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timed split duct valve anyone?

smurfin'herb

smurfin'herb

Registered Cannabis User
Veteran
Ok here it is. I have two seperate flowering rooms in the same room. One room is on during the day 12hrs then the other is on at night 12hrs. There is a lung room i guess you could say in between them with a/c, ballasts,timers flip/flop etc.. each room has 2 600watt cooltubes. Now what i want to do is cool all my lights with one stanely fan. Now before i go further remember my lights are on alternating schedules, im am not trying to cool 4 600watt cool tubes with one fan. Im trying to cool the two at a time that are on, and then when those go off i am looking for a way to make my fan switch to other rooms cooltubes since they will be turning on. I was hoping that somebody might know of something i can use. If i could build something i would get a y split duct and install a valve on the inside of it that would close up one end of the y duct on a timer thus openening the other end up. And hook it up directly to my fan. That would be awesome! is there anything like it? do you get what im sayin?
 
bobblehead

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Cool them all through the same duct. Put one fan at the beginning, and one fan at the end if you're using a carbon scrubber, otherwise one should do the job. K.I.S.S. I think this will help keep temperatures stable too.
 
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bobblehead

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Keep It Simple Stupid.
A lot of times we needlessly complicate things. Kinda like "if it aint broke don't fix it".

In your case, you're running 2 separate flower chambers on a flip. Great idea, I'm thinking about doing the same! So, 1 blower should cool 2 lights just fine, so why not run that blower past all 4 lights at once since only 2 will be running at a time. Just have good ducting. You could even put the blower in between the two chambers, sucking air from one room and blowing it through the other.
 
B

Barn Growin'

Member
I am trying to figure out how to do the same thing myself I will be watching this thread and adding to it if I figure it out myself.
 
G

Guest

K.I.C.S

I like the KICS method sometimes...COMPLICATED...heh heh KISS is where it's at but if you want to do that get a Y, don't know what your duct size is though, and go to some place like BG they sometimes fuck your orders up Hydro and buy 2 electric dampers for about $150 shipped. You really need to run those dampers off something like a SPDT (single pole double throw) timer so the timer flip flops the active circuit. I'd go with digital for to-the-minute accuracy when your lights flipflop and it shouldn't be expensive.

Add it up and you're talking the price of a new fan :D.

Bobblehead's suggestion would work but you're talking about the air cooling portion of your lights and assume that's on a separate duct from your room ventilation and maybe you're running a closed system? If a closed system you're pulling air from outside the room so his suggestion won't work. Maybe it will but you'd be dumping hot air into the 'off' room. 2 600's is a pretty small room and will not afford much temperature buffering. In the Winter you might be golden but now???

I dunno...electric dampers may be the ticket but since you did not give enough details about your room setup I'm throwing darts.
 
G

Guest

I've used electric dampers for exhaust before. I've used them in ducting up to 16" to prevent blow back of ozone.

If you want to try it they work. If you happen to be doing a relay flip flop with your dual rooms you can buy one extra switch(or have one installed in your box in 120v) to switch the damper at the same time as the ballasts.
 
G

Guest

If you happen to be doing a relay flip flop with your dual rooms you can buy one extra switch(or have one installed in your box in 120v) to switch the damper at the same time as the ballasts.
Click to expand...
I've never done a flipflop setup but that would work if it will work.
 
smurfin'herb

smurfin'herb

Registered Cannabis User
Veteran
exactly adverse reaction. I would be dumping hot air into the "off" room and already being in an attic in the summer i need be as cool efficient as possible! I am actually in the process of having someone build me a flip/flop for digital ballasts (i guess the key is that you have to have seperate timers on the flip unit to turn the digital ballasts off before the flip and back on after, but doesnt that create a spike in the flow unlike regular magnetic ballast flip/flops where they have no need to turn off and on again? He's still to get back to me on that one!) anyway thanks for lettin me know about being able to hook a damper up to a flip also, i will have my sparky set that up for me.
 
G

Guest

am actually in the process of having someone build me a flip/flop for digital ballasts (i guess the key is that you have to have seperate timers on the flip unit to turn the digital ballasts off before the flip and back on after, but doesnt that create a spike in the flow unlike regular magnetic ballast flip/flops where they have no need to turn off and on again?
Click to expand...

Strange? Why does this have to be done for Digital? :confused:
 
smurfin'herb

smurfin'herb

Registered Cannabis User
Veteran
northern farmer. im not sure why this has to be done i will have to get back to you on that. But if you read on some threads about people who have flip/flops with digitals a lot of peolpe are havin trouble with getting them to work properly. They are also having trouble with getting them to ignite hortilux bulbs (at least with the blue lumatek 600's i believe). Anyway i found a guy in one of those threads who offers his skills in the matter. He custom builds all kinds of units like flip/flops,contactors,timer boards,load centers, controllers etc...:woohoo: heres the site if you wanna check it out http://www.nowirenuts.ca/, its under construction but hes still got pics of his work. Looks like he does a good job too he puts fans in all the equip he makes too im pretty sure. Sounds like he goes the extra mile for safety from what i can tell.
 
G

Guest

I totally agree with Northern Farmer about the flip flop thing for digitals :confused:. As for the Hortilux thing I'm not surprised. You did not say which digital ballasts were having problems with these bulbs? I use Lumateks and they are simply AWESOME with GE Lucolux's and I have been saying these are the optimum bulbs with Lumateks for fucking MONTHS on this forum but have seen and heard many people using Hortilux's with these ballasts just fine.

EDIT - OK just reread and it's the blue Lumateks having problems but I've read over and over here people using Hortilux in that version of Lumatek NO problem...I dunno.
 
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smurfin'herb

smurfin'herb

Registered Cannabis User
Veteran
Adverse. I totally agree with using ge on the lumateks (especially over the sylvania) I have heard of great success with them. As for the hortilux, i have also seen quite a few people on here pull them off fine with digitals, but if theres people out there havin problems im not even about to risk being one of those people when i can buy something else that i know for sure will work ok. Again like i said, i am still not sure why digital ballasts must be turned off before the flip and turned on again afterwards. This is the first i have ever heard of such a routine, but i promise as soon as i hear back from this guy you all will be the first informed of why this procedure is neccessary.
 
G

Guest

I guess you already own the digitals or otherwise I'd suggest just going with the regular magnetic ballasts if this is the case. They are efficient when they run 24h, no spikes etc...

I'm a flip flop veteran. Been doing this for a decade + now. You can see a couple of my flip flop set ups in my gallery.
 
smurfin'herb

smurfin'herb

Registered Cannabis User
Veteran
actually i havent went out and bought them yet. Would you still reccomend a magnetic ballast if im growin in an attic? if so which 600watt ones are good, i have only researched the digitals and have heard that if you get a good one like lumatek they are better to have. I have been using t5's for the last.. well always. They are ok for flowering smaller plants and produce a lot of lumens per watt, but u gotta keep the plants small cuz then dont penetrate for crap! As i was saying i have never worked with hps or halides and ballasts before so i only know what i learn here. I need to get some hands on experience with'em tho, im feeling outta the loop. Oh and northern i looked in your gallery and couldnt find any flip/flop pics but hey buddy way go on the grows. very nice!
 
G

Guest

There is no perfect piece of equipment. I love my digitals and after using them for a year I can see some drawbacks but in almost every situation I'd still vote for the digitals. Maybe there is some need to put in a delay when flipflopping but I've never noticed a problem with them needing to immediately refire a bulb after a power outage.
 
S

skin

Member
i spoke to someone about getting a flip flop for my digitals and apparently they trip out when they change over ? some inbuilt safety gadget ! thats why normal flip flops dont work

skin
 
G

Guest

Awesome info on flipflopping digitals. I have never used a flipflop but use a bunch of Lumatek 600's. My only experience with something similar is watching bulbs refire after a quick power interruption. They don't seem to have a problem.

There's always something to learn :rolleyes:.

I look forward to solid reasons and info as to why on this one.
 
G

Guest

smurfin'herb said:
actually i havent went out and bought them yet. Would you still reccomend a magnetic ballast if im growin in an attic? if so which 600watt ones are good, i have only researched the digitals and have heard that if you get a good one like lumatek they are better to have. I have been using t5's for the last.. well always. They are ok for flowering smaller plants and produce a lot of lumens per watt, but u gotta keep the plants small cuz then dont penetrate for crap! As i was saying i have never worked with hps or halides and ballasts before so i only know what i learn here. I need to get some hands on experience with'em tho, im feeling outta the loop. Oh and northern i looked in your gallery and couldnt find any flip/flop pics but hey buddy way go on the grows. very nice!
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Those are pics of my Stadium set ups which most I run on flip flops when dimensions are tight. No pics of my equip.

I couldn't really suggest to you any 600w. I've never used them and I have so many ballasts on the go and so many over the years that I can't really tell which is which when they are boxed or just mixed up. I used all kinds though with good results always. I'm sure you could get 100's of suggestions from people on here if you were to open a thread on magnetic 600's.

Heat off a magnetic may be a problem in your attic but otherwise for a flip flop it's the way to go. Maybe with all the money you save(ballasts, labour and timers) you can figure out a way to remove the hot air from or cool the ballasts?
 
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