Do I need a inline fan that's made for lights?

MedicalMike420

Well-Known Member
I have an inline duct fan, the light still gives off a decent amount of heat, I'm using a inline duct fan but they have have the ones made for air cooled hoods for like $100 at the grow shop. He said that I shouldn't be using a normal duct fan, even tho he sells them. I'm ready to get one soon if needed. Thank you!
I have a 1000 watt xtrasun hood made by hydro farm on a 1000 quantum II ballast
And a 600 watt Apollo horticulture complete air cooled setup (soon to be upgraded)
Both will be connected with 600 watt before the 1000 watt. That's how it should be right?

How much of a heat difference should I see, will it travel less, be cooler in general.....
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
Duct boosters don't work, they don't push enough volume of air or have a motor capable of working under a load. Get inline fans designed for your lights. You won't regret it.

FYI an nline fan is a lot noisier then the duct booster you have now. Also i pull the air through my lights, i don't push any. I don't think that this really matters but if it were me i would put the fan at the end of the run of air and discharge the warm air outside of the room. You can also put the lights in any configuration you want. 600 before 1000 or 1000 before 600. If you are set up right both hoods should be slightly warm. I run 1 8" fan per 3 1000w reflectors, i can touch the glass and top of the hood without discomfort.
 
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fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
To give you an idea of house I have mjne set up, may not be the same as you need because I run sealed rooms but

This is where I pull air from
image.jpeg

And this is where I exhaust the warm air
image.jpeg

If you don't have co2 supplement or are vegging the in the room as you are flowering you are gonna want some kind of fresh air coming into the room therefore you you'll probably want to suck air directly from your room instead of an outside location. You will then be able to transfer the air you are sucking out of the room with fresh air from outside or another location. Hope this helps
 

MedicalMike420

Well-Known Member
I have co2 green pads hanging, so I'm working on an airtight environment. Dan I blow cold air down from the attic with a fan in a 6 inch hole without lowering my co2 levels
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
You'll be lowering the co2 level. I've never used the co2 supplement you mentioned but if you are blowing air into the room then you will be displacing co2 rich air with non co2 rich air. Not sure how much the pads raise the ppm in your room but generally outside air has 300-400ppm co2 which isn't terrible but also isn't great.
 
You'll be lowering the co2 level. I've never used the co2 supplement you mentioned but if you are blowing air into the room then you will be displacing co2 rich air with non co2 rich air. Not sure how much the pads raise the ppm in your room but generally outside air has 300-400ppm co2 which isn't terrible but also isn't great.
Do u have any cool ideas for a grow box set up....trying to upgrade from the plastic tote that i grow in now
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
Do u have any cool ideas for a grow box set up....trying to upgrade from the plastic tote that i grow in now
I have never done anything really small. I'm sure nothing would be too hard to set up though. Like a storage cabinet you would get at harbor freight is something you are thinking of? How big can you go? I've seen shit done in old refrigerators with t5's that were inconspicuous.
 
I was thinking going to cardboard but i wanted a 2 in 1 chamber and also i wanted to find a way to keep all the wiring organized instead of hanging all over the place
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
Definetly be neat. Probably shy away from cardboard if it were me because it degrades quick and using water with it.
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
I see tents on Craigslists for sale often, usually with lights and fans for a couple hundred bucks. Or if you like DiY that video is pretty cool.
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
What it all boils down too is how much money you want to spend. If you want to do it cheap I would try to find an old fridge, people give those away. Then you could finagle some lights around CFL, t5, maybe a cheap craigslist LED, pc fans would work for air transfer, desk fan to circulate air, boom you got yourself a grow machine lol.
 

borbor

Well-Known Member
I'm gonna play devil's advocate, though believe me I do recommend that you follow other's advice.
What size is the space you're growing in currently? what are the average temps? what is the size and cfm of your inline booster fan?
guy at the hydro shop might be screwing with you. in a very small space a booster fan might be enough.

In fact, anecdote time, I knew a guy for years and years and years, he grew pretty low quality weed, just a "good enough for me" kinda guy. he had a 4x8x6 tent in his room doing 12/12 from seed with a 600 watt hps (that hadn't been changed in over 18 months) and just a 6 inch booster hooked up, with like 4 plants all the time untrained in 5 gallon pots at the most. Mind you, everything about his setup screamed "I'm illiterate" but he was consistently putting out almost enough weed for him to smoke through to the next harvest. With a decent setup, nutrient system, and motivation to spend more than 30 minutes a week I have no doubt he would have doubled the harvests and vastly increased the quality, even if he kept the booster fan instead of getting a real one.
calculate the cubic footage of your grow space. If it's less than triple the cfm of your fan then you should be okay FOR NOW without the upgrade, unless you wanna do an upgrade and can't find a better one to make, as long as your temps aren't super low already (I doubt that).

Oh yeah, don't pay another dime for CO2 unless you're working in a space that's totally sealed (not a tent) with air conditioning and without intake/exhaust of the room air.

and one final thing-

I have a 1000 watt xtrasun hood made by hydro farm on a 1000 quantum II ballast
And a 600 watt Apollo horticulture complete air cooled setup (soon to be upgraded)
Both will be connected with 600 watt before the 1000 watt. That's how it should be right?
what? I don't understand this question
 

fabizpwn

Well-Known Member
I'm gonna play devil's advocate, though believe me I do recommend that you follow other's advice.
What size is the space you're growing in currently? what are the average temps? what is the size and cfm of your inline booster fan?
guy at the hydro shop might be screwing with you. in a very small space a booster fan might be enough.

In fact, anecdote time, I knew a guy for years and years and years, he grew pretty low quality weed, just a "good enough for me" kinda guy. he had a 4x8x6 tent in his room doing 12/12 from seed with a 600 watt hps (that hadn't been changed in over 18 months) and just a 6 inch booster hooked up, with like 4 plants all the time untrained in 5 gallon pots at the most. Mind you, everything about his setup screamed "I'm illiterate" but he was consistently putting out almost enough weed for him to smoke through to the next harvest. With a decent setup, nutrient system, and motivation to spend more than 30 minutes a week I have no doubt he would have doubled the harvests and vastly increased the quality, even if he kept the booster fan instead of getting a real one.
calculate the cubic footage of your grow space. If it's less than triple the cfm of your fan then you should be okay FOR NOW without the upgrade, unless you wanna do an upgrade and can't find a better one to make, as long as your temps aren't super low already (I doubt that).

Oh yeah, don't pay another dime for CO2 unless you're working in a space that's totally sealed (not a tent) with air conditioning and without intake/exhaust of the room air.

and one final thing-


what? I don't understand this question

I've seen a lot of bare bones setups that produce ok, they could be better. Like you said though people are happy with it that's all that matters
 
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