Passive or forced intake?

Hello RIU. My grow tent is 5ft l x 3ft w x 6ft h. I have two 400w hps running with a 200cfm fan for the exhaust venting out my window with 2 4" passive intake vents. My problem is even with my ac running my bedroom will still heat up and keep the temps up around 82-85f in the cabinet. is my exhaust not enough or do i need forced air or what?
 

mazand1982

Well-Known Member
Hello RIU. My grow tent is 5ft l x 3ft w x 6ft h. I have two 400w hps running with a 200cfm fan for the exhaust venting out my window with 2 4" passive intake vents. My problem is even with my ac running my bedroom will still heat up and keep the temps up around 82-85f in the cabinet. is my exhaust not enough or do i need forced air or what?
82-85 is fine bro, dont worry about it, it even helps with evaporating the water a lil bit.... its fine...im 84-86 on a hot day and the plants love it...click on signature if u wanna see
 
Your size room only needs 108 CFM for a air exchange of 1 time per minute. MUCH MORE than enough as a grow room only needs an exchange rate of 3-5 times a minute. Not sure what the person who told you you don't have enough CFM is talking about. You're suppose to add 20% for each 1000watt light IF they're not separately vented, so if that's true than you STILL have enough CFM's as 2-400watts would only add an extra 40CFM needed, you're still over that total of 148CFM with the 200CFM. Add on carbon filter that's another 20% you need to add. So that's now 188 CFM's needed, which with your 200 you are STILL above. You have a PERFECT room.
Sounds like you need to remove ballasts from room to lower heat, even when kept high in room the heat from them up high can slow up the exchange of hot air out, and I believe one 400watt would be fine with a passive, but you may need to force intake in with the extra 400watt. You could try to just make the passive larger, at least 4 times the size of the exhaust. I had a wood framed room lined with panda and for my veg side I just fit in a basic furnace filter, about 15"x12", into the wood frame and secured panda film around it. With a 180CFM exhaust in a 3'6"x4'6"x7' high room it keep temps at 74-78 degrees 24/7 cycle with a digital 400watt.
 

cowell

Well-Known Member
Your CFM is almost double what you need.. but you have ALOT more light than you need for the space...
Heat from the lights is likely what's bumping it.. but as said.. until you get into the 90's you don't have to worry about it anyway.
Sounds like you have it set up just fine don't stress about it :)
 

TechnoMage

Well-Known Member
Air cooling your lights can really help. My tent is 4ft l x 2ft w x 6ft h and I'm running a 600w hps in in it. I have two 6" fans. One is for the tent and the other is for the air cooled hood. I have both on a speed controller and run them at about 65%. My tent runs about 1.5 degrees higher than the room it's in.
 
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