New Cabinet Grow - 9'x4'x18" - Complete Build Journal - Lot's of Pics

jsgamber

Active Member
Hi ya :)

Can i ask whare you got that Landscape Grate ?... Do you know who makes them even ? ... any help with this would be appriciated .... Been looking for two 6" versions for a while to connect ducting to to go thru plater board rather than cutting a 6" hole and just poking the ducting thru and using tape to seal ... Diagram ..

View attachment 1037155

A supplyer name or a product name or code would be of grate ... i mean Great :) Help

Thank you :)


EDIT : BTW .... this whole build is amazing ... hours of work... and it looks awesome :).... Come work for me :)
Thanks bro! I get these at either Home Depot or Lowes. They are right next to all the 4" PVC fittings. Here's the link from HD's site (it's the 10-pack):

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhc/R-100162219/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

What do you pay? :wink:

Wow, it's looking great! I just got caught back up on the thread and you have done a lot.
Thanks LL420! Yeah but there's a lot still to do! I'm thinking of doing electrical today. Time to stop running the cab from an extension cord.
 

JanecommaMary

Well-Known Member
This is truly an epic journal. Thanks for taking the time to describe everything to us, it will truly be an inspiration to me when i get to making a grow cab. super job, hope it grows you the dankest of the dank
 

gumball

Well-Known Member
jsgamber, thank you for all the props on the peltier cooler, and sorry it did not work as you wanted either. i thought it may work for you since your ambients were much cooler. mine were in the 90's, and there was no more I could do. so i downsize to a server case, only think wife is comfortable with inside!!

but I had an idea. the peltier just doesnt cool enough air for the cabs. but what if you tried it right on the entrance to the cooltubes, which is a much smaller area to cool. you could maybe even downsize some of your ducting to increase pressure and surface contact against the peltier. My box ended up looking just like yours, but i had 2 aluminum plates seperating the hot and cold side. i gave the peltier its own power source as well, only seemed right to get max efficiency out of it.

just some suggestions, everything is looking good buddy.
 

jsgamber

Active Member
Hey GB you gave me a nice project and concept to work with. Like I said it may not be over yet and I may try it on the 400W cool tube.


Here's what I did yesterday. Each 2-gang is a seperate circuit back to the breaker box! One circuit was dedicated to the Garage Door opener, one to the GFI circuits for plugs around the outside of the hose, and one that runs the kitchen lights. All are 15amp circuits so I should be able to mix it up and get some redundancy.

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Old Goat

Member
400WattCeramic3.jpgI really don't understand all the mess about temp. Save all expense of further experimenting on how to cure.
As I once mentioned try using a "Ceramic Metal Halide 400W. I've 1 in my grow space my heat issue has gone. Reading temp from 8" below my bulb is 80* even , my plants are with in a 10" with ZERO heat issues. My stealth room temp is 79* and outside room is 75* My grow space is 4' x 2' x 5.5"= 44 square feet. So lets see small space help hold temp up. All of those advantages for $53.00??
Give it a good search and come here and help me see the errors of my ways. Please scroll down the spectral power dist.

http://www.hydro-techn.com/seattlehydroponics/ceramic.html
 

jsgamber

Active Member
View attachment 1040295I really don't understand all the mess about temp. Save all expense of further experimenting on how to cure.
As I once mentioned try using a "Ceramic Metal Halide 400W. I've 1 in my grow space my heat issue has gone. Reading temp from 8" below my bulb is 80* even , my plants are with in a 10" with ZERO heat issues. My stealth room temp is 79* and outside room is 75* My grow space is 4' x 2' x 5.5"= 44 square feet. So lets see small space help hold temp up. All of those advantages for $53.00??
Give it a good search and come here and help me see the errors of my ways. Please scroll down the spectral power dist.

http://www.hydro-techn.com/seattlehydroponics/ceramic.html
Dude I think I'm almost there! I did the search and still have a couple of questions out to others for heat verification numbers for those that switched from HPS to CMH. But there is crazy good support from people who use this bulb both for veg and flower.


Let me ask you a few questions so I can compare environments a bit:
  • Have you ever done a 400w HPS grow and a 400w CMH grow in the same space and what were the temp differences? My space will be 33" x 45" x 18".
  • In your current space, what is the number of air exhanges. In my space, 18cu. ft., I run two 100CFM fans with passive intake so rougly 11 air changes per minute.
  • Do you use a cool tube, is it closed loop and what is your fan rating? My tube is 5" diam running closed loop with 135cfm fan.
I totally believe you! I just want to make sure even after dropping $60 on the bulb I still end up with an AC problem and the $100 I would have spent anyways.

Like I said, I'm almost ready to push the Submit button with my credit card info. If someone wants to buy my $40 HPS bulb with 15 hours on it to offset expenses, I can put it up on e-bay! ;) Makes the choice even easier. :D
 

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
I have a 400W CMH bulb on the way, so I'll get good temp #'s compared to the M.H. bulb it replaces.
Daniels
 

gumball

Well-Known Member
And you seen daniels temp tests from his fridge, detailed and thorough.
You know though gamber. I hate to say it but if temps are still a concern one way or the other, you should probably go ahead and invest in the AC. I am not saying not to get the CMH, but as has been noted, you have been somewhat plagued with problems, despite your great design, build, and otherwise well put together plan. Point is, if you go ahead with the AC, you can forget about temps, problem gone. You can then focus on growing, which you said yoyrself your not like u should and you know you need to. Give them girls all your love then, and get results. Then once your system is dialed in you can easily convert to the CMH without fear of more or less problems.

I equate it to my situation. I was in the garage and could not control temps. You said your insulated garage was much cooler than my non-insulated garage. So I had to weigh in, insulate garage, stop growing, or find something small enough to grow with inside that the wife wouldn't mind. Well the most immediate and efficient solution for me was the last option. I pit a 1 cubic foot PC together. I have my temps under control now, peace of mind and a lot of time saved.

Just my .02, but I don't think the CMH is a good solution to your problem at this time, not weighing in all the factors I see.
 

jsgamber

Active Member
And you seen daniels temp tests from his fridge, detailed and thorough.
You know though gamber. I hate to say it but if temps are still a concern one way or the other, you should probably go ahead and invest in the AC. I am not saying not to get the CMH, but as has been noted, you have been somewhat plagued with problems, despite your great design, build, and otherwise well put together plan. Point is, if you go ahead with the AC, you can forget about temps, problem gone. You can then focus on growing, which you said yoyrself your not like u should and you know you need to. Give them girls all your love then, and get results. Then once your system is dialed in you can easily convert to the CMH without fear of more or less problems.

I equate it to my situation. I was in the garage and could not control temps. You said your insulated garage was much cooler than my non-insulated garage. So I had to weigh in, insulate garage, stop growing, or find something small enough to grow with inside that the wife wouldn't mind. Well the most immediate and efficient solution for me was the last option. I pit a 1 cubic foot PC together. I have my temps under control now, peace of mind and a lot of time saved.

Just my .02, but I don't think the CMH is a good solution to your problem at this time, not weighing in all the factors I see.
The voice of reason steps in. I'm so ready to purchase that CMH bulb for the right reasons at the wrong time. I can't forget the fact that I'm going to have a total of 1050W of lighting in the cab when all is in full production. I still have to buy another ballast and bulb for the next chamber. I'll watch how daniels, riddle, Iam5toned all work out before making final decision on my second bulb/ballast purchase.

My last deciding factor is this: "If I can keep my temps under control at 430W HPS with supplemental AC, then I should be pure gold when it comes time to considering a change to CMH."

The AC is still an insurance policy I'd like to have around, but I don't necessarily have to have it running all the time. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far. The garage held steady at 78* and the 250W cab hit 82* max. This is really good news for me! Our inside AC is set to come on at 82* so I can't ask for better under the conditions. Also, I have yet to install a fan box over the upper outside garage vent to pull out warm air from the garage drawing in cool air from the bottom vent.

Let me put what I think my extreme goals should be. Again these aren't optimum but let's say my upper tolerance limits. Let me know if this reasonable:

Mother Chamber - Lighting 24/0, 250w MH, temps 75-85*, RH 45% - 65% (clones to consider)

Flower Chambers (2) - Lighting 12/12 (on at 7:30pm), 400CMH or 430HPS, temps 80-85* day and 70-75* night, RH 35% - 45%

Currently all cool tubes draw air from ambient garage and dump into the wall which leads under the inside staircase (closed loop). Cabinet passive intakes are drawing air off of the concrete floor and dumping back into the garage up high. I hope this will improve when start exhausting the garage through the external vents. Ultimately I want all cab exhaust to dump straight out to the external vents.

So I probably will be going CMH, just not right now. But AC is still going to be necessary and I have to stop worrying about temps.

Thanks to OldGoat for being persistent! You are right on all counts, but I still want the safety net first. If I don't need the AC, I'll put it back up on Craigslist for $10 more than I'll buy it for! hahahaha ;)

Thank you GB for being their as well! I'll guess in 4 months and a successful crop, I'll be running 2x400 CMH!!!

peace
 

gumball

Well-Known Member
I am glad I could help. I just couldn't bring myself to push the CMH on you knowing it may not help, and worst case scenario make things worst!

Plus I am ready for you to have some time to relax and ENJOY!! Your grow's! That exhaust fan idea sounds like a good idea. You may even be able to buy a small 10 or 20 watt solar panel, tied to a battery, and tied to a DC PC fan, and run it electricity free. That's an idea I had to cool off my garage. I knew though without insulated walls it would not do enough.
 

HistoryPuff

Active Member
This grow cab is not for the faint-hearted! Wow, don't you love the motivation to be creative that weed gives people. Good job, man.
 

SensiStan

Well-Known Member
Another, Everstart 8000 BTU for $100. Inquiry in.
What you also may want to consider for a cheap quick fix is just getting a couple 100cfm inline fans and positioning them high up in the garage somewhere just to play that extra little part in siphoning off the hot air floating around the top of the garage. if used in conjunction with everything else it may just tip the temp scales in your favour :bigjoint:
 

jsgamber

Active Member
This grow cab is not for the faint-hearted! Wow, don't you love the motivation to be creative that weed gives people. Good job, man.
Saw my other doc (shhh the P word). After changing health plans, I got out of sync on my medications. Finding new Dr's is a beeeeeeech. Then 3 to 4 weeks to get an appt, then missed it because I went to "South Main" instead of "North Main".

Ok long story short. I'm back on normal meds. Takes about 3 weeks to start to kick back in so my motivation levels should improve over time. I'm still running on "one foot forward" and hope to get the pace back up here in a bit, and not just with the grow. I'm ready to kick ass with life again!!


What you also may want to consider for a cheap quick fix is just getting a couple 100cfm inline fans and positioning them high up in the garage somewhere just to play that extra little part in siphoning off the hot air floating around the top of the garage. if used in conjunction with everything else it may just tip the temp scales in your favour :bigjoint:
:wink::wink::wink: You've been peaking at my grow thread huh? Yes my next project after "Project clean out bugs" has terminated. That's my next project ... I think.


Sensi makes a great Straight Man for my next act. Does anybody see (at least what i think) a problem here? L/R rear shots and interior shot. The goal was 3 intake in order to get best reasonable 2-port exhaust (common ratio 2/3). Does't my bringing in 4" Ducting take me back down to 2/1??? I should probably be bringing 6" min to this port (rather than 3 seperate 4 inchers which is impractical)? Help?? What if I pushed in with 100cfm, would that be better or worse? Help??

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