Temp problems, please help

kebnutkush

Active Member
Hello all!

I haven't posted in quite some time and I was never that active because of my busy sched. I've learned quite a lot from here, but this is my first venture into indoor as I've always just done outdoor due to space. I normally veg inside and move outside when appropriate (next week or two here).

Here's my dillema.

I have 6 Cheddarwursts from Alphakronic Genetics (Exodus Cheese x Snowdawg) that popped mid Jan (they've been vegging for some time now) which have shown sex during veg and are females (had to pull the males because they showed me sex nice and early, the females took about 3 more weeks). These 6 are being thrown into Flower inside because I'm not sure if I want to push an 11 week strain outside around here when we usually get hit with a frost around mid October and somtimes snow as early as the third week of October (some years good weather till mid November though).

The box I built is 6 feet wide x 4 feet deep x 6 feet tall. The box is a sturdy frame made from 2x4's and covered in plywood (air tight except for the air coming in and going out which is being scrubbed. I'm running a 460 CFM inline fan with a huge filter, 8" ducting in and out, I can feel good negative pressure on the intake duct. I'm running a 1000 watt HPS in a bare bulb set up to help keep temps down and receive full effect of my light.

My problem is, after doing a couple of preliminary tests on temps on the 12/12 cycle, I'm getting a reading of 89 degrees as the high. I have a fan in front of the intake ducting to try and help bring it down but it hasn't helped too much.

I've toyed with the idea of placing a clipable fan extended out closer to the bulb blowing directly on it to help keep the surface temperature down? Do you think this would help? Another idea is to get one of those vortex fans to place below the bulb between plants flowing directly up on the bulb and in the direction of the filter. Another idea is to get some of that thermal sheeting to add to the inside, to create a buffer between the wood and the inside ambient temperature... since the thermo sheeting doesn't retain heat, would that block it from absorbing into the wood? I've had that idea... that the wood is holding the temps within? I know the thermal sheeting is to reduce the thermal footprint to make the heat signature invisible to thermographic devices.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I only plan on flowering 6 plants at a time in this box, hence why the Cheds have been vegged and trained into large bushes. They're getting huge and really need to be placed outside (which I'm worried about) or placed into flower... I just don't want to throw them into temps that arn't conducive to proper development. Another reason I need to get them into the flower room as I have 7 White Russian clones that have been vegging since they rooted in late Jan. They are also nice fat bushes right now. I was also gifted a cut of a little blessing mix that is quickly outgrowing my 3 feet deep x 8 feet wide x 4 foot tall veg box which has 2 T-5's. Along side those is an A-Train cut which will be going out. In the next couple weeks those 10 will be placed outside, new clones will be vegged to go out early June and I need to pop my New Blue Diesel and Herijuana IBL from Sannie to go out in June also. So pretty much, the rest of my outdoor is sitting on me getting the temps dialed in to create the room I need in my veg cab. Another reason for the room is I have 6 Chem D x Cocoa Kush and another pack of Herijuana IBL to pop and veg for the next cycle inside.

I know I got lengthy and may be a bit jaunty around the words (I'm cheeesing huge right now) but I'd appreciate any input I can get on bringing the temps down some.

Thank a bunch

-Keb
 

Greather420

Active Member
The only thing I'm thinking is a air cooled hood or a cool tube. IMO having a bare bulb set up won't keep the temps down even with the fans blowing on it. The heat from that 1000watter is just being blown around the growing area until it escapes from any ducting you have set up. I think if you were to contain the bulb in a hood or tube and run a inline fan sucking the air from there to even just outside of the box you could possibly lower your in box temps. I ran a 600watt hps in a 3'x3'x7' without connecting the hood ducting and had temps in the 90's! After running the air cooled hood and having my light go on at night my temps run at about 77degrees. I have since gotten a bigger tent and ran all my ducting the same and have had no heat issues.
I hope my past experience can help you in some way. Good Luck!!:bigjoint:
 

kebnutkush

Active Member
Thanks a bunch Greather410!

I'll look into a cooltube, but from what I've read is that what you save in heat you're losing in lumens because of the intensity that is lost through the glass, then again, you'd be losing yield because of the heat if I were not to.... Would it be beneficial to jump down to a 600watt? That'd require a new ballast though and the only 600 watt ballast I have is for MH. Hmmmm.

I may be able to utilize some of the existing ducting for the cooled hood. That'd save a little moolah

Do you think that I should try to find a larger fan as well?

Thanks

-Keb
 

Greather420

Active Member
Good point! With my light staying cool I can keep it 12" or less from the tops of my tallest plants. My budz are consistently dense a and FAT! I would stick with the 1000watter just pull as much air from it as possible and vent out of box. If your fan is strong enough then you could run your setup like this..
>>>>carbon filter - ducting - cool tube - ducting - fan>>>> - outside tent. By all means I am no expert but an alien dinosaur from the future told me this is the way to do it:wink:
 
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