Can't Keep Cab Cool...Please Help!!!

First, thanks for taking a look at my thread.

I currently have 2 600watt HPS in Hydrofarm Radiant 6" air cooled hoods. The hoods are cooled with an 8" 747 cfm inline fan. I also have an 8" 747cfm inline fan pulling through a carbon filter. I exhaust all the air outside.

I just rebuilt my room and I have only turned on one light and the temps are like 20degrees hotter than the rest of my house. What the hell is going on?? I figured 1500cfm worth of exhaust would be enough for 2 600watt lights, but its not even doing it for one. I had a nice vert setup but I was preparing for summer and tore it down and built the air cooled room. The temps are the same if not worse than the non air cooled room that was exhausted into itself.

Anybody have any ideas as to what I can do? I have a bunch of circulation fans in the cab plus the 2 large fans. What else can I do??

Thanks,
Bob

where are you putting your exhausted air?? also what are the temps of the room where ur intake is taken from? for the lights are you using fresh air for exhausting ( outside the cab -> Ducting -> Light -> Ducting -> Fan -> outside cab ) or are you sucking the air through the light then outside the cab? [i hope that makes sence to you lol just put down the ] look forward to your reply.

could always pick up a swamp cooler. you know those free standing air conditioners there only like 50 bucks at walmart, they come with the ducting to exhaust the hot air too. i like what kushissweet said better, put the bong down hahaha! anyways good luck. budout.

Thanks for the replies.

My ducting goes from the room the cab is in, into the cab and through both reflectors, then out the cab and out the window. The other exaust fan is pulling the air from the cab out through the window as well.

I put another fan in the actual bedroom, not in the cab, and the temps came down a bit. Right now, it is about 78degrees in my house. The bedroom that the cab's in is obviously warmer than the rest of my house, and the cab temps are at 88-90degrees with both lights on. So I am looking at about 10-12degrees warmer.

Is this about as close as I'm going to get to ambient temps without water cooling or air conditioning? My temps in my home over summer are 78degrees. I haven't been running my A/C yet, so I'm thinking that should help keep the temps down more in the bedroom since there will be cooler air blowing into the room. Right now it's just 78degree air being pulled in there. We will see how things turn out.

My temps in my home over summer are 78degrees.

ok here goes your cooling your lights with your ambient. theres your problem the the room outside your tent or cab will nead to be down to about 65 degrees to stand a chance of hitting low 80's.

i use a very simular set up 2 cabs custom built into a small room my light are in cool tubes with 6'' rvk venting straight out side and the room has a passive intake from the outside and with a 600hps in 3.5ft x 3.5ft x 6.5ft cab with 68degree ambient and 6'' rvk run at 60% and 4'' rvk at 60% i hold a steady 80. as outside temps rise i increase the fan spead.

growem green--------------- spike.

Spike gave you the answer my friend.. ^^^ its because youre room temp is at 78.. ur gonna need to have cooler air to be sucked through the light to cool it.. warm air will only get warmer.. but, if you dont want to spend money on A/C during summer you should buy a swamp cooler like mentioned above by BUD. stick that in the room and youll see great results.. just set it up so your cab temp stays where it needs to be. good luck!

spike1499 said:

My temps in my home over summer are 78degrees.

ok here goes your cooling your lights with your ambient. theres your problem the the room outside your tent or cab will nead to be down to about 65 degrees to stand a chance of hitting low 80's.

i use a very simular set up 2 cabs custom built into a small room my light are in cool tubes with 6'' rvk venting straight out side and the room has a passive intake from the outside and with a 600hps in 3.5ft x 3.5ft x 6.5ft cab with 68degree ambient and 6'' rvk run at 60% and 4'' rvk at 60% i hold a steady 80. as outside temps rise i increase the fan spead.

growem green--------------- spike.

Click to expand...

hey spike i have this room thats 4ft x 4ft x 7ft.. and i was wondering what fans you use for the lights (and if you have a scrubber) and what fans for intake? thanks ahead of time!

Thanks for the replies.

I do use my central a/c, I just don't have a dedicated a/c unit for the grow room. I plan on getting one here soon, but I just spent like $600 rebuilding my room so I am kind of tapped out at the moment.

The thing that I don't get is that my vert room ran at the same temps. I was running the same 1200watts in the room, but I only had one 747cfm exhausting the cab. The cab was just exhausted into the bedroom where the cab was. So there was no air exhausted out of the room and I had the same temps. I am now exhausting all the air to the outside through a window using 2 747cfm fans now with both lights in air cooled reflectors and I'm running the same temp difference. If I knew I was going to end up with the same temps I wouldn't have built the new room. I did it to help with the summer heat, but now it's looking like it was a giant waste of money.

I had a setup a couple years ago with a single air cooled 600watt light and I was able to get my temps about 3-6degrees above ambients temps. I basically got the same setup now, just doubled the amount of everything I had. From the lights to the amount of exhaust/air cooling I use.

I am hoping once I kick on my central A/C that the cold air coming from the vent will help cool the cab down. I usually duct about half the a/c's air straight into the cab. I am hoping that it works out.

Thanks again for the replies. Any other input or suggestions are welcomed.

Try this it worked for me, if you dont have it like this already. Make sure your fan is SUCKING the air past your light not blowing it, I have my 6''400 cfm attatched DIRRECTLY to my 1000w hps and doing that by itself lowered my room 10 degrees F. ex. AIRFLOW-----> ducting --> HOOD-->FAN-->ducting to exhaust. Its hard to explain why it works but if you think about it like the weather, Low pressure (vacuum) areas hold cold weather, and High pressure areas hold warmer weather. So put a vuccum on your light instead of pressure and its cooling will dramtically increase.

hey dude also i wanted to point out something.. on your cab exhaust (not ur light) you should have it at the top since heat rises. that should help.. also i found that putting some sort of fan near intake to the hood helps cool the lights down more.. so try to put a fan next to the cab where the air is being taken from. if theres any other way you can get the room temp down.. you should see improvment. btw what hoods do you have?? if your hoods arnt sealed then this is most likley the issue.. thats the only thing else i can think of. but if u drop ur room temp you should have no problem with the rest. best of luck to ya!

Thanks again for the replies.

I rearranged my circualtion fans and ran my central a/c for a bit today. With my a/c sitting at like 78degrees, my cab was at 88degrees at the most. For most of the time it was 85-86degrees. The room the cab is in was at like 79degrees, so the cab is only like 6-7 degrees above ambient temps in that room. I can deal with 85 degree temps no problems.

I use Hydrofarm Radiant 6 hoods, so they are sealed. I don't have them taped up around the seals right now, but there is weather stripping there. It is pulling a crazy amount of air through the hoods. They actually move around because of how much air is being pulled through them. The glass on the hoods is cool to the touch, but you can obviously feel the radiant heat coming off the bulb.

I think that once I am running my a/c all the time like it does in the summer I should be fine. And I plan on getting an a/c unit for the room as well here soon enough.

Thanks again for the replies.