Ghostwolf's 2nd Bigger, Better PC Grow Case and Grow

[BC Chronic]

If you can find an aluminum heatsink and mount it at the top, out of the way, you're heat would go down by 4-5 degrees..thats for sure because I had one in my earlier design and it worked like a charm..I wish I still had it...
you can see it on the left top of my case in the pic...you can get them anywhere for 1-2 dollars..
take care and your pc is looking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Good luck with the new light man

 

[Ghostwolf]

If you can find an aluminum heatsink and mount it at the top, out of the way, you're heat would go down by 4-5 degrees..thats for sure because I had one in my earlier design and it worked like a charm..I wish I still had it...
you can see it on the left top of my case in the pic...you can get them anywhere for 1-2 dollars..
take care and your pc is looking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the idea BC I actually have some computer CPU and pc power supply heat sinks laying around. Do you think one of those would work? And thanks for the compliment man.

 

[Ghostwolf]

Good luck with the new light man

Thanks Scrub it's an experiment for sure.

 

[Ghostwolf]

Lets see tonight's case temp was 86F just one degree above the desired range of 80F to 85F. Thanks BC,and detone for your suggestions I may need a side exhaust fan, but that may have to wait a little to get what I need together to do that. I do have some computer heat sinks here that may help some now. The temp was a little high but not nearly as bad as it was. Still here's the bad news as a result of the previous high temps the first F1 is now a hermie and here he/she is bear with me I had to put a magnifying glass in front of the web cam to get these close up photos. If I could direct your attention to the top of the plant in the pics you should be able to see female pistals in with the male flower buds. It's about 13" and in LST. Well I can't even use the pollen, but I still can grow it out and smoke it, I figure it's better than just trying to smoke a male. But I can't let it pollinate any plants. And now the second F1 has male buds on it and is only 6" tall. DAMN! I just knew it would happen with the high temps. But the bag seed also in LST is about 16" to 18" and growing great as is the F1 hermie, but the bag seed has yet to show it's sex. The third F1 is still to small to show it's self. But not to worry I have 10 more small plants in my other case vegging. Anyway here's the bag seed. It's healthy but nothing else. Now just so you'll know here's a pic of the new fan in the top rear of the case. And it does put out more air pressure than the others, but that's yesterdays news I just wanted to show you the fan. Now just a bit ago I changed the center 26w/100w CFL for 13w/60w CFL black light bringing the total equivalent wattage down from 300w to 260w. Maybe it will help the temps as well. But the theory is that the amount of UVB at the mountain and tropical regions is much greater than other geographical areas on the earth. And as such it seems to stimulate the THC resin production. It's a bit involved and I'm still researching this subject. Any how I couldn't afford a CFL UVB reptile bulb so I'm trying this type of bulb to see if there will be any noticeable difference at harvest and after. As I understand most black lights are near the UV range, and have a spectral peak output about 370 nm. And hopefully provide light from the violet to the high blue spectrum, that with the other soft white red spectrum CFLs should be interesting Anyway it's just an experiment and no harm done if it doesn't work. Just thought I would try it. That's it for now, some of you mite laugh at what I'm trying, I've been laughed before for this theory and it's OK. It's just that I know people who have witnessed this and know them to be reliable. Sleep well all. Keep on growin and smokin. And as my native brothers and sisters say "Go in a Good Way my Friends".

 

[BC Chronic]

Hey Ghostwolf!!
Yes, thats EXACTLY what I used bro..try it, you'll be happy..it also will suck out heat cooling it at the same time..
Take care

 

[Ghostwolf]

Well I've been using it for just over a week now and it helped a lot but the case still just a little warm. I'm looking to see what heat sinks I have and put them all in the case. I'm saving the side fan idea as a another plan B.

 

[BC Chronic]

You mean you already have a cpu exhaust fan thats being used?
let me know..
what I've learned is a strong, high cfm fan for exhaust and twice the size of that fan for intake...meaning a 80mm exhaust needs a 5 inch intake hole..the bigger the exhaust, the bigger the intake..I have 2 intakes because my fan is very high cfm's and I don't have a speed controller for it yet..
how many watts( lights) exactly are there in your pc..meaning real watts not equivalent watts?
intake on bottom and exhaust on top?
I'll help any way I can..
the lights I'll send are 30 watts a piece so we need to get this heat thing under control..
Take care Ghost and I'll check in again later..

 

[Ghostwolf]

I do have two little 60mm CPU fans in my computer parts that aren't being used because they are so small. The fan I showed above is a all metal 4" personal fan, not a CPU or PC fan. The 120mm and 80mm in there are PC case fans. The intake is passive, maybe I should have a fourth there? The total wattage is 65watts for all three bulbs now that I've put a smaller bulb in the center. It was 78watts. That's why I don't understand what is going on in there. My smaller case uses 52watts and stays at 83F to 85F. It is just painted flat white inside, it's a kind of ghetto case I made it for under $20 and works good but it's kind of small. Now the this new one I used that silver plastic car windshield sun shade to line the case for reflection just like so many others have used in theirs. I even thought that mite be the problem. I don't know if any body else is having the same problem but I know there is an answer to this and I will find it.

 

[Ghostwolf]

Tonight's case temp is 83F and I ain't complaining about that, if it would just stay in that zone it'd be great. I just found three computer heat sinks in my computer stuff. And I'm puttin them in right now.

 

[Dr Dog]

would be interesting to see how or if the heatsinks work.

Too bad on the herm man. shit happens.... Makes your heart drop though when you do get one

 

[Ghostwolf]

Well now the CPU heat sinks have been in the ceiling of the case for a couple of hours now. At 1:36AM I reported that the case temp was 83F and now at 6:06AM the temp is 80F. Thanks BC for that idea, I'd say that's pretty good for three CPU heat sinks. If I come across any more and it's likey I will I'll put them also. Hopefully that will solve the heat problem. I'll keep checking to make sure. Between you BC and detone and johnny and everyone else helping me with one. This case is gettin closer to being dialed in more and more.

 

[johnnybsmokin]

Hey Ghost, just a thought on that windsheild refective, isn't that supose to help insulate the heat from entering the cars as well??? if so it is also going to refect the heat back into the cab off your lights???
Your old one is painted plain white onto what?? and how thick?? In my cab I have used a very thin MDF sheeting which is only 3mm thick. Not a very good insulator and lets the heat escape. All I have lined on my walls is good old fashion aluminium foil stuck on with a contact adhesive spray onto the MDF.
My temps seem to stay about 2-3 deg. centergrade above ambient. JUST remember it is only a thought..... any body has a thought on it as well??

 

[BC Chronic]

Hey Ghost!! Nice to hear temps are coming down..below is the thread on ventilation which might help you out...
can you find out for me what sort of cfm's your exhaust fan pushes? If you get the model number of it, I can check for ya...I have 1 kicking around that would be perfect for you..151 cfm perfect!
Are you using one of those cpu(with heat sinks) fans for exhaust right now?
What size intake hole(s) do you have?
lots of questions for you but I want to help you stuff that pc full of goodies..plants included!
I have 2 intake holes on mine...I could even put another one in.....good idea!
once we get all these questions answered, I /we can further help..
let me know
take care


http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=112862

 

[detoneSmoker]

Glad to hear the temps have ben tamed. Dont know if you have one but i put a homemade c02 generator in my pc case and the plants exploded in growth. Just a hassle changeing it every week to twice a week.

 

[ScrubNinja]

I would totally ditch the silver stuff and use flat white. Do you use diatomaceous earth (DE) or silica? It's meant to help your plant deal with high temps and lots of other good benefits.

Grow big

 

[Ghostwolf]

Hey Ghost, just a thought on that windshield reflective, isn't that supposed to help insulate the heat from entering the cars as well??? if so it is also going to reflect the heat back into the cab off your lights???
Your old one is painted plain white onto what?? and how thick?? In my cab I have used a very thin MDF sheeting which is only 3mm thick. Not a very good insulator and lets the heat escape. All I have lined on my walls is good old fashion aluminium foil stuck on with a contact adhesive spray onto the MDF.
My temps seem to stay about 2-3 deg. centigrade above ambient. JUST remember it is only a thought..... any body has a thought on it as well??

johnny I thought the same thing about the sun shade. Yet I see it used by quite a lot of people and haven't heard any one say they had a heat problem. Unless these people were so embarrassed when they got heat trouble from using it that they never said there was a problem and ether took it out or scraped the idea of a PC case grow all together, or being in a cooler climate and not down the tropics like me used it as you said because they need the extra heat to warm the plants. If I'm not mistaken I think BC uses it in his case. I'd be careful using foil as a reflector I've always read in my "Closet Cultivator" book not to use it because that it being so uniformly flat and a mirror like glossy reflection surface that can cause hot spots on the sides that will burn the plants if they contact it for long periods. But people do use it in much larger cabinets and rooms that have a lot more air space to work with that the plants don't touch the walls. One of the reasons I chose the sun shade is that it's surface is not flat and the reflective light is broken up and goes in different directions and thus reaching more parts of the plants that wouldn't other wise get light with uniformly glossy surface.. The other case is flat white spray paint on the metal surface inside of the case. I've always used flat white for all of my other inside grows over the years with no problem. This is the first time I've tried something else.

 

[Ghostwolf]

Hey Ghost!! Nice to hear temps are coming down..below is the thread on ventilation which might help you out...
can you find out for me what sort of cfms your exhaust fan pushes? If you get the model number of it, I can check for ya...I have 1 kicking around that would be perfect for you..151 cfm perfect!
Are you using one of those CPU(with heat sinks) fans for exhaust right now?
What size intake hole(s) do you have?
lots of questions for you but I want to help you stuff that PC full of goodies..plants included!
I have 2 intake holes on mine...I could even put another one in.....good idea!
once we get all these questions answered, I /we can further help..
let me know
take care


http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=112862

Yes tonight's temp is 81F. And I'm so happy about that. It looks as if the heat sinks are working. If I find any more I'll put them in to. I put the smaller ones over the bases of the CFLs the larger one I had to put near the CFL bulb tube as it was to big to go over it. I only know the cfm of the red 120mm fan it's 78cfm's. I tried to find the specs for the new 4" fan with no luck. It's a Massey 4" High Velocity Personal Fan model MF-4. If you can find out what the cfm's are let me know. The old 80mm fan is just that old and really doesn't get the RPMs that it used to, but it works OK so who know the cfm's of that one. And no I took a part some old computers a while back that I was given and separated the fans and heat sinks and other parts to be used in the grow cases. But the small CPU fans are quite small and don't move much air so I don't use them. I tried one of them and it was one of the ones that burned up last week. The intake hole sizes are about a 1/4" and a lot of other various sized holes also. I started to make bigger holes but it was easier to make a lot of smaller holes so I did. The intake area is about 7"x7" and a second intake down low on the back of the case that is about 2" or 3" wide by 8" tall. I really don't want to make many more holes in the case unless I have to, as I have to deal with light leaking issues as it is now because of the extra holes. I'm just trying to straiten out the temps first and then worry about the stealth issues. But if the high temps continue I'll be forced to do that or remove the sun shade material and paint it white and or add yet another fan some where.

 

[Ghostwolf]

Glad to hear the temps have been tamed. Don't know if you have one but i put a homemade c02 generator in my PC case and the plants exploded in growth. Just a hassle changing it every week to twice a week.

detone thanks, I just hope the lower temps continue, but right now it looks promising. I had a idea for a mini Co2 gen for the first case using two narrow tall glass pepper bottles with yeast, sugar and water, remixing them each night when I checked the girls but they were so small that they didn't produce enough Co2 to help plus I was thinking that the fans could be sucking it out before it could do any good anyway so I stopped. Now I've read about using a two liter bottle as a gen and just running a hose from the bottle cap into the case which I'm sure it would work better. What are you using for one?

 

[Ghostwolf]

I would totally ditch the silver stuff and use flat white. Do you use diatomaceous earth (DE) or silica? It's meant to help your plant deal with high temps and lots of other good benefits.

Grow big

Hey Scrub,I may still do that as I live in Florida don't need to insulate the plants from cold, I don't know if anyone here is having the same issues with it if they have used it also. But hopefully I've ended the temp problem. Last night it was 80F and tonight it is 81F anyway I'm happy about that and hope it continues that way. With all the tweaks I done to it I really hope so. I used to use flat white in all my other indoor grows. I was trying something different this time since I'm really new at micro growing. I haven't heard anyone talk about DE powder since I worked for a swimming pool co. years ago, until I read that you were using it in your thread the other day. I know that it is very harmful if breathed I got a small whiff once and it stopped me from breathing dead in my tracks, it will dry your lungs instantly. It has to handled with care. I used it outside on the ground to kill fleas and other pests. But the main thing it was used for was pool filtering. I believe it's just the remains of microscopic marine animals like plankton. Please tell me what else is it used for in growing.