new light/air conditioner/add fan??

widow0maker

widow0maker

Active Member
Well right now I have my 400 watt hps light on and with the box door shut my room is sitting at a temp 100+ degrees. My inline fan is only 120 cfm (I thought this was enough at the time) and I am running about 8 feet of ducting (too much). So to get temps down which option do you think would be best, taking into account money spent on electricity.

1. Problem with my light is I bought an htg supply light not realizing they are not cool tube friendly, so if I bought this I would need to buy another light. ~$230 (could sell the old one on ebay for cheap to try and make up for cost, may take some time though)

2. If I buy the a/c, I need to find a way to vent in properly, but it would also add a lot more to my electricity bill. ~$250-300 + large electricity bill spike

3. I buy a 178 cfm fan, put that one in the box to pull air through the filter and push through to ducting and put the 120 cfm at the end of ducting to help pull the rest of the way, for a total of 298 cfm. This seems like it should be enough for the length of ducting. $190 (this seems like it may be the best option, just not sure if it will cool it down enough and end up being a waste of money)

What do you guys think?
 
S

Sinni

Member
widow0maker said:
Well right now I have my 400 watt hps light on and with the box door shut my room is sitting at a temp 100+ degrees. My inline fan is only 120 cfm (I thought this was enough at the time) and I am running about 8 feet of ducting (too much). So to get temps down which option do you think would be best, taking into account money spent on electricity.

1. Problem with my light is I bought an htg supply light not realizing they are not cool tube friendly, so if I bought this I would need to buy another light. ~$230 (could sell the old one on ebay for cheap to try and make up for cost, may take some time though)

2. If I buy the a/c, I need to find a way to vent in properly, but it would also add a lot more to my electricity bill. ~$250-300 + large electricity bill spike

3. I buy a 178 cfm fan, put that one in the box to pull air through the filter and push through to ducting and put the 120 cfm at the end of ducting to help pull the rest of the way, for a total of 298 cfm. This seems like it should be enough for the length of ducting. $190 (this seems like it may be the best option, just not sure if it will cool it down enough and end up being a waste of money)

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
Need to know a bit more info:
1) How big is your grow room?
a 120cfm fan will "empty" a room that's 4'x5'x6' in a minute. but that also doesn't take into consideration the heat generated by the HPS.
2) where is the intake and exhaust fans located? Heat rises so the exhaust fan should b at the top of the room (witch is a given) and the intake should b on the bottom. I personally have 2 120cfm fans on the bottom (drawing air from the crawl space) and 2 at the top of my closet exhausting into the room the closet is in.

If you were to buy an AC unit, i would take and attach a "Floor duct" to the face of the ac unit, then with one of the fans attach it to the ducting work. Even with the AC off the fan will still suck air through the ducting into the room. when the AC is on, it'll force cool air in. An AC doesn't cause that big of a jump in ur electricity bill. i think mine only jumped $15 a month and it was running constantly.

3) how big is ur ducting? HomeDepot has "booster fans" in different sizes and the 6" Booster fan is 250CFM (or on the website it says 160CFM) witch are no more than $35. $190 for a fan is way too much. Even radioshack has fans for way less than that.

Hope this helps some. :mrgreen:
 
nickbbad

nickbbad

New Member
1. Problem with my light is I bought an htg supply light not realizing they are not cool tube friendly, so if I bought this I would need to buy another light. ~$230 (could sell the old one on ebay for cheap to try and make up for cost, may take some time though)
Click to expand...
I dont understand what this means couldn't you just buy a new reflector that is air cooled?

3. I buy a 178 cfm fan, put that one in the box to pull air through the filter and push through to ducting and put the 120 cfm at the end of ducting to help pull the rest of the way, for a total of 298 cfm. This seems like it should be enough for the length of ducting. $190 (this seems like it may be the best option, just not sure if it will cool it down enough and end up being a waste of money)
Click to expand...
I personally think booster fans are terrible they loose a lot of there cfm once you hook them up to ducting but 190$ is way to much to be paying for a inline fan that only pull 178 cfm... Here is one for 80$ that pull 435 cfm http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/valueline-inch-435-cfm-centrifugal-inline-fan-p-2260.html

so try one or both of those options first
 
widow0maker

widow0maker

Active Member
]Need to know a bit more info:
1) How big is your grow room?
2.5ft x 3.5ft x 5ft

a 120cfm fan will "empty" a room that's 4'x5'x6' in a minute. but that also doesn't take into consideration the heat generated by the HPS.
400 watt hps

2) where is the intake and exhaust fans located? Heat rises so the exhaust fan should b at the top of the room (witch is a given) and the intake should b on the bottom. I personally have 2 120cfm fans on the bottom (drawing air from the crawl space) and 2 at the top of my closet exhausting into the room the closet is in.
My exhaust is on the top which goes into the wall, I have several four 2inch wide intakes and one 4inch wide intake on the bottom. When I put a lighter there it still has decent sucking power

If you were to buy an AC unit, i would take and attach a "Floor duct" to the face of the ac unit, then with one of the fans attach it to the ducting work. Even with the AC off the fan will still suck air through the ducting into the room. when the AC is on, it'll force cool air in. An AC doesn't cause that big of a jump in ur electricity bill. i think mine only jumped $15 a month and it was running constantly.

3) how big is ur ducting? HomeDepot has "booster fans" in different sizes and the 6" Booster fan is 250CFM (or on the website it says 160CFM) witch are no more than $35. $190 for a fan is way too much. Even radioshack has fans for way less than that.


Hope this helps some. :mrgreen:

=====================

Well I think I am just going to get a 435 cfm fan, buy a fan speed controller and use that and sell my 120 cfm on ebay to get some money back. 435 should be more then enough to push air through my 10ft of ducting even at medium speed and hopefully will exchange air fast enough to keep it cooler. I think this will likely be the best option over an a/c unit, especially since my house is running the temps inside around 75 degrees and winter is coming which can keep my room much cooler during hours with the light on, especially with exhaust going into the wall. This sound pretty reasonable?
 
widow0maker

widow0maker

Active Member
nickbbad said:
I dont understand what this means couldn't you just buy a new reflector that is air cooled?



I personally think booster fans are terrible they loose a lot of there cfm once you hook them up to ducting but 190$ is way to much to be paying for a inline fan that only pull 178 cfm... Here is one for 80$ that pull 435 cfm http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/valueline-inch-435-cfm-centrifugal-inline-fan-p-2260.html

so try one or both of those options first
Click to expand...
I do not believe my light allows for air cooled reflectors to be added. I looked at air cooled reflectors and the way the light fits in the fixture allows air to be pushed in from behind it, mine does not have the same design and I would need to create a second hold somewhere in the hood to push the air through, at least I believe this to be the case. I got my light from htg supply, their brand of lights.
 
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