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

[gumball]

well, i think your asking if the 3 3" intake ports bringing air through a 4" pipe are enough to supply the 4" exhaust. if I am right, then i would reduce the intake little by little and watch environment variable. if very small blockage increases environment variable then you may need more.

the question i see doesnt go with the pics, or the pics i see dont go with the question!!

i wouldnt push air in myself, but i like the negative air pressure approach. easier to adjust one direction than both, especially for smell considerations

 

[jsgamber]

well, i think your asking if the 3 3" intake ports bringing air through a 4" pipe are enough to supply the 4" exhaust. if I am right, then i would reduce the intake little by little and watch environment variable. if very small blockage increases environment variable then you may need more.

the question i see doesnt go with the pics, or the pics i see dont go with the question!!

i wouldnt push air in myself, but i like the negative air pressure approach. easier to adjust one direction than both, especially for smell considerations

I know I was being vague...trying to get some "game show participation" going.

Here's the question. I've got two 4" cabinet exhaust ports at the top L/R corners each blowing out with 100cfm. I have three 4" holes at the bottom acting passively. The 3 holes have air directed in from the 5"x5"x14" register box attached on the back of the cab. The register box is fed by a single 4" PVC intake. Am i reducing my air flow from 3 back down to 1 by going to the single 4" intake into the register box? Or do the two 100 cfm fans have enough static pressure to effectively cool the cab through a single 4" PVC duct?

I heard you were taking another hit so thought I'd emphasize the right syllabel.

 

[jsgamber]

Here's the unit. My first thought was to use my Peltier Cooler as a collecter box since it has 4" PVC connectors built in! I think though I'm gonna tear the unit down and clean it up real good. The lady I bought it from coulda been growing males for seed for all I know!!! Actually you can see some of the grime built up on the louvres. I don't want to introduce any nasty shit into a freshly bombed cab!!




9,500 BTU!!


Got some work to do!

peace!

 

[gumball]

I know I was being vague...trying to get some "game show participation" going.

Here's the question. I've got two 4" cabinet exhaust ports at the top L/R corners each blowing out with 100cfm. I have three 4" holes at the bottom acting passively. The 3 holes have air directed in from the 5"x5"x14" register box attached on the back of the cab. The register box is fed by a single 4" PVC intake. Am i reducing my air flow from 3 back down to 1 by going to the single 4" intake into the register box? Or do the two 100 cfm fans have enough static pressure to effectively cool the cab through a single 4" PVC duct?

I heard you were taking another hit so thought I'd emphasize the right syllabel.

you know what I just thought about. that light filter we chatted about on daniels thread!! myself i dont plan on paying for shit to make mine, come'on, 90 degree black plastic! im pulling a sensistan!! but make one of those on the cheap, and then you can either cut which ever side (long side of course) of the register box pulls the coolest freshest air, then cover the entire register side with this light filter. then your intake is 5"x14" (70 sq ft), so your holes would then be the limitation at that point. you could cut an extra hole if you ever think you need it, and if it turns out not to help cover the hole and all is good. just a thought that dawned on me.

 

[gumball]

Here's the unit. My first thought was to use my Peltier Cooler as a collecter box since it has 4" PVC connectors built in! I think though I'm gonna tear the unit down and clean it up real good. The lady I bought it from coulda been growing males for seed for all I know!!! Actually you can see some of the grime built up on the louvres. I don't want to introduce any nasty shit into a freshly bombed cab!!

View attachment 1058818
View attachment 1058819View attachment 1058816

9,500 BTU!!
View attachment 1058817

Got some work to do!

peace!

thats awesome! so the exhaust will hook up to your peltier box huh? many ideas will come from there. does it hook into any ducting you already have laying around.

 

[jsgamber]

you know what I just thought about. that light filter we chatted about on daniels thread!! myself i dont plan on paying for shit to make mine, come'on, 90 degree black plastic! im pulling a sensistan!! but make one of those on the cheap, and then you can either cut which ever side (long side of course) of the register box pulls the coolest freshest air, then cover the entire register side with this light filter. then your intake is 5"x14" (70 sq ft), so your holes would then be the limitation at that point. you could cut an extra hole if you ever think you need it, and if it turns out not to help cover the hole and all is good. just a thought that dawned on me.

Let's see what the AC unit will do once hooked up. It may push just under the 200cfm going out keeping me with negative pressure AND cool air. If not I'm gonna have to look at opening up 5x14 side and attach 6"=>5" with 6" tubing? First things first though. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

[jsgamber]

thats awesome! so the exhaust will hook up to your peltier box huh? many ideas will come from there. does it hook into any ducting you already have laying around.

There are two exhausts Cool Air out the front vents and Hot Air out via a 5" duct port on the back of the unit. I'll Dump the hot air into my exhaust ducting under the stairs for now, then later maybe run all the way to the external vent in the garage. I'll gut the Van Peltier and use the exterior case to fit over the cooling exhaust. This will give me two 4" ports to duct to the passive inputs to the cab. I'll mod this to 3 ports hopefully one for each cab once I'm at 3 cabs. Also the hope is to find a way to hook up 3 temp sensors, one in each cab, that can be wired to turn the unit on and off if any one cabinet gets too hot. Otherwise I'll just invest in a good cycle timer and go on and off every 15 minutes.

I'm gonna tear down the unit to clean it so maybe it makes sense to mod it with the case off. Definitely more to come!!

peace

 

[Danielsgb]

I hope that AC does the trick. Good Luck.
Daniels

 

[jsgamber]

I hope that AC does the trick. Good Luck.
Daniels

Well let's see. I did some testing over the weekend in the flower chamber. One thing I realized is that I'm going to need to figure out how to wire an external thermostat to this thing so that it doesn't run continuously. The opening to the cool air is 4" x 14" which happens to be the size of a vent collar I had lying around. I also happened to have a 6" to 4" reducer along with some aluminum tape and flex tubing I have a quick and dirty setup for some tests.


The case is off and my temporary test boot is on!



Test 1. Ambient temps are 77 in the garage. The cab with light off starts chilled at 69* and after 1 hour of light on goes up to 73*.


Test 2. AC off and light on. Starts at 93* and goes down to 74*.



First test was done early in the morning and the second test done later in the evening. This was only a test. All the connections were leaky, the flex tubing was wobbling and giving off lot's of cold as well as the aluminum boot so adding some insulation to these parts will go a long way. I'll be making more permanent airtight connections as well as better materials (PVC).

So far so good!

 

[Danielsgb]

That seems to do it. Like you said with tight, insulated connections it will be better. Sweet
Daniels

 

[gumball]

everything is looking very promising. i am glad you went ahead and got the AC, it will serve you very good over time. cant wait to see the permanent setup for this thing, your gonna rock it

 

[afrosnowman]

You are clearly a very dedicated and creative grower, and you have given me a few ideas to utilise myself. Hope all goes well with your grow

 

[jsgamber]

You are clearly a very dedicated and creative grower, and you have given me a few ideas to utilise myself. Hope all goes well with your grow

Thanks Dude! Let me know if you need any help figuring things out! There's some really great guys following along with my threads as well who are also very creative! Make sure you check out their grows as well!!!


Okay so a bit more info on the AC. When this unit runs, it's pulling 9 amps and 800 watts so realistically it can't run full time or my electric bill will be out of control. So my concern has been trying to figure out how to have this unit cycle on and off appropriately. Without having to get creative with wiring up home thermostats, I wanted to figure out how the unit cycled itself on and off locally. Fortunately I discovered the temperature probe which was mounted with a simple bracket just in front of the inflow vent. It's a standard 2 wire probe (16g wire) that's wired to a small plug that continues on to the circuit board. I was able to splice in an additional 5' of 16g wire so now I can put the probe where ever I want! The unit cycles on for 5 and off for 10 to stay at a target temp of 82*. Again this is with crappy test connections for the ducting.

So what's the future? First I had to put the outside casing back on since the compressor wasn't getting cooled properly. Next I'm thinking of constructing a box out of rigid foam that will mount over the exhaust port of the unit. From this box I'm thinking of attaching three 4" PVC ports, one for each chamber. All input air will pass through the AC Unit whether it's running or not. The problem with the aluminum boot was way too much condensation and it has to be insulated anyways because it was WAY cold and I don't need to use that much electrical. Plus that hook up didn't give me a good way to get air to different cabs.

Now for my next conundrum and that's positive pressure vs. negative pressure. I'm not sure if the Low blower setting on the AC unit is under the 200cfm which I'm pulling out of the cabinets. If it's not, it may be fair to say that after splitting 3 ways that I may end up being under that number. But if it's still too much, I can also look at disabling the blower on the AC unit altogether and just let the constant pull of the exhaust fans bring the air through the cooling coils and into the cab. As you can see I have lot's of options.

Also I may consider directing some cooling towards the cool tubes as well.

But for now, let's stay simple. Three way split, blowing in and exhausting out and see what I get.


If ever I needed you guys to step in and give some opinions, I'm up for it now! But the big victory here is finding that temperature probe and being to put it where ever I want!!! That was huge for me!!


peace

 

[gumball]

dont lose this, be right back. it is the manual for your AC, if you dont have it already. http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.618686/sc.10/category.71/.f

 

[gumball]

well darn gamber, i couldnt find any good technical data for your ac. either take it apart far enough to get the specs on the fan that blows the cool air into the cab, or rent a tool to test the CFM/Pressure. i would think they would have one at home depot's tool rental place. they aint much. dont know the name though. but your other idea of just eliminating this blower from the AC and allowing your current induction to draw the cool air in may be the best bet. you already have that system working and got all the bugs worked out. why reinvent the wheel right. once you get in far enough to disconnect this, you will prob be able to see the manufacturer and info for the blower at the same time so you can look up its specs.

combining the intake for teh cab and the cool tubes may gete tricky, sure you could do it but tricky. maybe pick one cool tube, the hottest!!, and try to divert a little to it. maybe just drill a hole in the intake side of the cool tube about 1"-1.5" and run a hose from your main AC intake duct to this cool tube with about that size hose. you shouldnt need much to cool the space of the cool tube, b=pljus the small hose will create some good pressure.

i think i covered everything. hope this helps

and I am glad that probe was so easily movable, its great when stuff doesnt have to be re-engineered!! kudos to your hard work!!

 

[jsgamber]

dont lose this, be right back. it is the manual for your AC, if you dont have it already. http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.618686/sc.10/category.71/.f

Thanks dude, this was a great help!

well darn gamber, i couldnt find any good technical data for your ac. either take it apart far enough to get the specs on the fan that blows the cool air into the cab, or rent a tool to test the CFM/Pressure. i would think they would have one at home depot's tool rental place. they aint much. dont know the name though. but your other idea of just eliminating this blower from the AC and allowing your current induction to draw the cool air in may be the best bet. you already have that system working and got all the bugs worked out. why reinvent the wheel right. once you get in far enough to disconnect this, you will prob be able to see the manufacturer and info for the blower at the same time so you can look up its specs.

combining the intake for teh cab and the cool tubes may gete tricky, sure you could do it but tricky. maybe pick one cool tube, the hottest!!, and try to divert a little to it. maybe just drill a hole in the intake side of the cool tube about 1"-1.5" and run a hose from your main AC intake duct to this cool tube with about that size hose. you shouldnt need much to cool the space of the cool tube, b=pljus the small hose will create some good pressure.

i think i covered everything. hope this helps

and I am glad that probe was so easily movable, its great when stuff doesnt have to be re-engineered!! kudos to your hard work!!

Dude thanks for looking around for the specs.

Regarding the fan, I'm sure even on low this thing is pushing at least 180cfm air in! It's a 14"x4"(diam) squirrel cage fan.

This unit is well built and easy to disassemble! I'm going to do some modding to remove the fan and see how the "induction" method works! I'll try and get pics along the way.

 

[jsgamber]

Here's the mod I made to the cab doors. First pic shows my mum door (soon to be redone) and the second shows my flower door with the new frames. The tape and foam are for light proofing. It's almost perfect!


Notice the new center rail where the doors meet. I originally hoped to have a wide open chamber but my rez's slide in just fine!


Some pics from inside the AC unit. Wiring schematic and circuit board. Orange circle shows where the temp probe plugs in.

 

[jsgamber]

Just a quick update. Two days ago I installed the exhaust fans on the upper external garage vent. I'm using two 80 cfm fans side by side giving me around 160 cfm exhausting upper air and drawing air from the lower vent, around 4 Air Changes per Hour (ACH) for the entire garage.

I've also re-framed the doors for the mum cab. In order to "suck" cool air through the AC unit into each chamber, they need to be air tight. I can't believe how much nicer the doors are to close now!!!

I'll post pics soon!

 

[gumball]

sounds great! have you noticed a change in your ambients or the feel of the room, like humidity and the such?

 

[jsgamber]

sounds great! have you noticed a change in your ambients or the feel of the room, like humidity and the such?

From an empirical standpoint it's hard to tell because outside temps have been relatively cool over the past few days. You can feel air movement in the garage now so it feels cooler. I have a temp probe right in front of the incoming air vent. Seems like it keeps the difference in temp consistently at 5*. This isn't too bad considering I'm still venting my cab back into the garage at this point. That will change though!

Here's some shots of the fans unit and my new beefy mum doors.