cabinet design

[CoolBreeze87]

I plan on building a grow cabinet that will be approx. 3ft. high x 2ft. wide, and 2 ft deep. I plan on using either a 150 watt HPS home security light, or ordering a 250 watt grow light off of ebay. I'm not sure if i feel comfortable ordering lighting equipment over the internet, but anyways i plan on cooling the light by building a homemade cool tube. I found a link here on how to make one. The only thing the thread doesnt include is what kind of fans the person uses to pass air through the tube. Im not sure what kind of fans i would need. Would a 4" inline duct fan from home depot suffice for a 150 watt HPS? I plan on using an exhaust fan to expel old air from the rest of the cabinet and creating a negative pressure system allowing myself to use pvc pipes as a passive air intake. What size fan do i need just to exchange the air? I used this calculator but i dont understand what its telling me about the fan i need. My last question is regarding odor control. I was planning on using one or two of those hamilton beach true air purifiers with the carbon filters, would this be efficient to reduce some of the smell produced during the grow or should i just build a homemade carbon scrubber?

 

[pontiac]

Dont worry about getting stuff off the internet. Not everyone who orders grow equipment off the internet is using it for MJ.

For that grow box i reccomend you use a 150w HPS or 175w MH. The plants wont be able to take advantage of a 250w in such a small box. Also, a 250w will generate too much heat in there.

Now you should buy a 175w MH security light instead of the 150w HPS. This way you can use both a 175w MH bulb for veg and a 150w HPS conversion bulb for bloom.

For ventalation, you should get this: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemId=1611630886
This unit is small and powerful, and you can ger a 4" flange (get them from hydrostores) that attaches to its exhaust. This way you can attact a cooltube to the blower.

The true air carbon filters are well worth the money. They move air in the cabinet and clean the air at the same time. But if you prefer the scrubber type, you can get this cheap retail scrubber: http://www.hydroasis.com/Merchant2/...e=H&Product_Code=2691000&Category_Code=CANFIL

 

[- ezra -]

Ok so if you are going with 2ft X 2ft floor space, you definately want a 250w hps for flower. A 150 will give you 37.5 watts per square foot which is not enough. A 250 will give you 62.5 watts per square foot - perfect for a small space. The optimal lighting for a cab is between 50 to 75 watts per square foot, depending on strain, grow technique etc. 250 is perfect. Also a 150 just wont give you the quality of buds that a 250 can, not to mention the yield. Not knocking 150w growers, I have seen some clean little systems, but these are only for extreme situations. For veg you might want to get a compact fluro. I use one which is 130 watts. It works perfectly for small seedlings and is gently enough to use right from seed.

The fan and carbon filter pontiac recommended both look really good.

 

[pontiac]

O snap i forgot about the 50 watts of HID per sq ft rule, so yea go with the 250.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

 

[cobo]

I’ve just started growing in a spare wardrobe and was concerned about heat issues, and the fact that I might have t go away for maybe up to a week, I didn’t want to be worrying about anything catching fire .I looked up the forums about lights and came across theses Envirolites, they are low energy (cheap to run)bulbs made specially for indoor growing. They are not too expensive and they come in blue (for veg) and red (for flowering). They come in 2 sizes 125w and 200w.im putting a link below where I found after extensive searching. I have a 125w & a 200w blue waiting on red ones still but Im in no hurry just yet. Have a look at my set up it might give you some ideas, but anyway I’ve read some good things about the Enviro’s (also another 1 is Eco light same lights just different manufactures).

Good luck starting off anyway.

http://www.theonlineelectricalwholesaler.com/catalog/products.php?cpath=88_254_256






http://www.envirolites.co.uk/



]COBO'S First GROW !!!!!!http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29049&page=1&pp=15[B[/B]




.

 

[Guest]

Fans are rated by how many cfm's they push/pull. CFM Cubic feet per second. You have 12 cubic feet. So every minute you need 12 CFM to remove all stale/heated air out of space. Every five minutes you would need 2.4 CFM to remove the old air. If you need more explantion let me know...

 

[CoolBreeze87]

thanks that cleared everything up. So i could quite possible get away with using cheap inline duct fans for the cool tube and a muffin fan for exhaust on the cabinet. I would like to go as cheap as i can on this cabinet but not make it not worth my while. More than likely i will be moving out of this apartment after a year into a bigger place. The space i currently have in my apartment only allows for the dimensions i gave. I'm glad i know that the 250 watt hps is too much for the size i have. I will likely start my seeds with a 65 watt fluorex compact fluoro, and use the 150 watt hps security light for late veg and flowering. I will more than likely use the system for a year and save up for a 250 watt hps and a better cooling system to suit that lamp. I dont want to go cheap on this grow and use just fluoros because in the future i would like to use this cab as a scrog cabinet for clones. Ill make sure to post pictures of my finish product. Ive never made a grow cabinet before but i do have experience making cabinets for subwoofers and such so it shouldn't be too bad. Thanks for the pointers everyone.

 

[Curly]

Fans are rated by how many cfm's they push/pull. CFM Cubic feet per second.

Think you meant Cubic Feet per Minute!

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

I would have to agree with the 250w HPS- you can order a new barebones kitfor about $65 plus shipping maybe less. If you choose to spend the money-look into electronic ballast and a agro bulb. It is my understanding that the cost difference produces a marginal difference in yield.


Anyway, I would go with the Dayton 265 with a speed control. The speed control has a significant impact on environmental control.

The use of a carbon scrubber is definately in order unless you live in the country and have no visitors or neighbors. If your cab is in an outbuilding you will have troubles with heat and cooling in winter/summer so have a contingency for that. I use an AC myself and in-cabinet heaters for the winter.

Design your cab to draw cooling air fromt eh bottom of the cab and exhaust near or at the top.

I draw cooling air through my DIY hood and out of the cab through a carbon filter.



Here is a link to my cab in a micro cab thread.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=474951#post474951

minds_I

edit:
check out other 250 w grows
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=477672#post477672

 

[DurbanPoison]

CFM Needs

CFM Needs

I just wanted to say that you need to change the air out a lot faster. If you have 12 CF then you want 36CFM fan essentially. You want to change out the air 3 times per minute at least if not more. The more the better really IMO and just hook up a thermostat so it only turns on when it needs to.