Air cooled lights: the right way

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badmf

Active member

• Jan 13, 2005

• #41

Jubei; obviously you have very cold intake air, in the Northern US's winter, but under hotter summers this may not be so. I didn't recomend two 700's but two 449cfm ones. If you have too much air flow you can use a fan speed control to adjust to present conditions.

 

G

Guest

• Jan 13, 2005

• #42

Nice never thought of hooking up some speed controls . Yeah we have had some 100 days of below freezing so gets nippy up here. Plants like it though. Let us know how you set it up and how it works for you. Good Luck Jubei

 

tragic1

Member

• Jan 14, 2005

• #43

Thanks everyone for the input. Considering I'm in the north also and can only afford one fan I'm gonna try it the way jubei is doing it. realhigh the cool tubes I am getting are 8" in Diameter, same as the fan. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

B

badmf

Active member

• Jan 14, 2005

• #44

This may work now, but come summer plan for re-configuring it. Goo dLuck Tragic!

 

G

Guest

• Jan 14, 2005

• #45

Oh yEAh for sure you will have to reconfigure or add something to the setup. I have central air so i pipe it into the growroom. Hope that will help a lil bit. Good luck Jubei

 

D

DB2004

• Jul 10, 2005

• #46

Another important factor with air cooled lights is thermal protection. If the inline fan ever fails, that bulb will heat up in excess of 150 degree Celcius (250F). I build custom thermal shutdowns that use a digital Ranco ETC-111 with four probes, one probe for one air cooled light (total four lights). If any of the fans fail, the power will be shut off to the four ballasts powering the lights and a push-to-reset breaker must be reset to turn power back on. If you'd like to know more, send me PM.....

Best Regardz

DB2004

 

mariman

Member

• Sep 15, 2005

• #47

sealing hoods

sealing hoods

How do you recommend sealing the gap where the glass slides into the hood?


M

 

V

vhGhost

• Oct 29, 2006

• #48

great info guys, i enjoy reading informative threads like this.

wonder what you guys have to say about my new setup.

i have 1 669cfm ellicit inline fan, 4 1000w's, and 4 silverstar hoods.
i plan on running these hoods in a 4x12x6'(tall) area and will have cold air straight from outside through a window. i'm planning on building a box around this window with a 6' takeoff point. the distance between the window and the first hood is no longer than 2', and the same goes for the fan( which i want to keep outside of the room for added temp control) this will all be 6" ducting with insullation.

just wanted to know what you guys thought about this! i figure with the cold winter(-10degrees@least to -30 sometimes) i shouldn't have trouble keeping the lights cool( or maybe to cool) and any thoughts on how a box should be built for around the window( insulation/filtration so i don't have to constantly clean the glass and the bulbs.

thnx for all the great info again!

 

Budweiser13

Active member

• Oct 29, 2006

• #49

Great Topic, here is a link hope it is ok to post it has some good info..

http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/Exhaust-Blowers.asp ....this should be a sticky

 

V

vhGhost

• Oct 29, 2006

• #50

bump, bump

 

B

badmf

Active member

• Oct 29, 2006

• #51

Howdy yall! Good to see someone gleaned something out of this. vhGhost, I have run four 1k's(had 4-465 Daytons) and vented the heat output into my house, also in a winter climate. It added a sufficient amount of heat enough to keep my energy bill well in check. I do however believe you need more fans as you will be removing heat from one and it goes to the next... This may not be as much an issue with cold intake air but come Summer uhh ohh! In summer conditions I am using an Elicent like you're using (636cfm)but on "each" light!

 

G

Guest

• Nov 12, 2006

• #52

 

tuttlebudd

Member

• Nov 12, 2006

• #53

NICE....

 

thescissors

Member

• Nov 15, 2006

• #54

I for one refuse to use glass sheilds between my bulbs and the plants due to the fact that glass (ANY glass!) BLOCKS UV LIGHT!!! and UV is (probably) helpful in producing THC... remember hindu kush, columbian, and a lot of other superpotent landrace strains come from areas where UV light is very abundant (high altitudes and equatorial locations)... Just a preference for me, but i am running a thousand watt cabinet (400+400 for flower and 200 for veg) with NO glass in it (other than the bulbs themselves!) :wink:

(forgive the desk lamp and other random sh*t in this pic... i was cloning that night!!

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2006

Bramski

Member

• Nov 15, 2006

• #55

I don't think the glass effects the THC levels in any significant way because I've grown the exact same clones under cooltubes and under ordinary lights and there was no noticable difference.

 

G

Guest

• Nov 16, 2006

• #56

hoping you guys like my set up this is my first grow doing it this way got some more work but its a start

 

thescissors

Member

• Nov 16, 2006

• #57

Bramski said:

I don't think the glass effects the THC levels in any significant way because I've grown the exact same clones under cooltubes and under ordinary lights and there was no noticable difference.

Click to expand...

You may not of noticed a difference, and i admit i have no "science" on it, but UV energy is still energy, and I want it all going into the plants. MH bulbs are particularly rich in UV, HPSes less so, so any way to minimize the minimization of UV coming out of the bulb is what i am after. One might argue, rightly so, that the cooltubes let you bring the remaining light energy that much closer to the bulbs, but all of life is a compromize and this is my path (for now!) When my plants are taller and starting to get burned by my naked bulbs i might change my mind! (or tie them down... )

 

Joe A. Grower

Active member

• Nov 20, 2006

• #58

I've never bought the whole "UV makes more resin" theory. I've grown incredibly stoney, resinous shit using HPS with no supplemental UV. If UV is necessary for high resin production, someone forget to tell MY girls. :wink:

Some would say, "they make resin without UV, but they make more resin with UV!" I don't buy that either. Even a bare MH bulb doesn't have a fraction of the UV that natural sunlight puts out. Putting it behind glass makes the UV go from "miniscule" to "nonexistant." I add to that the fact that the outdoor herb I've smoked, which got TONS of good ol' UV-rich Cali sunshine, was not really any more powerful than the indoor that I've grown. If UV makes more resin, I've never it seen proven conclusively.

Frankly, I think the whole theory is just more stoner bullshit.

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2006

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overgrow00

Member

• Jan 5, 2007

• #59

Is it still benefitial, heat wise, to run air cooled hoods if you leave the opposite side open?

I'm thinking about upgrading to a 4x8x7 tent using 2 1000's. I currently have a 6 inch ellicent that i use and wanted to just use that. I can just run it normaly or i can run air cooled hoods in a line with the last flange open.

Would it make a decent enough difference to make it worth the effort used to clean the glass as often as i would?

 

2buds

Active member

• Jan 6, 2007

• #60

I would think so. If you can lay your hand on your hoods and they are cool to the touch then you have eliminated the heat radiating form the sheet metal, now if you can figure out how to get rid of the heat radiated through the glass form the light, that would be a nice touch. I assume your fan is pulling through the hoods and exhausting outside your grow. Remember if you use co2 enrichment then you will need a sealed intake exhaust system so you don't waste you co2.
Peace,
2buds