fixing my room need advice

[TriWingGirl]

I am fixing my grow room because i was constanly cooking my plants.

My room is 9' x 8' with an 8' ceiling just painted a nice bright white color, instead of the old panaling brown color.

i started by replacing my ballast to a lumatec 600/750/1000 switchable digital ballast.

i was using a 6" dia 60" long dual cool tube with 2 1000W bulbs. when i used 2 !000W bulbs i got larf, when i used them one on one off i got good stuff.

I was once told i was over lighting my room. i am getting behind that idea.

my question is would 1 light on a mover be enough for that size room and can anyone verify i am over lighting the room with 2 lights?

yes with 2 lights going the heat is hard to control.

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

I am fixing my grow room because i was constanly cooking my plants.

My room is 9' x 8' with an 8' ceiling just painted a nice bright white color, instead of the old panaling brown color.

i started by replacing my ballast to a lumatec 600/750/1000 switchable digital ballast.

i was using a 6" dia 60" long dual cool tube with 2 1000W bulbs. when i used 2 !000W bulbs i got larf, when i used them one on one off i got good stuff.

I was once told i was over lighting my room. i am getting behind that idea.

my question is would 1 light on a mover be enough for that size room and can anyone verify i am over lighting the room with 2 lights?

yes with 2 lights going the heat is hard to control.

2 lights in a room that size would be no problem provided you have proper ventilation... If you put rhem on a mover, you'll increase your useable space... good luck!

mgk

 

[TriWingGirl]

What i'm thinking about doing is changing to 1 light on a mover instead of 2 lights stationary.

i'm having dark spot problems and burning problems under the lights.

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

That size room would be ok for 4 lights. 1 light on a mover will not cut it. You need 50 watts per square foot to get good solid dense nugs. I feel the question you should be asking is what ventilation upgrades or other environmental controls should you be upgrading to. Rather then upgrading your ballast to digitial....

I cool 4K in cooltubes in one row with an 8" fan at the start sucking on a huge filter, 6" booster in the middle, and a 6" inline on the end. I have two 2K rooms as well, one is
8Lx7Wx7H and the other is 8Lx5Wx7H, they both produce hard rock high qulaity nuggets with proper cooling and intakes.

To much light is not your problem, to much heat is your problem. By reducing the amount of light in that room you are cutting your potiential yield right in half.

One of my 2K room uses a 6" inline fan, 440cfm hooked up to a catrbon filter to cool. The intake is a 170cfm 4" inline fan. The other room uses a 740cfm inline fan hooked to a filter to exhaust, and the intake is a 440cfm inline for intake. I would suggest the 8"/6" combom exhaust/intake.

 

[TriWingGirl]

So my other idea of getting 2 single cool tubes and moving then higher and cooling them better is a better idea?

 

[TriWingGirl]

I'm having lots of trouble with the dual tube. it to heavy for my roof and the lights end up in the wrong places no matter where i hang it.

my original plan was to put 2 2x2 boards length wise on the ceiling. get 2 single cool tubes and screw them to the boards and flatten out the reflectors to maximize light use.

i learned from the hanging dual tube that there are lots of dark spots and heat caused by the tube.

if i spread the lights out more and put a blower in the middle with a water chiller and a blower and chiller at the begining.

i believe that should solve my problem?

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

Another possibility is to just do part of the room for flowering and partition offa section of the room for veg and clone. If you do this, make sure your flower area is completely isolated from light coming from the veg/clone area... just a thought...
mgk

 

[TriWingGirl]

I think i figured it out?

Get the 2 single tubes and instead of mounting them in line and trying to mount a blower on my ceiling.

redesign mount them to the ceiling one on each end of the room each with its own filter and blower so as needed the second one can come into use. as well as cooling each light individually. and keeping the blower, chillers on the floor. keeping weight off the ceiling.

i can also mount them N/S direction instead of E/W direction or turn them sideways and mount them on opposing sides of the room. which would give me 2 cold exhausts into the room and should bring the temp. down. I would be applying the same amount of chilling to each individual bulb that i was applying to both with the dual tube. And free up space.

What do ya think?

oh yea just got 1 room and do 1 crop at a time. from grow to flower, it's all the space i have and always gets used up during flowering. trying to stop burning my plants and think the dual tube is most of my problem.

 

[qupee]

think the dual tube is most of my problem.

No. There's no heat problem going to be caused by a dual tube in and of itself, and certainly not one that could then be fixed by using two separate tubes. Light coverage, sure; heat, nope.

Somewhere you're not exchanging enough air, and if you aren't exchanging any air, than you don't have enough ac capacity.

If you provided more details about your ventilation it would be easier to help.

 

[Phaeton]

PuReKnOwLeDgE has it correct, too much heat, not light.

Splitting them up each with it's own cooler will dissipate heat away from the plants much better, 2 separate radiators put less heat in any one place.
And as you noticed, light can come from more directions, gaining efficiency.
Ventilation 101 is a sticky, pick and choose from it.:kitty:

 

[stillsmokin843]

so do you have inline fans to cool your tubes? if so what size? sounds like your not pushing enough air through them to keep them cool. also it sounds like you have water cooled unit that may not be hooked up correct or may not be working properly. i definaly would not lose a light. just fix the cooling issue.

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

And.. are you bringing in air from outside the room?

 

[Granger2]

TWG,
Your room is 9x8=72 sq ft. With 2000w of light [2000/72=27.77 watts per sq ft]. You're FAR from over lighting. If you half the amount of light, you'll only have less than 14w per sq ft. No where near enough.

Does the room have any air conditioning? What are outside temps like. Do you light during night or day? Do you bring in outside air? Do you exhaust to the outside? If you have no lights burning in the room, does the room get hot in the day time? We need much more info to be able to help you.

Sounds like you need to use only the amount of light that you can keep cool, and grow the appropriate number of plants for the light, not the number that will fit into a 9x8 room. Good luck. -granger

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

I would just go carbon filter-8" inline fan-colltube cooltube and out the house. 6' intake with variable speed controller bringing air in. Of course mount filter up to get the hottest air out first, and bring in the intake air from the floor to bring in coolest air. If your ambient temps are decent you will be good to go. Don't waste money out buying two filters two fans.

Also, I have a 2K room with cooltubes on an 8" fan. My other 2K room has yield master II 6" air cooled hoods and a 6". The room without the cooltubes and a smaller fan stays cooler....

You should for sure get a light support bar up to hold all the weight. A 2X4 works great just use good strong screws and enough of them. Iolet hooks are easy to get on the board and your lights will be straight and safe.

Like asked before, how much air are you exhausting cfm wise? Also intake? Get this right and you should be pulling 2.5#+ every cycle off that setup.

 

[TriWingGirl]

i draw air from inside through carbon filters, then blow up through the tubes with 6" 440 cfm blowers, with a ice cube chiller on the end of the tube. i was getting 78 deg. out the end of the dual tube with 2000W.

i do not vent out side. mobile home reacts bad to outside venting. things also go better in winter easier to keep room cool.

i expect it will cool way better with 2 tubes 2 blowers and 2 chillers. and 2 wall mounted fans blowing the cold air off the end of the tube back over each tube and into the plants. better airflow all around, better use of resources, less waste, better control. each chiller will also have to pull off less heat, so that system will work better.

This is stuff i already had except the 2 new tubes. reusing old equipment with hopefully better results.

so each light will have 1 filter, 1 440 cfm 6" blower, 1 cool tube, 1 ice cube chiller. with a wall mounted fan for each tube.

double the cooling and better light placement. plus more floor space.

oh and if the lights are still to hot i can turn them down with the switchable 600/750/1000 ballast.

i never tried bringing air in from out side how would i filter it. besides it's 120 here in the summer pulling air from outside then not feasible.

Besides the water cooling systems works and keeps the room cool. i believe trying to cool 2 bulbs at once was to much to ask. i believe splitting them up will be more efficient and provide cooler air all around. i was wasting most of that cool air because it was blowing at a wall and completely defused.

i believe using 2 tubes better placed to use the cool air to blow it back on the garden instead of at a wall, will keep the room a lot cooler.

 

[stillsmokin843]

Hmmm, I edited my text. I meant do not lose a light. First of all you have heat issues. You gotta bring the room temp down some. so that the chillers and cooling units don't have to work so hard. Do you have a way to get the chiller or chillers out of the grow room? They put off decent amount heat. I'm not real familiar with the water cooled set up, but I have used chillers. What was the ambient temp of the grow room? Also you may want to consider letting the air leaving the tubes vent some where like another room, or under trailer, maybe even through the floor. If you have carpet it will be very easy to hide the hole later.

 

[LiLWaynE]

get a big ass air conditioner.....they sell 228kbtu window ac units.... i have one and it will keep temps straight....

 

[stillsmokin843]

i think she is trying not to have to buy something new. thats why i was saying start getting some of the heat out of the room for starters

 

[TriWingGirl]

the main cooling water chiller is under the house and uses 2 1" continuous 1/2 hp pumps. they 1 pump water to the chillers and the second pump circulates the main water cooler. there is a 60 gal. tank.

when i was using the dual air tube with 2kW i was getting 78 deg out of the chiller on the end of the tube. i had an other chiller on top of a filter pointing up, it was putting out also 78 deg. i was not able to turn the cooler down any more it was already working to hard. i am hoping to be able to turn it way down with the fix it should not be working as hard.

all my air was either hitting a wall or going nowhere, otherwise all air was defused. some how i was still able to maintain ambient temp of 78 deg.

i had 4 fan going, 1 20" blowing air in the room, 2 small 8" fans blowing in the room mostly on the ballasts and floor. also 1 18" fan blowing on the tube.

with all that i was still burning plants lots of hot spots and air diffusion.

i believe my repair will fix all that.

i expect it will cool way better with 2 tubes 2 blowers and 2 chillers. and 2 wall mounted fans blowing the cold air off the end of the tube and chiller back over each tube and into the plants. better airflow all around, better use of resources, less waste, better control. each chiller will also have to pull off less heat, so that system will work better.

so each light will have 1 filter, 1 440 cfm 6" blower, 1 cool tube, 1 ice cube chiller. with a wall mounted fan for each tube.


oh and if the lights are still to hot i can turn them down with the switchable 600/750/1000 ballast.

generally the way it was set up it was working but not well. lots of bad air and hot spots.

the way i plan to fix it will spread out the light and the air. instead of unuseable air i will have useable air and twice the cooling and more floor space.

opinions are welcome that is what i need.

i am also considering a humidifier of some kind can't use a water thrower, maybee a steam one. still working this problem.

i believe my fix will work.

i'm sure the old way does not.

 

[stillsmokin843]

78 isnt so bad.being able to bring that down a bit would be nice but still doable. so the top of the canopy is getting plenty of air movement? how close are your lights rule of thumb is if you can hold the back of your hand at desired canopy height for 30 seconds with out it burning your hand then it wont burn your plants. they sell diffuser they worked for a buddy of mine who was having hot spots but i have heard they have some draw backs.