Which Cabinet Would You Go With ?

Personally I would run some t5 lighting for the top or veg area and look into a good LED light that will take care of the Flower. CFL isn't going to cut it and to get it to work out you have to add so many it will create just as much wattage/heat issue as a HID. How big are your veg and flower areas now? Looks good, I run a tent (2x3x5) in my closet but might have to move to something like this in the garage depending on roommate situation. Area51 makes a sweet light for just such an area but its $500.00 well worth it for a stealth grow!

rwbrock said:

Personally I would run some t5 lighting for the top or veg area and look into a good LED light that will take care of the Flower. CFL isn't going to cut it and to get it to work out you have to add so many it will create just as much wattage/heat issue as a HID. How big are your veg and flower areas now? Looks good, I run a tent (2x3x5) in my closet but might have to move to something like this in the garage depending on roommate situation. Area51 makes a sweet light for just such an area but its $500.00 well worth it for a stealth grow!

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Bro, I got some cfl's leftover from my first grow...I am going to use them and add a few more (along with some t5s)...I'm part of the CFL Cartel here, and I have friends that grow weed in cardboard boxes. I know it might sound ghetto but it works.

i like that, if i had an extra $500, i would go get a brand new U-Haul Grand Wardrobe Box and some new cfls and build the same thing i have, LoL. and, still have $400 in my pocket.

Well I am now in the process of designing the grow lights...Taking a little longer than expected...Stuff in life popping up....A bit unexpected I had to drive 150 miles last night one way to buy a pickup truck I got a good deal on...

Anyways, Like I said I am doing the lights now....

It looks like just the flowering chamber should have over 700 watts of lights in it !!!! That's using only cfls and 4 T5 HO bulbs !!!! Awwww Yaaaaa ! lol

It's also looking like each vegg chamber will have about 200 watts each of cfls......Wow, just realized I am going to have somewhere between 1100 and 1200 watts total in this bad boy, lol.....I am a bit worried though about powering it up....I have to figure out if I can use one household electrical outlet for this, and also do I need 2 power cords to power this thing up? I'd prefer to feed the cab with just one cord but I am not sure....This seems like a lot especially considering I have a bathroom fan in there for exhaust.

Concord Dawn said:

i like this idea, never thought about that, but i like it, LoL.

SC, heres a little tweak i did, just an idea. if you could pull this off, you could keep plants going year round. if you could a few cfl lights in that lower section for vegging 4 to 5 weeks, then to the upper short flower section and then to the tall flower section and so on, year round grow, LoL. good luck with which ever one you chose, CD. i use to to use a small 2x2x2 box to start my plants in with 3 cfl's for veg and the big box for flowering so i think you could pull it off.

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I was thinking of running of the 4-ways like you have listed but two rows of 3 sockets instead of 1 row....3 sockets in each row for a total of 24 bulbs, lol....that would give me around 600 watts in just cfls.....I also might add a few more in between the 4-ways, lol.....I got a feeling this thing could be nutz

ok here are some updated pics:

You can see I have the PVC in for ventilation....The cab will be in the cool cellar (temps in the 60s)....So it will be sucking air through the bottom of the cab and up into the top section where I am going to have the carbon scrubber and fan.....

I sealed off all joints inside the cab with white silicone.....

I also included 2 pics of light sockets....These were from my last grow....If you look close to the socket on the right you will see what looks like burn marks like the plastic got too hot and turned brown....The one on the right is also the "pre-wired" variety...It comes with two cheap wires attached to it already....the one on the right was not "pre-wired"....I am not even going to bother using the one on the right anymore....I would advise against using those pre-wired sockets. The socket on the left had no burn marks at all.

the last pic is of me taking a pic of myself in the reflective mylar

Oh, and I nicknamed the cabinet....It's called "The Space Cab"

Oooooh I'm anxiously awaiting the light proofing phase!

supchaka said:

Oooooh I'm anxiously awaiting the light proofing phase!

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I'm thinking of using some rubber weatherstripping but I have to figure out how to get the doors to stay shut tight up against the cabinet.....I am going to install some kind of lock on it so that will play into the light proofing.....I was also considering using those magnetic hidden child proof locks to keep it shut too.....

when i had my white cab, i used that thin self stick foam weather stripping, have you seen that at home depot? sounds like when you open the doors on that thing, its gonna look like the lighting department at home depot, LoL.

Yes CD i know that foam stuff you are talking about....Did that stuff block all the light out ? What I plan to do is to turn on my video camera inside each chamber, and that will show me if I have any light leaks.

Here's me messing around with lighting ideas....there is going to be two 2x4 34" in length in the flowering chamber.....

I was figuring stuff out, and then I realized the first two ideas are a no go because of width issues.....The last two pics are my current idea but I ran out of lights and splitters to complete the model......You know what that means kids ? Yepp, another trip to the Home Depot......



And it's Friday night....people are out tonight....That mean's I am out.....From one cab to the other

The Power needs of this thing still have me a little concerned.....Both for making sure I wire it right without burning anything up, and also spikes in my electric bill, lol. Wonder if the electric company would report 700+ watts, and maybe even around 1000+ watts if I have both other chambers going full blast and turning on at off at same times every day ?

bro, can you cut a couple of those socket plates, narrow up the boards to fit? only use 3 on each board x 2 and that will still give you 24 bulbs which is like 552 watts, thats plenty for 2 plants in the flower chamber, plus side floro tubes. i would use more than 1 outlet for sure. im only using 10 bulbs and you see what happens. how wide is the flower chamber? the foam did ok for the most part, i should have got it a little wider i think, maybe the 1/2"???

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Hey cd....flower chamber is about 35" wide.....that 2x4 you see in the pic is part of my light fixture frame - it's 34" long....so yes, I could get 3 sockets to fit on there no problem....I know you are prbably right....24 cfls plus side lighting is probably enough for this chamber......I think I'm gettin' a little nutzzz lol.....plus the more bulbs equals more heat.....though right now I can get my cellar down to the low 60s

Plus on top of it I plan on having 8 bulbs in each of the veggin chambers.

It's fun being in the RIU CFL Cartel

I know with cfls you want to keep them close to the plant....I guess I was thinking the more sockets the more bulbs I could keep closer to the plant...I was thinking with the 3 sockets (4 bulbs each) on each board that it might leave some dead spaces of light.

I might have missed it....but are those PVC 90s going to be light proof? Have you tested it?
When I was reading this I was contemplating a compact yet light proof venti system and my imagination was showing me a corkscrew....interested in your solution.

Balke Buds said:

I might have missed it....but are those PVC 90s going to be light proof? Have you tested it?
When I was reading this I was contemplating a compact yet light proof venti system and my imagination was showing me a corkscrew....interested in your solution.

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from what I have read is you need two 90 degree angles to block light...black is better because white reflects more....

The bottom PVC have two 90 degree pVC glued together....since the two PVC pipes at the top are separate chambers, and the entire top is closed off from any outside light there is only one for each chamber - but in theory two....My exhaust fan is going to be a bathroom fan with a homemade carbon scrubber so no light is coming in through that.....

I plan on putting my camera in the grow box with the video camera on and turning the lights on and off in different ways so I can see if there is any light leakage....If there is I will tweak it from there.....

SpaaaceCowboy said:

from what I have read is you need two 90 degree angles to block light...black is better because white reflects more....

The bottom PVC have two 90 degree pVC glued together....since the two PVC pipes at the top are separate chambers, and the entire top is closed off from any outside light there is only one for each chamber - but in theory two....My exhaust fan is going to be a bathroom fan with a homemade carbon scrubber so no light is coming in through that.....

I plan on putting my camera in the grow box with the video camera on and turning the lights on and off in different ways so I can see if there is any light leakage....If there is I will tweak it from there.....

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Awesome!
one thing that might help as well is to scuff the inside of those pvc parts to reduce the reflectivity even more....just a thought!