Heat issue no other place to go!

[wopnasty]

Okay! So, this is my first grow/post and I've chosen to go with a 400w MH/HPS light set up in a 4x5x6.5 closet with flat white walls. I picked the light system after about two weeks of reading online and didn't think anything of heat issues BUT the past couple days it's been pretty hot outside and my room has hit up to 90F. I have every fan in the house in the room trying to cool it down, I freeze water in small tubs and place them in front of some of the fans to try and blow cooler air out. I've got 3 normal house fans and one laptop battery cooling thing( two fans in some plastic meant to sit on your lap) that I found laying around. I am still in seedling stage with the light about 22in. from the pots and a normal temp for me with the A/c on in the living room and the closet door open along with a window next to the closet and the bedroom door open that leads to the room with the A/c is about 80-85 so basically I'm stuck with the door and window in my bedroom open at all times. This does not work for me I have 2 kids and nosey neighbors and tho I am a card holder i would still not brag to the old folks around me that I'm growing but I have no money to buy a fancy fan and rig it up. A friend of mine said pull the carpet and cut a hole in my floor and go buy a fan w/ some 6' dryer hose but again no money for another fan at the moment and I'm pretty sure my wife would have my ass if I drilled a huge hole in the floor just after ripping out 2 year old carpet. I have covered up my window the best I can so light does not escape from it at night or early morning while the light is on since my closet door is open. I don't mind the light too much (wife does) but I would still like to close the closet door and not have to worry about it getting to hot or if my neighbors can see any light. I am okay with buying another normal house fan and leaving my door open if i have too? Because without spending a good amount of cash I don't have no way am I going to be able to shut the door and ventilate the room at the same time. And now it's late and I'm not sure where i was even going with this other than come noon tomorrow it another 85 in the grow room Oh Btw the seedlings are 1 bag seed blue widow 3 random Tennessee bag seeds givin to me by a friends mom when they moved back into the state of WA and 2 afgoo hash plant clones from another friend rooting. If the BW is female and the clones root I'll prolly toss the other 3 female or not for more space. but we shall see i guess.

 

[CRAVETHERAVE]

Have you got an intake and exhaust fan?

 

[PLANT.]

woah. man you need to make some paragraphs and try not to make it soo long. most ppl will just click back without reading so much writing.

First off if your outside temps are cool enough then a COOLTUBE brings your temps down quiet alot and you might be fine.

yeh^^ you need to think about intake/exhaust, still if your outdoor temps are in the high range then your fucked anyways because the air your bringing in will be too hot anyways
Therefore you will need an AC.

Concerning intake/exhaust- yeh this brings on fresh air, didnt see you mention fresh air "airflow". Airflow is very important plants growth is fucked without decent airflow.

 

[Little Tommy]

For the time being, you are just pushing the hot air around. Without a heat extraction strategy you are destined to fight with the high temps. I don't really see a "free" solution and adding more fans isn't going to help unless they are extracting hot air and bringing in fresh.

 

[ULMResearch]

You have to bite the bullet and invest in air extraction. Like ^above^ said, you are just moving hot air from one space to another. You have to remove the light-heated air and bring unheated air in to replace it. Calculate your cubic feet and find a fan that is rated at least 2x if not 3x higher. I use passive intake in my closet door, exhaust the closet through a cooltube into the attic via 240cfm booster fan. Works beautifully for my 80cf space.

 

[wopnasty]

Yea sorry about the rant it was late and I was tired. I guess I'll be buying a fan soon, what's a good website to get a decent deal on intake/exhaust fan?

 

[IslandDelight]

Don't cheap out on one. That's key. Ventilation is a key point in a successful grow. My 4" CanFan ran me $130 at the hydro store (25% off) and the duct work you can get at home depot/lowes. An inline booster fan works great too. I got mine on ebay $18 shipped and it adds 25%-33% more air circulation through my ventilation. You need to run them in conjunction with a big fan but you spend $200 and no more heat + you have the right setup which you can apply to other grows in the future. This is all money you won't have to spend all upfront again. Once you do it right, you're good (until you go bigger )

 

[Little Tommy]

Having the fan is half the battle - you still need a place to dump the hot air being pulled out of the closet. Cutting a hole into the basement is easy enough if you own the place. Getting that past the Mrs is another matter. Good luck.

 

[ULMResearch]

They make repair kits for sheetrock that you can get at walmart for a couple of dollars. Cover the hole with some netting, put some spackle over it and then get some of that spray can that gives your ceiling that bumpy texture if necessary. 5-10 bucks to repair it one time before you sell the house is worth it!

 

[wopnasty]

If my walls were made of sheet rock this would not be an issue. I live in a Mobile Home and the walls are shit.

 

[ULMResearch]

Get some tin snips and a clothes dryer vent and pump that shit outside!

 

[StonedSoldier238]

Change to flourescent lights cheaper and Burns way cooler

 

[wopnasty]

No I think I am going to try and wait it out for the next 2 weeks and buy a canfan and inline booster like stated by others and vent the hot air down under the house. I talked with my wife and she is "Okay" with me pulling the carpet and cutting a hole...So she says... I have about a $200 budget to get fans and venting equipment. Now Once i get those two fans how much cooler should i expect it to get? Would I be able to get away with shutting the door?

 

[bullwinkle60]

I hear you I too live in a manufactured home and am currently growing in a 9sf closet but have to move to the bathtub do to space issues. If you have an extra bathroom maybe you could do that as well, it might help with your heat issues. As as aside that's why I use CFL's so I don't have to vent the heat. Good growing no matter what you decide to do. Sorry I didn't read the other posts before I posted this I don't mean to be redundant.

 

[wopnasty]

So I get a Can-Fan and mount it on the top of a wall with a vent hose that vents under the house ya? Right now im looking at a 6" 530 CFM inline Exhaust cooling fan on Ebay for like $80 but then they have Standard Exhaust fans. What is the difference?

 

[jaybee007]

How big r ur fans
I have faced problems like this
IMHO I would drill 2 holes in the closet
1 either side if poss 1 high and 1 low
Fix ur fan so it's blowing from the inside out up high
And fix 1 outside blowing in down low
This will help however
U r deffo gonna need an exhaust an intake 4 sure man
Ur gro depends on it lol

 

[ULMResearch]

I spent 40 bucks on my exhaust. And I have like 15 feet of 6" ducting leftover. If you keep the inside of your house cool then you can use that for the intake and then exhaust the hot air into the floor. If you don't keep the house very cool then the under house air may be cooler than your house in which case you could intake from there.

My preferred simple method is passive intake from the cool house air and exhaust hot air through the cooltube into an attic or outside. Simple and easy. And with a small space you only need the one fan.

 

[wopnasty]

I try to keep my house as cool as i can. Outside the grow room is not much better on the really hot days. I've only got 1 window A/c unit and a few fans for cooling down the house most of the time they were all in the living room. I'm going to see what i can do about venting the hot air out the left side of the floor to the underside of the house and fresh from a hole in on the other side of the closet.

As for the fans i have now i don't know anything about them my wife got 2 of em at Costco last summer in a pack 1 big one and 1 small one and the other fan i have going is a metal caged fan not sure where i got it from
in 2 weeks I'll be buying the fans/ducting and something to cut my two holes with.

 

[Little Tommy]

A 6" can fan sounds a little large for your closet. A standard dryer vent and ducting is 4". You can get reducers to use the 6" fan but it will run less efficient with 4" ducting attached. Just be aware that you may be able to use a 4" can fan and run more efficient. They can also be noisy as they get larger. It may be hard to sleep with that running in your bedroom closet. The other thing you can do is get a speed controller for the fan so it is not running at full speed all he time.

 

[wopnasty]

Cool I'll start looking at some 4" fans.