Cabinet ventilation help! Temps. get up to 100

I bought a cabinet from Lowes that is about 24"Lx16"Wx70"H, it's perfect for my situation because it will be going inside of my closet to keep hidden but it seems to be getting too hot outside of the closet let alone when I put it in.

I have a 250w HPS with a 4" vortex fan (170ish cfm i believe). I do have a fan controller on the vortex because that fan is way too powerful and loud for such a small cab. Also have 3 1.5" holes and 2 1" holes at the bottom for intake. When I first put everything together I started with the light about 12" from my week old seedlings (which are a tad heat stressed and kind of stalled) and the temp. got up to 100. I've done cabinet grows before with my C13 and I never had problems anywhere near this (i never even kept track of temps), of course it was with basically the same set up but my cab was exactly twice the width so it was 30" instead of 16".

Since i don't have a computer fan handy to rig for blowing on the light i put in my window fan which barely fits in the cab to blow on the seedlings and it did seem to help a bit. I also raised the light to about 15" to try to get the seedlings to start going again, there growing but there so small for being 8 days old from my experience. The temps still hover around 85-90 and that just seems too hot.. will that be ok?

I have noticed my whole room has gotten noticably hotter since the cab has started too, I live in Alaska and I have my freakin window half way open and it's still too hot, roomies do like to keep the heat up. Oh and also my Humidity is pretty damn low too at around 20%.. is that gonna hurt em as well?

Thanks for any help guys.

You are going to want to push that hot air out. You could have 20 fans running in the cabinet but all that's gonna do is just circulate the hot air. You need to get that hot air extracted. Get some small fans measure the width and height of them and then proceed to alter your cabinet by cutting the right dimensions. Then snug them fans not blowing in but out and you will be surprised. But remember keep one fan on the bulb.

Hank.

If heat is a big problem go with an air cooled hood. I have one and it works great. I can get my plants like 6 inches away with no burning (though I keep them further). I have a 6 inch fan but it seems like overkill and am getting a 4 inch or maybe a controller.

I had the same problem with a small space and a 250 watt. put an exhaust in with some of the sturdy flex hose (not the dryer hose stuff) and i used a small pc fan. Taped the hose to the fan using some aluminum shiny tape. I got it free at work but duct tape would work too. Then move the flex right up under your hood the best you can without blocking light. This brought my temps from 111 to 82

Thanks Limpet that's close to what I did. I went out and bought some hose ducting but I did get the cheap stuff, didn't really know there was different kinds. Anyways I ran it down and just rigged it under the light and my temps are now a steady 84.

I also bought a 120mm computer fan and set that up but I can't really seem to find a good place to put it. With the mylar on the walls so close to it, it seem to keep sucking it in and not doing as good as it should. I might just have to redo the mylar I guess.

So is 84 gonna be ok? Also.. how do you mount a computer fan on a reflector without it moving..?

Pazzo said:

Thanks Limpet that's close to what I did. I went out and bought some hose ducting but I did get the cheap stuff, didn't really know there was different kinds. Anyways I ran it down and just rigged it under the light and my temps are now a steady 84.

I also bought a 120mm computer fan and set that up but I can't really seem to find a good place to put it. With the mylar on the walls so close to it, it seem to keep sucking it in and not doing as good as it should. I might just have to redo the mylar I guess.

So is 84 gonna be ok? Also.. how do you mount a computer fan on a reflector without it moving..?

Click to expand...

Dont mount the fan on the reflector. I mounter the fan to the wall of my box and ran the hose to the reflector. Since I used the sturdier heavy duty hose it stays in the shape you bend it to. and it can be stretched back and forth like an accordion allowing you to raise and lower the lights.

Alright here are some pics of my setup.. any input as to why it's still so hot?

Pazzo said:

Thanks Limpet that's close to what I did. I went out and bought some hose ducting but I did get the cheap stuff, didn't really know there was different kinds. Anyways I ran it down and just rigged it under the light and my temps are now a steady 84.

I also bought a 120mm computer fan and set that up but I can't really seem to find a good place to put it. With the mylar on the walls so close to it, it seem to keep sucking it in and not doing as good as it should. I might just have to redo the mylar I guess.

So is 84 gonna be ok? Also.. how do you mount a computer fan on a reflector without it moving..?

Click to expand...

put it at one side of the duct hose blowing the air out!!!!!