Vertical setups. Why activelly cool the bulb?

HushemFlupskluk · May 19, 2011

Recently I noticed almost all vertical growers here use a ventilator below the bulb blowing upwards. Bulb is activelly cooled.

But is this really neccesairy? All heat is transported upwards after all. And besides the bulb has an optimal function temperature. This cooling may prevent the bulb from functioning at this temperature.

No heatpackages are produced anyway because the reflector is not there so I don't know why alot growers do this.

Some fans in the room for optimal airflow is all we need right?

:tiphat:

ajc0k · May 19, 2011

If i didn't have fans blowing on my 1k bulbs directly my plants would be fried to shit, wouldn't be able to put the bulbs nearly as close to the plants. 1000 watters generate alot of heat, need to disperse it.

mrdizzle · May 19, 2011

prolly cools your room 7-10degrees at the jump, its the wise move

HushemFlupskluk · May 19, 2011

I have no experience with 1000 watt bulbs. But it seems likelly that hot-spots do appear when 1. you use a reflector growing horizontal. 2. no optimal in/out airflow.

Speeding up the inlet/outlet flow would stop the heating i.m.o. in a vertical setup. Then fans in the room not aimed at the bulb would make sure a good airflow in the room.

mrdizzle · May 20, 2011

the bulb is the hot spot bro, imagen instead of a bulb its a smoking hot frying pan, air blowing directly over it is going to cool down the frying pan, and good in/out airflow is a given

prowler · May 20, 2011

YES! BUT remember that do not set the bulb cooling fan to maximum. It does not help you at all. The key is to have a balance between the heat blown up and the outlet fan sucking it out. If you have your fan blowing too hard the hot air crashes to the ceiling and disperses all over your grow room - when it is optimized you should see a couple of a degree drop in temperatures in no time.

The idea: Blow your heat up - let your outlet fan catch it and deliver it outside your room.

This absolutely most efficient way to set up your room with minimum work and minimum equipment. No cool tube / ventilated hood / turn this, twist that -setup can compete with bare bulb and a fan on the floor.

bobblehead · May 20, 2011

HushemFlupskluk said:
Recently I noticed almost all vertical growers here use a ventilator below the bulb blowing upwards. Bulb is activelly cooled.

But is this really neccesairy? All heat is transported upwards after all. And besides the bulb has an optimal function temperature. This cooling may prevent the bulb from functioning at this temperature.

No heatpackages are produced anyway because the reflector is not there so I don't know why alot growers do this.

Some fans in the room for optimal airflow is all we need right?

Same reason guys cool their lamps with hoods homie... to get the plants closer to the lamps. If anything, removing the heat from the lamp would increase the life of the lamp. I run digital ballasts, so I know for a fact that my lamps are running optimally... A small fan below the lamps is in no way going to rob the lamp of power.

mrdizzle said:
prolly cools your room 7-10degrees at the jump, its the wise move

The fan below the lamp doesn't cool the room not one bit... What it does is push the heat to the ceiling, where it can get picked up by the extraction fan. Intake and extraction fans cool the grow...

STUPPA · May 20, 2011

Even just alittle bit of upward air on the bulb will cool it , i can hear my bulbs start to "click" when i turn off the fan for a minute and on again , that clicking sound is the bulb cooling.

I thought one of the reasons for blowing upwards was so you dont blow the heat off the bulb directly onto the plant , like a fan heater, which is wht would happen if you use a fan in the normal way.

never used 1000's tho i stick with 400w verts as they are much more versatile and easier to control in tight spaces.

HushemFlupskluk · May 20, 2011

Thanks for the replies!

I never had a good experience with my bulb activly cooled. In horizontal setups I used to use fans for bulb cooling. Then I started the vertical setups and found that there is no hotspot this way.

I use fans for circulation in the room. Basically a vortex is blowing inside. Pressing cooler air to the outside and hot air to the inside of the vortex. The hot air rises away from the plants.

Why would 1000 watt bulb need active cooling? Are your plants not a bit to close to the bulb then?

Neo 420 · May 20, 2011

HushemFlupskluk said:
Why would 1000 watt bulb need active cooling? Are your plants not a bit to close to the bulb then?

Simple answer for a simple question.

Cause that shit is hot!!!!!

That is it in a nutshell.

love2gro · May 21, 2011

with our fans underneath we can get our nugs a lot closer to the light then you can. your choice really. nothing to debate

RipVanWeed · May 21, 2011

Hey HushEm,

Cooling that bulb some allows you to get your flowers closer. I could put the plants on the other side of the room and they would never get too hot or sunburned. But size, density, yield, aroma, taste, and THC content all suffer.

The closer your buds are to the light the bigger and harder they get.

That's why I put a fan under each bulb.

Respect,

Neo 420 · May 21, 2011

@ HushemFlupskluk

I just read one of your threads and it looks like you had burn damage on some of your leaves that are close to the bulb. Surely this is kinda clicking to you why we use fans on vert bulbs...Correct?

HushemFlupskluk · May 21, 2011

Hi all thanks again for the replies. It is clear you all want the buds as close as possible to the bulb to flower them into the largest buds. Me too.

But I believe that aiming fans at the plant has higher priority than fans at the bulbs.After all I assume an activelly cooled bulb loses a bit output potential. Plants can always use a bit more airfow.

@ Neo

I Have a bit to many leafs anyway. I started trimming them from the inside. That hotspot supposed to be there. Cooling the bulb there would possibly prevent the bulb from functioning at the optimal functioning temperature.

It is just that I was advised to not activelly cool the bulb because of that reason.

Thanks again! Nice weekend!

Neo 420 · May 21, 2011

HushemFlupskluk said:
But I believe that aiming fans at the plant has higher priority than fans at the bulbs.After all I assume an activelly cooled bulb loses a bit output potential. Plants can always use a bit more airfow.

Negative.... You only loose lumens or "output" through glass. You do not loose "output" via airflow. You actually can give more lumens or "output" to the plant when the plant can be closer due to the active dispersing of the hot air upwards. (Which is why EVERYONE here is telling you to put a fun under them lights). The priority it to have a fan trained on the ladies AND the bulb. (WE CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!) You will see a increase in size and density if you take our advice.....GUARANTEED

HushemFlupskluk said:
That hotspot supposed to be there.

NO....That is light burn due to being too close or not being actively cooled. That is not a hot spot. That is a hot bulb.

HushemFlupskluk said:
Cooling the bulb there would possibly prevent the bulb from functioning at the optimal functioning temperature.

It is just that I was advised to not activelly cool the bulb because of that reason.

No disrespect to who ever has been mentoring you but they are WRONG. You are only lessening you harvest weight due to heat burn and stress. You have a very nice setup but if you dial it in the CORRECT way, you will see bigger, harder, resinous buds than what you get now..........

HushemFlupskluk said:
Thanks again! Nice weekend!

You too buddy....But I got to feed my lady first.......

Hammerhead · May 21, 2011

I dont use a fan that blows up I use a wall mounted 16" osc fan and the room is A/C cooled. If you can keep the room cool enough you dont need one. Usually that space is not used it is dead space. The lumens drop off allot there. I put my plants around the bulb in a circle I use 2 600 so I dont need to rotate the plants. So far it has been a major improvement in my yields.

gardenbug · May 21, 2011

I aim my fans to make the air flow around the room like a tornado. A fan on low speed in the middle of the room pointing upwards at the bulbs sends that hot air straight up and into my exhaust. It seems to work quite well this way. I have no fans pointed directly at the plants as I always find it to cause wind burn.

HushemFlupskluk · May 21, 2011

Thanks hammerhead and Gardenbug. That is what I was aiming at.

Neo I think we have some disaggreements.

Can you prove that a bulb does not suffer from active cooling?

Hammerhead · May 21, 2011

I did cool my bulbs when I was using a horizontal config. I dont believe that cooling your bulbs will hurt there function in anyway. We have been doing it like that for many many years. Bulbs lasted me no more then 12 months cooled or not.

HushemFlupskluk · May 21, 2011

Hi Hammerhead,

a year? Hmm my bulb supposed to last 32000 hours. After a year of growing I don't even reach 5000 light hours.

Would active cooling not have any effect on this new generation of bulbs?

Blowing this hot package away from the bulb could force it to produce more heat right? w/e effect it may have on the long term also.

PS I use a Phillips Master Son-T pia plus

Vertical setups. Why activelly cool the bulb?

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