Can I cool my reflector and vent my room on the same fan?

B Irie

Member
Hey all,
I have a 4x4x9 closet (144 sq ft) and am getting my ventilation together. I have a 4" vortex inline bringing fresh air in, and am planning to split a 6" vortex to cool my reflector (sealed, cool air from outside the house feeding it) and exhaust the room via a carbon filter.
I will be using 1000 watt hps.
My question is this: will the 6" vortex effectively exhaust the room and cool the reflector? And should I be concerned about the fact that the reflector will be "cooled" even when the light is off? It seems wasteful, but not as wasteful as getting another fan and paying to run it...
Just wanted to know if anyone out there has done this before or what your thoughts were...
Thanks!
 

DeweY

Well-Known Member
what about having it like this (scrubber>cooltube>vortex then out) have a couple of pc fans to blow air in, its just a thougt because i wana do this myself.
 

nickbbad

New Member
I cool my room and vent my 1000 watt light through the same vent and Im in a attic so it should be ok but I dont use a carbon scrubber I use a ozone generator so I dont know how much that will slow down the airflow.
 

B Irie

Member
I guess my concerns are that a 1000 watter is a lot of heat in a small space. will venting the light with air already warm from the room via the carbon scrubber be sufficient?
Thanks for the reply
 

nickbbad

New Member
do you have a cool air intake for the room? If not you will probably need one. I have an ac vent to my room plus a cool air intake but again I am in the attic which would get hot without a light on. best way to find out is to do a couple days dry run and get a thermometer and put it where your canopy top will be and see.
 

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
Use the fan which is the same size as the vents on the light to cool the light on it's own system with a separate intake, and have the other venting the room through your filter.
You don't need an intake fan. As air is drawn out of the room, the pressure is lowered, and more air will flow from the higher pressure outside into the room, if you leave a passive intake slightly smaller than the exhaust it will create a bit of negative pressure and stop odours leaking out of the room. The intake for the light should be the same diameter as the ducting, for maximum airflow.
 

Mcgician

Well-Known Member
Whatever you do, get a can-fan not a vortex. The 6" vortex blower is exceptionally loud. I returned one I bought. Ended up getting an 8" can-fan and that runs quieter than the 6" vortex.
 

smoke and coke

Well-Known Member
Use the fan which is the same size as the vents on the light to cool the light on it's own system with a separate intake, and have the other venting the room through your filter.
You don't need an intake fan. As air is drawn out of the room, the pressure is lowered, and more air will flow from the higher pressure outside into the room, if you leave a passive intake slightly smaller than the exhaust it will create a bit of negative pressure and stop odours leaking out of the room. The intake for the light should be the same diameter as the ducting, for maximum airflow.
you want the passive intake a little larger than the exhaust. then it wont overwork the exhaust fan and you will still have negative pressure.
 
One disadvantage to cooling your hood with the same fan that scrubs/vents is if you are planning on running Co2, then you won't be able to cool your lights while the exhaust fan is off when the Co2 injects and you might have heat build up issues. Since you can't exhaust at the same time you inject Co2 I always run separate fans on separate timers for each application.
 

little dubbie

Active Member
Ya, you will be dealing with alot of heat for sure, small room, big light. I would concentrat on gettin the heat out! as fast as possible, try to suck the heat right from the light and draw new air from a low source, heat exits high, and cool air in from a low source. and remember, a room in the attic is asking for a heat signature on thermal imager, dont show a single person, if your in a U.S. City beware.
 

Fubar8691

Active Member
what about having it like this (scrubber>cooltube>vortex then out) have a couple of pc fans to blow air in, its just a thougt because i wana do this myself.
This is exactly what I do with my reflector with a 6" vortex in a 25sq ft room works
like a charm. And I don't even need a intake fan I just have passive intake.

Hope that helps.
 

somebody041

Well-Known Member
i tried to set up a 8" vortex with a y split and 2 1000w lights in a 5x10 room. the other end of the hood was open to exhaust air from the growroom.

this setup didn't work. i had to get another fan to exhaust the room and redesign the light cooling to draw air from another room and dump it in a different room.

this way works much better.

i know its not your exact situation but hope it helps bongsmilie
 

B Irie

Member
Thanks for the replies all,
I have chosen to use the 4" vortex fan on the light, and the 6" vortex fan on the carbon scrubber. Cant beat the 10 year guarantee, and a box is easy to build around the fan to lessen the sound. The light ventilation will be a closed system with fresh air being brought in from under the house and never coming in contact with the air in the room, so no odor. I am using a 6" in line booster fan to help with the intake, as I want as much fresh air on the ladies as possible. ( I will upgrade the intake as soon as financially possible!) For just getting a garden started sometimes you have to make due with what you got! I hope that with some tweaking I can post some good lookin pictures soon!
Cheers all and thanks for the input
 

reeferMaster

Well-Known Member
y dont you just put in floor vents and hook the scrubber on the 4 inch and exhaust it out the roof. air under ur house is cool and fresh 4 inch fans are rated for 8x8x8 rooms anyway then you would need a wall mount fan 2 blow on the hood i wish i could use floor vents but my grow is on cement!!!
 

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
You don't need an intake fan. The best it can do is move air in just as fast as it would flow in if left to it's own devices, and be a waste of money. The worst it can do is restrict the amount of airflow if it's smaller than the exhaust, or pressurise the room, raising the temperature and creating odour leaks if it's bigger.
Ventilation means moving air through the room, it doesn't matter how much air you blow in there, what matters is getting it out!
 

orangeade5

Well-Known Member
Use the fan which is the same size as the vents on the light to cool the light on it's own system with a separate intake, and have the other venting the room through your filter.
You don't need an intake fan. As air is drawn out of the room, the pressure is lowered, and more air will flow from the higher pressure outside into the room, if you leave a passive intake slightly smaller than the exhaust it will create a bit of negative pressure and stop odours leaking out of the room. The intake for the light should be the same diameter as the ducting, for maximum airflow.

Couldnt have put it any better, think about this; if you had the venting on one side of your light running straight out of your room, and NO ducting on the other side of your light, the air that is being sucked out of the light had to be coming from somewhere right? Oh yeah! The grow room, taa daa! Multi purpose fan use, that's actually what I do in my setup, and if you plan to switch to CO2 just setup an intake or move your original venting to vent back into the room, and get a nice portable A/C unit to keep everything nice and cold.:bigjoint:
 

gogrow

confused
Couldnt have put it any better, think about this; if you had the venting on one side of your light running straight out of your room, and NO ducting on the other side of your light, the air that is being sucked out of the light had to be coming from somewhere right? Oh yeah! The grow room, taa daa! Multi purpose fan use, that's actually what I do in my setup, and if you plan to switch to CO2 just setup an intake or move your original venting to vent back into the room, and get a nice portable A/C unit to keep everything nice and cold.:bigjoint:

i dont run any CO2, so this is how i run my setup too:mrgreen:
 

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
Couldnt have put it any better, think about this; if you had the venting on one side of your light running straight out of your room, and NO ducting on the other side of your light, the air that is being sucked out of the light had to be coming from somewhere right? Oh yeah! The grow room, taa daa! Multi purpose fan use, that's actually what I do in my setup, and if you plan to switch to CO2 just setup an intake or move your original venting to vent back into the room, and get a nice portable A/C unit to keep everything nice and cold.:bigjoint:
Yeah the only problem being that if the room is pretty hot, and you suck that pre-heated air across the bulb, it will have less of a cooling effect than if the light had fresh, cool air coming from outside. If the temps aren't sky high then it's a good way to save the hassle of making another intake, and still allow the bulb to sit closer to the plants.
 
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