and the house...for two months. And for my $$$ spent I get to keep my g
To each his own bro, glad you got yours dialed in. Only a fool would spend money where it's not necessary, I would never bother with AC if I didnt absolutely need it.
GP doesn't need an AC unit, he needs to pull more air outta his tent, where it's building up...

 

[globel]

Yea move the air inside the tent faster and make sure both there light and the tent exhaust into a separate room... or out side...

I know this sounds crazy but disconnect one end of the lights so the room also gets exhausted using the lights exhaust fan you will be pushing 600 cfm.... and that will keep your tent at the same temp as the room its sitting in.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

damn,fla to the rescue! i have a window unit but it's 650 watts and i kind of traded it out the a/c for the 2nd 600w hps. the air from the lights goes out to the laundry room which is away from the grow room and does not circulate back in or make its way back in at all.the only air coming in is cool air from the floor from the next room,a bedroom,which has nothing exhausting into it. i was wondering if the scrubber fan was just spinning its wheels,though it does kill the smell,just doesn't seem to exhaust like it should.sounds like your ballast run hotter than mine gd,mine are barely warm to the touch but i will move them.there is no attic over that room or central a/c duct either,crappy remodel deal.when i had the window unit hooked up in that room it still ran lower 80's with just 1 hid.i'm wondering if a larger fan/scrubber is in order now.
evl,i just switched them around yesterday because of your setup,it seems the best overall footprint and it is way better now,just the temps shot up a few degrees on me.i just got back from walmart with a new oscillating fan to help blow air around better,some new carbon for the scrubber and i guess i'm about to cut a new intake vent and see if that does it.i can't unhook at the hood because all that smelly unscrubbed air will get out then
yes,mid 80's at the canopy,lights are about 1' above the canopy.got to love fla,even when it's cold its hot

 

[reckon]

I personally think the suggestion above where you uncouple the intake from one of the lights, so the lights sucks in the tent air, and blows it out of the tent will get the temps down, whether or not the temps will be LOW enough, remains to be seen, but I'd try it, I know it will work........I have my small space grow setup like this, and the only real drawback, is that with the light sucking in air like an intake, the glass gets dirty pretty fast, so I clean it every other watering now (once a week)

my 4X5X8 grow runs at 70-80 degrees and 45-55 RH, with one 1000W and the MAG ballast in the other room,..it's NOT a tent, but it is small

 

[good drown]

Dude, back up a little. No need to challenge my AC use when it does not apply to you or him. He can't very well put an AC in a tent thats in a room can he? And no one is telling him to. Read my suggestion to him.
My situation, where my room is located calls for using an AC. So I chose to use the most quiet, most efficient units made; a mini split with an inverter.
Half of one single plant gets me enough $$$ to pay the electric bill for the grow and the house...for two months. And for my $$$ spent I get to keep my g
To each his own bro, glad you got yours dialed in. Only a fool would spend money where it's not necessary, I would never bother with AC if I didnt absolutely need it.
GP doesn't need an AC unit, he needs to pull more air outta his tent, where it's building up...

calm down buddy, i didn't challenge ANYONE here, wow man...

edit:well gp, something has to be wrong then, my canopy temp is 79.2 right now, and i take the temp under the 2nd, inline cooled reflector, because thats the "hotter" one

and yes, if you sell your product, you can make up for the cost to run everything, not all of us sell. i refuse to infact.