[GrüneErd]

hey everyone, i've tried to set up my 400w hps in a 4'x2.5'x8' closet and can't get any temps lower than 90. so i resigned myself to CFL's, which after a few harvests i'm unhappy with, as i can't cool them properly either.
i have a 400w hps with a hood, the ducting collar is at the top of this hood above the bulb. i have a 340cfm panasonic whisper as well as a stanley blower.
my ballast can be wherever i need it to be.
I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW TO COOL THESE LIGHTS, WHERE TO EXHAUST, HOW TO INTAKE, all that.
i'm not stupid, i've been reading on here forever and know quite a bit, i just can't make what i've read work in my situation.
SO.

how would you set up this 400w in this amount of space with the panasonic whisper and stanley blower available? where would you exhaust/how, how would you intake?
i have to intake through a door that connects to my room, which is no problem.
cutting holes is no problem, i've already had to cut to exhaust the heat when i tried to make this work previously.
let's talk about this please?
peace

[GrüneErd]

here's some pics to get a feel for the space (and the failing cfl setup that has led me to cast aside all my thoughts on this and see what you people think):

this is the door that leads to my room and the light-sealing curtain pulled back to show the walk-in view.

my fan on a shelf at the top, currently sucking air from around the lights and exhausting into the wall (though not doin much it seems).

here's my (now) active intake via a hole in my door, ducting, and a stanley blower. barely keeping the plants i have now cool enough to survive.

and a top-right shot, where my moms and clones are, showing the exhaust ducting running up from the top of the lights.

and for your patience, some Lahaina buds on week 4, struggling in their new environment:



growing them isn't hard for me, it's all the details surrounding the machinery (lol) i gotta use.

[messn'n'gommin']

I am not sure of exactly what you're trying to do. As best I can tell, you're drawing air from the outside with a Stanley Blower (an active intake?) and exhausting with the Panasonic. Are you exhausting through the wall or are you exhausting into the wall itself?

It looks like you have a hell of a duct run with a lot of bends. While that is good for stealth, it sacrifices a lot of CFM to overcome the extra resistance. For an excellent explanation of ventilation, you might want to take a look at the following thread...

“Ventilation 101,” by redgreenry
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=112862

Hope this helps.

Namaste, mess

[GrüneErd]

yeah messn' i'm in that thread as well lol.
and sorry about the pics, they're apparently misleading from the original point of my thread.
i'm scrapping all that, and wanting to setup my 400w. i just don't know how to set it up and have it run cool, as i can't even cool these cfl's.
so i'd like a breakdown of how to do that (i know, but i HAVE used the search engine, read many threads) or better yet, how YOU (the reader) would set it up if this were going to be YOUR grow room.
the pics were to give you a better idea of what you'd be working with as far as the physical space.
hope that clears things up a bit.
i appreciate in advance any and all productive input.
peace

[GrüneErd]

forgot, messn' i didn't realize but i believe i AM just running it into the wall, not through. i just looked today and the space in the wall is very small, much smaller than i'd thought.
i guess the ceiling might be a better option, but it's textured and i really didn't wanna go there....but i'll do what i gotta do. i'd have to look, but generally isn't there much more space to exhaust into in a ceiling? i think my attic is above it.
bear with me folks, i just wanna get my buds big and know you guys are the ones to go to for any help.
peace

I agree with mess'n, it appears you are going into the wall with no clear air path. From my calculations, you're getting about 50 CFM effective airflow.

Have you tried just ducting into the room just to see how the airflow works without venting into the wall?

If you can run the exhaust unrestricted there is lot's of airflow available from the 320CFM whisper fan. By the cooling chart you should be running 3*F above ambient.

[Philosophelon]

Hello there, GrüneErd! Ventilation and heat issues are very common with cabinet/closet/tent grows. The key is to have an adequately-sized fan and minimize the amount of resistance in your ducting system, because resistance adds to the static pressure against which your fan must push/pull. Your heat problem is most likely caused by a combination of a few different things:

1) Long duct runs - you need to use as little ducting as possible to minimize resistance.

2) Narrow ducting - 4" ducting adds a lot of resistance, you should try and see if 6" ducting fits.

3) Many bends - every bend in your ducting seriously increases the resistance on your exhause circuit.

4) Too small of an extraction fan - if you must have alot of resistance in your ducting, you need to use a bigger fan.

The thing about fluoros is that they produce about as much heat as HIDs, it's just not as intense cuz it's spread along a way bigger arc tube. So if you can't cool 400w of HIDs, you probably won't be able to cool 400w of fluoros. As far as HIDs go, CMHs burn cooler than HPS, which burn cooler than MH.

Hope some of that helps, and good luck!

[GrüneErd]

thanks everyone that responded, its all been helpful
red, LOL 50cfm no wonder i've been thinking there's something wrong with my fan all along. before this i was exhausting through a hole cut in the closet door with a typical house vent-cover drilled over it, and into the bedroom that the closet is in.
but it made the room so hot all the time, that not only would it build up in the closet, the whole bedroom would be hot.
this was with the closet door left open for intake/fresh air.

as you can assume, i'd rather not EVER have the closet door open, but i had to do what i had to do ya know. i'd like to achieve a 400w hps in there, that's my ultimate goal, as i don't think it's unachievable?(seems to be for me so far, but for many apparently it's easy)
if exhausting into the wall is no good, and through the door into the adjacent bedroom no good, what am i left to work with do you think? what do/would you guys do?

here's some pics of recent buds, some Papaya from Nirvana, my keeper/mom pheno:


thanks again.

[messn'n'gommin']

Just a thought, but what is on the other side of the wall your trying to vent into? If possible, could you cut a hole and mount a return air grill close to the floor? They come in fairly large sizes and would provide you with an outlet for your vent and they rarely generate, if ever, questions. There was a thread here on someone doing just that and was venting just behind his fridge. An added plus, the fridge provided an excuse for any noise or heat.

Namaste, mess

[swampy_nz]

i wound exhaust straight into your roof.end of heat problem.