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Stealth cab closetmaid 2 door

Mr Pyr0

Member
The problem is not your current CFM, but your ambient temperatures that are too high. On the other hand 85°F (29°C) is not that high, I get those temperatures 1 month a year (January actually), the only thing that will happen is that your plants will drink more water.

If you try to get your temperatures at, lets say 76°F, your CFM needed will sky rocket to over 200, which might give you other problems like wind burn.

That ambient temperature is your usual ambient temperature or just this time of the year?

Before changing anything I would try moving your grow box to other cooler parts of the house like: the basement, a bathroom, any room that doesn't receive direct sunlight.

The other more expensive way is to cool you ambient temperatures.

Or maybe try replacing one or two bulbs with lower wattage bulbs, it might bring the temps down by a couple of degrees. Also I wouldn't worry about those temps - plenty of peeps grow weed outdoors in hotter weather than that.

:)
 

Athos

Member
What about your lights on period? At what time do you turn on your lights? If you are not doing it already you could make it so your lights turn on at night, for example.

In order to maintain my lights on / lights off temperatures relatively close to each other (this helps in keeping the inter-nodal space really short) my setup works like this.

Summer: night ambient temperatures 59°F to 68°F, day ambient temperatures 71°F to 82°F. Right now I'm in veg stage and my lights come on at 8:00 PM and turn off at 2:00 PM. This way my lights on temperatures are not so high and the lights off temperatures are naturally on the mid 70's. In flower they turn on at 9:00 PM and turn off at 9:00 AM.
 

jonhova

Active member
Is 10 degrees F over ambient normal? Im not tripping right now its the summer im scared for.

I think ill pull 2 lights off and see what temps im looking at then. 6x9 54 watts total.
 

Athos

Member
You might want to consider replacing the bulbs with something more efficient. For example

Currently you have 6 bulbs (9 watts each) for a total wattage of 54 watts and 4800 lumens (800 each)

You could replace them with 3 15 watts / 1600 lumen bulbs. That would give you the same 4800 lumens, but only 45 watts.
 

Drop That Sound

Well-known member
Another option would be to actively cool, basically adding another fan, but for the intake. You will have positive pressure unless you size accordingly. Maybe one 120mm exhaust and 2 80mm intakes, etc

I would just stack another fan to the one you got first, see if it works a little better. But by the time you keep buying 15 dollar fans you could have bough a cheap inline. You'll probably have to sacrifice some space and run it inside the cab.

If you were inclined enough you could almost get that space back by breaking down the bulbs and remote ballasting them..


Here's another one of my crazy idea's, fresh out of my oven:

Drill a 1/2 inch hole into the plastic housing of a bulb, careful not to hit the driver. glue on a 1/2 barb fitting. Drill a smaller hole on the other side for a vent.

Now, hook up a small vacuum pump, or a reversed air pump (could even use an old scrap refrigerator compressor!) with a manifold and 1/2 tubing running to all the bulbs.

Put the vacuum pump where it can't be heard. Turn it on.

Suck that heat right out of them bulbs!


I deserve an award for that idea ;)
 

Drop That Sound

Well-known member
Actually, unless the vacuum pump has enough cfm to remove most the BTU's, a good fan might work better.

Think of it like air cooling HPS cool tubes on a closed loop. Then your exhaust fan can handle the ambient temps NP.


Air cooling the actual inside of the bulbs, where the hot driver is sealed up in plastic, instead of letting it dissapate into the cab is a game changer.
 

jonhova

Active member
4 lights does the trick. About 4 degrees over ambient at 78 F.

Now i gotta find something to hide the top portion carbon filter
. Something “pretty” to please the Mrs hova. Lol. She said no to a bucket.

I think a wicker basket upside down will work.
 
Last edited:
put a photoframe of your wife there

getting 120lm bulbs instead of 100 lumen doesnt work, thats the same as taking one bulb out, that wont put it down 5 degrees

get 2 fans/filters, doubles the cfm
get a static pressure fan (or id say, a real fan, ive never seen people using pc fans in the long term)
get filter with more surface area and less dept of carbon

your idea of air cooled bulbs can be done fairly easy, but youll have insame high humidity because the lack of heat
try to see WHY its so hot, does hot air circle around the bulbs at the top? does it circulate around the plants? its pretty much like this, the more heat you remove from the bulbs, the more heat goes into the growroom, unless you isolate them from the grow

make box, insert electrics, screw in bulbs, cut out circle size of chip so light comes out on 1 side, drill 80mm holes on both sides, collect fan/flex duct, forgot you have no room for that fancy stuff and build a bigger box :D


WHY CANT I POST PICS? http://www.supermodular.com/assets/...F_SMART-SURF-BOX_2XSMART-CAKE_BLSTR_WHSTR.jpg
 

jonhova

Active member
Im rocking 3 bulbs right noe and testing 4. It looks good for less bulbs.

Trying to keep it simple really. I decided on a wicker basket with the bottom cut out and light proofed.

I will probably upgrade to 3 X 15/16 watt bulbs at a later date and upgrade the fan if during spring/summer.

Northern lights was planted 3 days ago in coco. Lets see if it decides to pop up today.
 

Drop That Sound

Well-known member
In jon's case he could just toss in a shelf, using the top and sides of the cab and maybe even the original peg slots to complete the box.

Mount the lights flush onto it, then you can move it up and down, making the box bigger inside, instead of having a smaller box with 2 flexible ducts inside the cab. That would work great too though. It would be portable that way

Just put the 80mms on each side. No need to really light proof or scrub the fans. Just make sure its sealed around the shelf, without caulking it.

Also make a port going through it for the main exhaust fan to work still.
 

jonhova

Active member
picture.php

View image in gallery

NL decided to say hello today

Heres some pics of the cab fully light proofed and the new digital thermometer.





I ordered maxibloom for KISS style coco grow. I peasy peasy. Also ordered the stronger noctua fan 120 mm nf-f12 pwm.

Currently not really phing the water but i will start in a day or 2.
 

MyNameIsMike

New member
That's awesome your cab is completely light proofed. It's not an easy task by any stretch. Cab is looking badass. Looking forward to your grows.
 

jonhova

Active member
Made a larger hole on top for the exhaust fan. Mounted it. Now i need to make a new tupperware connection.
 

jonhova

Active member
New fan and lower profile tupperware connection.

New fan and lower profile tupperware connection.



Testing how hot it gets over ambient with all 8 bulbs on.

Bought 1 Zamaldelica and a 5 pack of tropical mix seeds from ace.
Now i gotta figure out what i want to do for container size. These tropical sativas get so big. NL shouldnt be too much trouble i hope lol
 
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