How small can i go with a 400 hps and a 500cfm blower, Any equations???

My Fisrt post!

And a question for those with some experience with 400 watters or a growing einstine might due.

I have a 400hps with a 500 cfm blower. I want to keep the box as small as possible, while obviously keeping optimal temps. Any ideas???? Equations?? Anything??????????

Other factors are involved such as abient temps, are you suing a carbon scrubber, are you willling to used a cooled hood/cooltube? Do you want the blower/filter on the inside of the box? What medium (ex. dir, hydro, aero)? Do you mind continually monitoring and training and maybe destroying a few grows before you get it right?

I would say smaller than you want to go. In other words, you can go smaller than would allow you adequate space for the res and plant height.

Makeing some broad assumptions I would say 2wx2Lx4H. But be mindul that this would give a you aplant height of about 2 feet max...

I am by no means an expert but i would say 2x2x4.

I always think you should design around the growspace as opposed to components...

Sexyfattops69 said:

My Fisrt post!

And a question for those with some experience with 400 watters or a growing einstine might due.

I have a 400hps with a 500 cfm blower. I want to keep the box as small as possible, while obviously keeping optimal temps. Any ideas???? Equations?? Anything??????????

Click to expand...

Anything smaller than a 3 x 3 is going to be a waste of light.

so user friendly..in my cab i am using a 600 in 3x2. Is it a waste of light? I was under the mpression that the more lumens the better.

I know 400 covers 3x 3 but couldnt you get more lumens per sq foot in a samller space...without it being a "waste"?

I am rather new myself..please advise..

TY

If you don't mind small plants, the smaller the better. The smaller your room is, the cooler and dryer it will run. Just pick a max height of plant and add at least a 12-14" for space between the bulb and the plants (hopefully it will run cool and you won't need that much). Add any height for pots and the height of the reflector you're using. Try and evacuate the air parallel to the bulb (have the exhaust of the room inline with the bulb).

It's really hard to predict when a plant will stop growing tho, so good luck. Try and use clones.

FullMetalJacket said:

so user friendly..in my cab i am using a 600 in 3x2. Is it a waste of light? I was under the mpression that the more lumens the better.

I know 400 covers 3x 3 but couldnt you get more lumens per sq foot in a samller space...without it being a "waste"?

I am rather new myself..please advise..

TY

Click to expand...

You'll get dense bud, but to take advantage of the extra watts, you'd need higher plant numbers or more square feet of canopy.

Btw, you're not wasting any light by going small if the walls of the cabinet are lined with reflective material.

HashPlant said:

Btw, you're not wasting any light by going small if the walls of the cabinet are lined with reflective material.

Click to expand...

Not true........................

UserFriendly said:

Not true........................

Click to expand...

explain a little of this to me please?

the only way I see that he could be "wasting light" by going with a smaller cab is that he couldent fit as many plants in there or keep the canopy as big.
I was thinking you should make it 3x3x3 that way you get as much plant space as you can from the light, and a 3ft height limit on the plants.
then maybe find somewhere for a mother plant so you can keep a sog in there....

Denser buds do not equate to a "waste" for me... Thanks for confirming Hash...

I

HashPlant said:

Btw, you're not wasting any light by going small if the walls of the cabinet are lined with reflective material.

Click to expand...

If the canopy expands to the walls of the cab, it's going to stop any light from going below that line. It doesn't matter if you've got mylar on the floor; if the light can't reach it, it can't reflect. Light can't penetrate through leaves. This isn't rocket science people.

does more lumen per sq ft not benefit the top of the canopy if all other conditions are optimal?

being a smart alec such as "this is not rocket sciece people" only insults yourself...

I've got a sweet cab me and a buddy built. Its actually a wardrobe. The 2'x4'x5' flower chamber has a carbon scrubber vented through a hooded 400W HPS then up out of the flower chamber into a 2'x4'x18" top chamber to the blower exiting out the back of the cab as it turns into a muffler/homemade filter. The top is also used for seedlings and clones. Ballast for the light is on the top of the cab. The mother chamber is on the side and is 2'x2'x3' and is above three shelves. Mother chamber has three cfl's. Flower and Mother chamber are coverd in mylar. Intake fans mounted on light traps into both the flower and mother chamber, light trap inbetween the two chambers. We're filled to capacity with 4 in each chamber right now. 4 soil in mother and 3 hydro/1 soil in flower. 3 female white widows confirmed right now. Fingers crossed on the rest. Sorry no pics.

UserFriendly said:

If the canopy expands to the walls of the cab, it's going to stop any light from going below that line. It doesn't matter if you've got mylar on the floor; if the light can't reach it, it can't reflect. Light can't penetrate through leaves. This isn't rocket science people.

Click to expand...

if he was saying that his cab was going to be smaller than 3x3x3 then i dont think he can fit more than a couple plants in there or was intending on more than that.
smaller would be fine in his case
stop being so damn rude

kochab said:

if he was saying that his cab was going to be smaller than 3x3x3 then i dont think he can fit more than a couple plants in there or was intending on more than that.
smaller would be fine in his case
stop being so damn rude

Click to expand...

He has made no such statements and I'm not interested in what you think he can do with anything.

Hey, I'm no expert, but even with a 1000W in a 2X3X6' cab, you couldn't approach the light intensity of the sun. If you can keep the temps within an acceptable range, the added intensity would only give you fatter, denser buds.

I also agree that there are too many other factors involved to say how small a cab you could put a 600W in with a 500cfm fan. Ambient temps are a real consideration. If you put that set up in a cool enough room with the light vented from outside the cab, the cab size would be smaller than you would be able to grow in effectively.

Best bet for a height restricted cab would be SCROG.

So, I'm just rambling because I am f*ing STONED! Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!

~Rock~

shit, i didnt even give the bell, here you go... ding! ding! ding!, GET IT ON!

Aesome comments, Thank you all,

Fullmetaljacket- yes, my bad, definatly cool tube equipt.

Userfriendly- sorry but i got to disagree aswell, I think i can use the compactness to get a better penetration to the lower bud devolpment, for one, not to mention optimal overal density which = more weight but i guess well see when the results come in

kocab- i think im starting to get an idea, or feel for it. that 3 by 3 is a good ideal, with optimal coverage for like a sog, which is what i was thinking, but what would you say about 3' by 2' by 2.5h? Im have 'tiny' in mind but with the same concept of maximum coverage. Y'all?

i feel 2.5 is too short even for SOG. You will have like 12" for the plants max...

What if he Sog/LSTed?

Sexxy - I think there is a cab somwhere on here that has a 250w hps in a 2.5 h cab, it might even be shorter, its done by WW or somthing.

I think if you put the bulb in one of the top corners of the box and got a bake_a_round dish to make a cooltube with then you would have no problem with the cab, paint it white to make it reflective, and run with that shit. lowest id go would be 2.5-3 ft tall tho....
then keep it simple, grow from clone if you can so that you canopy stays the same height.