300w DWC double PC case scrog

[TORO!]

Well fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck, FUCK.

I finally received my new power adapter for my fan speed controller. I fired it up with all 4 fans running. Unfortunately my temperatures were holding steady at 91 degrees. So... That means the entire design is basically fucked and needs to be redone.

The cooltube system was working perfectly as far as the passive intake is concerned. The glass was warm/slightly hot to the touch, but you could still keep your hand on it without it burning.

I basically now have to come up with a way to cool the cab down and make what I have work or switch out the bulbs/ballasts. I'm thinking dual 70w CMH for a total of 140w. And if I do switch them I'll mount the ballasts outside of the case this time to further reduce heat. That's something I should have done in the first place, but I didn't.

This licks balls.

Add more fans. Forget passive intake, have a big intake fan in front of the case going through a tube to the front of each cool tube. Also add more fans for general case air flow. I don't think co2 is realistic in a micro box like this. just exchange as much air as possible.

I would say you should ditch the sideways tub and use that space for utilities and stuff instead of trying to put things outside the case (completely ruins any stealth and the point of having a PC grow).

Have 3-4 120mm intake and 3-4 120mm exhaust fans separate from the cool tubes.

You can use the normal case fans that come with the case but they aren't particularly powerful or efficient. Look at high speed triple blade Delta 120mm fans.

Also from the pic you posted it doesn't look at all light proof or like you have ant space for any scrubber or anything inside the case which could be done easier if you added the back utility section.

 

[Elephunk]

The carbon scrubbers are going to attach on the outside of the case. They stick directly out the back connected to the 120mm exhaust fans.

As I said before, in my situation I don't have to worry about being as stealthy as some of you other guys. Having this thing tucked away in the corner is enough.

The reason I didn't want all of the utilities inside the case is because I want to maximize my growing space.

The co2 thing obviously isn't a diesel set up with the fans going on/off on timers and the tank releasing set amounts of co2 at specific times and all. This thing just pumps out constant co2 for 3-4 weeks. I figure if it does anything for my yield then sweet. If not I'll just use it for another grow box down the road.

The box hasn't been fully light proofed yet. The carbon scrubbers will serve as the light traps for the 2 120mm exhaust fans when they're put in place. I'm building a light trap for the two smaller 80mm fans that exhaust the cooltubes. I'll just have louvers to let the hot air out, but no light. Hell, if I really wanted to I can just put all the utilities on the back part of the cases and then build another chamber to enclose them all inside. A little black paint and you wouldn't see any of it.

I guess I have room for up to 4 more exhaust fans if I cut 2 holes on each of the back panels. Not really sure if I want to turn the entire back of the case into fans though. That only adds to the noise of the existing fans. If there is another method of cooling I wouldn't mind looking into it. I was even thinking of putting in tubing and pumping coolant through a couple radiators so that it flowed all around the case. I doubt it would be effective enough though.

I think I will be running this case at night to try and combat the high temps. I just need some other method of cooling to also bring my temperature down. I would still really, really love to have 106w/p/f, but I might just have to pull them out and replace them with the 70w.

 

[TORO!]

Oh yeah good point about the scrubbers but be careful the stock fans are weak and have virtually no static pressure which makes them practically useless once you attach a carbon filter to them. for the rear scrubber fans definitely get the high speed deltas.

Add more intake fans, you can easily fit four where the drive bay areas were. If you are just using regular old 80mm fans for the tubes upgrade to some high performance fans there too and definitely add two more fans on the other end of the tubes.

Building a box around the back utilities wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm just wondering- if stealth isn't an issue why not just get a small tent? We both know that getting a setup like this to work the way we want takes a lot of hard work and effort and if I didn't need it to be stealthy I wouldn't have bothered.

 

[Elephunk]

The stock fans have already been replaced. I bought 120mm 120cfm fans. So I should have 240cfms being sucked from the main box and 70cfm being sucked from the cool tubes. Each 80mm fan is 35cfm. I thought that would be enough, but I'm going to try and find stronger 80mm fans. Clearly not enough power.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to scrap making this whole light trap box. I'm just going to get some 4" pvc tubing or poster roll tubing and put that around each 80mm fan. Then I'll get the 4" midget louvers (what Mr. Micro talked about on pg.1- Thanks bro!) and attach those to the end of the tube. That will let the air out and also server as the light trap. Perfect.

I'm kind of playing with the idea of putting 2 more 120mm 120cfm exhaust fans in the top of each case. But because they will vent from the whole cab I'll have to have more carbon scrubbers. I'm thinking I just put a small box on top of the whole thing. I'll have 2 more 120mm 120cfm fans mounted to the top of the case. They will each connect to a pipe or ducting that connects to a single carbon scrubber. I think I know just the one too. It's already premade for fish tanks, but I think it might do the trick. Each pipe will connect to an end of this carbon scrubber and push the air through it, filtering the air. So again acting as a bit of a muffler also. At least I hope.

But that will give me another 2 fans drawing 120cfm each. I'll make enough room to house my fan speed controller. I might actually end up buying another one so I can regulate the two fans on top and the 2 smaller 80mm fans I plan to hang inside the case to move air around. That would also give me 2 more heat sensors to position around to get a more accurate reading over the entire canopy. lol sweet.

Hopefully this will help in bringing down the temperatures. I wish to hell I could get the temperatures down to 75, but I'm just hoping for 80 at this point.

The co2 will most definitely have no affect now. It's going to be a whirlwind inside the case. 6 fans total for the main cab + 2 fans for the cool tubes.

What do you think?

 

[TORO!]

Honestly you should just get a real 4" inline fan for the exhaust since you don't care about being super stealthy and have it lead to a scrubber. you can use 120mm fans for intakes. i would avoid doing a passive thing having a bunch of 120mm exhaust fans connected to all types of tubes and some strange aquarium filter. keep it simple and do it right. I just got a brand new 4" Odor Sock in the mail for my setup that is 10" long and perfect for this size cab (could be effective in a much bigger space too). much easier than dealing with a big heavy scrubber. let me know if you want it.

the small one

and yeah forget about co2 with that much air flow.

 

[bud_me]

Have you calculated how much intake area you have? Having too little intake can decrease the ability of the fans to effectively remove the hot air. more exhaust than intake can create improper pressure inside the box so that although you have adequate exhaust, it has nothing to pull. Essentially the quicker you can get air in, the better, otherwise you have stagnant hot air just hanging out, heating up the place.

I love the design, I'm a mechanical engineer and have a case of my own and have to take my hat off to you sir.

 

[TORO!]

Have you calculated how much intake area you have? Having too little intake can decrease the ability of the fans to effectively remove the hot air. more exhaust than intake can create improper pressure inside the box so that although you have adequate exhaust, it has nothing to pull. Essentially the quicker you can get air in, the better, otherwise you have stagnant hot air just hanging out, heating up the place.

I love the design, I'm a mechanical engineer and have a case of my own and have to take my hat off to you sir.

he is doing a passive intake which is the issue. he needs 4 120mm intakes on the front

 

[bud_me]

he is doing a passive intake which is the issue. he needs 4 120mm intakes on the front

from my experience that can still work, it's just a matter of how constricted the intake is that depicts how efficient the exhaust is. with passive intake the the fans just have to work a little harder, no biggie

nothin against you TORO! just what I've always done and it works for me

 

[Elephunk]

Sorry guys I was away for a little...

the reason I didn't want to go to a 4" fan was because of the noise. In my situation I don't need to be insanely stealthy, but I still require some stealth which is why I'm going to tuck this thing away in a closet/corner where it won't be seen. But the 4" fans are just too loud and can be heard through the walls/floors. That's why I'm trying to stay with computer fans. Granted if there is an ultra quiet 4" inline/can fan out there I would get it, but I haven't found any.

bud_me- thanks for the kind words. And I think you're right about the intake issue. I don't think I have a big enough passive intake like you said. Each case has a square cut out where a 120mm fan used to be. I removed those in order to make it a passive intake. I guess I'll just reinstall both of those fans so I have active air intakes. If that doesn't work I can remove some of the drive bay covers so there is more open area to draw air in.

I guess I'll see what that does for my temperatures first before I start cutting/modifying anything. If it doesn't work... I guess I'll be installing those other 2 120mm fans on the top of the case like I said.

 

[TORO!]

so how did you deal with the drive cages? I don't see them but you keep talking about the drive bay covers which wouldnt be there if you got rid of theme completely. On mine i drilled out all the rivets and removed them then riveted a piece of sheet metal to the inside front of each case completely covering everything up. when i was running a single case with CFLs and one of the containers like you have i was using the lower 120mm intake and it didnt really do anything since it was blowing right into the DWC container. I would have the intakes above it where the drive cages were so they are blowing right onto the plants and not obstructed.

 

[ExEcutioner]

Awesome setup man, you'll figure out the tweaking you need to do to get the right temps in there.

 

[Elephunk]

Toro- I just removed the drive bay cages entirely. Then I took the black covers and taped them all together with foil tape. I put them in place and taped them to the case. I guess I could just remove them entirely and replace it with a solid piece of sheet metal. I'll probably end up doing that because I have to install the 120mm intake fans anyway.

I also just bought new 80mm fans for my cool tube exhausts. They pull 53cfm as opposed to the 35cfm fans I currently have. Hopefully that'll also help to bring down the temps a little bit.

thanks Ex.

 

[bud_me]

Good call with upgrading to higher CFM exhaust on those cool tubes. So what's the word, how's it looking?

 

[Elephunk]

well... Basically I took a break from doing anything to it. I just wasn't able to motivate myself at all to do all the work. I finally now have started again.

The new cooltube exhaust fans are in place. Those babies will draw 53cfm each. And right at this moment I'm installing the 2 80mm fans that will serve as my active intake. Once this work is finished I'll get everything connect and wired up and do another test run of the system. Hopefully wth the added active intakes the temperature will drop down. If it's still too hot (which I'm assuming it will be) I'll have to install those other 2 120mm exhausts on the tops of each case to try an exhaust that heat faster.

 

[guest3589]

I am sure your new mods will have it running nice and cool. Looks like it should be an awesome grow area for you. Great job with the build, active intake will make all the difference.

 

[Elephunk]

Thanks expert

Yeah, actually I'm starting to think it was probably the fan speed controller I bought. The way it works doesn't bring the fans up to their full operating speeds. Instead it balances all the fans to keep the temperatures within a set margin from 64-75 degrees.

I think I'm going to buy a regular fan speed controller with 4 knobs. It will be able to turn the fans from 5v (low) up to 12v (high). That way I should be able to get full power all at once if I really need it.

My cooltube fans exhaust at maximum 53cfm. The grow cab exhaust fans are each 120mm and I have 2 of those also. And then each intake is a 35cfm 80mm fan. So I have 70cfm going into the cab right now and 240cfm exhausting out. So that's a 3.5 to 1 ratio of intake/exhaust.... Is that going to be good enough?

I mean... I do still have those 2 other 120cfm 120mm fans I can install into the tops of each case. I would rather this just work though so I can start some shit.

 

[jaw]

awesome cab

 

[guest3589]

The speed controller may well be the culprit. I think you have more than you need there to pull it off if you can get the fans up to full speed.

 

[godisadj]

Elephunk, I love your setup man. I'm sure with a bit of tweaking you'll get your temps to where you want them.

I'm currently running a double-wide PC case myself with 60W of CFL (http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=69107). I'm thinking of altering the design making it similar to yours - going DWC with 70W HPS.

I'm keen to see how you get on, I'll be watching!

Good luck man!

 

[hellotheresir]

Hey toro!, interested in your PC case..pm me if you can. Dunno if he'll read this thread so if someone with 50 posts would be kind enough to PM him a link to my post I would appreciate. I'm not gonna make 50 worthless posts just to PM him :\