Which Cabinet Would You Go With ?

still having heat issues...90s....

working on the vegg chambers now

Try using these $6 fans from wmart..not sure but I think they'd be stronger than those pc fans.
Put those pc fans over intake holes with a stronger fan exhausting.With all those bulbs you gonna need stronger fans! Like I said about mine you want the fans to create enough pressure to suck your cabinet doors closed when they're opened a little.

What type of fan are you using? Different types of fans rated at the same CFM can give drastically different results when operated under a load (suction). The CFM listed on fans is 'no load'. For instance on an inline booster fan rated at 200 CFM the CFM would drop to the point of not being useful when hooked up by itself with the exhaust hooked up to duct with the intake negative pressure required to pull the air through a cabinet like yours.


A Squirrel-cage turbine or vortex fan like below keeps sucking a lot more of its rated CFM when pulling a vacuum. I use one like this in a 2x4' tent with a scrubber and a 400W hps light.


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With your cabinet since you have different chambers IMHO a pretty good vacuum would be needed with adjustable intakes in each section to balance the airflow in each section. Of course noise can be a big problem.

hey bro, since you are gonna be growing only 2 plants, couldnt you cut back on a few bulbs. i know you dont want to but just take a couple out at a time to see how much you can get the temps down. you have seen in my box what i can grow with just 10 bulbs for 2 plants, just a thought???

Your setup is pretty good

Your box looks nice and I have been following along from the beginning. I know you and Dawn are Ghetto CFL guys but I still don't get it? Why CFL? Everyone says they are so efficient and not hot but I don't agree at all and as you now know all those lights you have actually run hotter than a HID. Stop the madness and go get a cooltube run 400w HPS...or if you can save some money LED. Go get an inline fan and some ducting. I know its fun to build a custom box and rig it all up your style. I have been down this same path when I was younger. But trying to run all those CFL is NOT efficient at all. Stop cutting a million holes in your box and buying more computer fans. 90 degrees is way too hot. I use CFL to veg plants and I rigged up a (2) bathroom light fixtures it holds 6 23 watt cfl. When it is in my closet it runs hotter than my 400w HPS with inline fan setup. Sorry I don't mean to come off as negative and I have seen what Concord Dawn pulls of with his boxes and it is pretty nice. I just want to say make life easier on yourself you can add more passive intake but it isn't going to help you enough to get down to ideal temps, you will always be running hot in that box with all those CFL lights. Just a suggestion.....

Thanks for the replies guys....

It's a panasonic whisper ceiling fan....80 cfm

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=450709&catGroupId=119507&surfModel=FV-08VQ5&displayTab=O

I got the idea from this thread

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=45196

I guess I assumed it would take care of the heat from the cfls....

I hear ya CD....I might have been goin' nuts with all these bulbs...Not to mention the T5s I want to add....I might have to reduce cfls...

What's buggin' me is that I can get the outside temp down to like 61...Yet I am still getting the high temps....

Yes I think part of the problem is the multi-chambers...It appears I do need a larger fan....But,

I want to try one more thing....I want to try and use the pc fans to use as exhaust fans in both chambers to go along with passive intakes....The pc fans will hopefully suck in enough cool air to cool the chamber, and then blow it into the top section where that fart fan will scrub it, and exhaust it out the back....

I don't know what else to do at this point...I have to go to work shortly so I won't be able to monkey around with it until about 12 hours from now.....I have those two C99 seeds in soil now.....

I did run 3 cfls in the bottom veg chamber last night and was at 84...So I am thinking that might be OK for now at least until I get the rest of this thing figured out....

Money is tight for me right now so not sure about buying all kinds of other stuff...I just bought a pickup truck sight unseen, and the chick misled me...I will be spending about 2x that amount on repairs on it...It's crazy - GMC Sierra 2500HD - rebuilt transmission, oil cooler lines, tranny, lines, all new brakes - pads, rotors, and 2 new calipers, new exhaust, upper and lower ball joint, torque converter cause that was missing, tranny mounts, something with the steering column where it connects to the steeking stuff, oil change, state inspection...And, this does not include new tires along with a front end alignment, rocker panels, mirrors, running boards, and I guess I will do the whole body at some point.......I bought this truck cause it was supposed to be a smokin' deal...I didn't really have the dough right now but I figured I couldn't pass it up....But with all this stuff things are tight.

Wish me luck guys I'm hoping this multi-chamber exhaust things works.....If it doesn't I think I would be looking for a different way to exhaust rather than getting new lights, and a new exhaust....

OH yeah, I thought the instructions for the fan said that it needs at least a 1' exhaust tube for the fan to work properly....Mine is like 6" so I was going to make that longer to see if that makes a difference.

I just went down there now...I had closed a heat vent in the cellar...I left the cab open and temp gauge on the floor of the cab....Temp was 57...I'd love to be able to utilize that cold air to cool it...we'll see...I'll update in the morning and let you guys know the results....

i hear ya rw and thanks, my deal is i cant have all that where i live. i would love to have a nice big tent and a 600w hid but it was hard enough just to have a cardboard box, it was suppose to be just 1 "little" plant, my sister shit the first time she saw a monster ass plant in the box, LoL. ive been able to control my temps pretty good now. they stay right around the mid 80's with the a/c on or if its cool enough for the windows to be open. btw, im not working right now, so right now i have to stick with what i have, LoL.

bro, that blows about the truck, dam!! keep at it on the cabinet, you'll get it figured out on your own and with all the help on here. you should try your t5's in there and see how many bulbs you need to get down to for a good temp? you know youre gonna want that side lighting in there. good luck man!!

I don't remember when or why I did it, it was most likely a heat issue a few years ago in my little cabinet. It had an upper area as well where my bathroom fan was and it was exhausting out the side. I was using 4" ducting with it, but then I moved the fan into the hatch for my attic and ran the 4" duct straight into the back of the cabinet in the lower chamber and it dropped the temps.

Here's some links to some old stuff I did that yours gives me dejavu about.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/482793-150-hps-cabinet-single-plant.html
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/507112-12-12-seed-150-watt.html#post7052275

thanks supchaka...I will check them out.....

CD, ya I really want those t5's in there

I'm tweaking with it now as we speak....Supchaka, you got me thinking....If my current tweaks don't work I may run a duct from the intake on the fart fan to the flower chamber only (not the vegg chambers) so that it is only sucking from the flower chamber....80 cfm in a 35" x 20" x 5' has got to work to cool it....

I think I'm starting to get a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Well good news...I just ran a test...I think I had about 14 bulbs in the flower chamber...temp was 75 after about 15 minutes...Now this is with the vegg chamber shut off....I just added 6 more bulbs....I'm going to let it run for about an hour...Be back with the results....

looks like 18 bulbs is 86 degrees right now...But I think I can bring that number down with the fart fan only exhausting the flowering chamber...Or possibly both the flowering and vegging chambers

Sounds like you are getting things under control. Legal or not, I try to keep everything hidden....mostly for dating purposes...or what if my niece stops by with my sister? She knows about the medicinal program and that I am in it, but she doesn't need to know to what extent. There are lots of reasons to have a concealed grow, my mom loves the girls, but not too many moms do! I also do not understand the CFL movement, but it looks like you have a really nice setup there and I've seen some good looking product from CFLs, so good luck to you.

Regarding your ventilation: I would not waste time with small fans designed for other purposes. I farted around with the duct boosters years ago when I got started and they just aren't sufficient. I have one "pushing" air as my intake but I know that I could have it turned off when my big fan is on and as much air would come through the hole and if I had another timer handy to have it turn off when the lights came on, I might do that, but I need the airflow during the dark cycle. All of your air flow should be directed upward, and it sounds like it is. Don't pay too much attention to the numbers I keep hearing from you, those bathroom fans aren't meant to create the type of airflow you are looking for, sure they'll exchange air gradually between two areas, but you want some serious, targeted air movement. Your intake holes at 1" sound ridiculously small for creating air flow in a grow setup....but that's just me. My 2x2x5 tents have 5 inch inputs and exhausts....I used a 4" "radon mitigation fan" from Menards (a lot like a vortex fan) and the heat hardly had a chance to get down to plant level with cool air being blown in the bottom and naturally going out the top.

I'd see two ideas here seeing how you have a 60-65 degree basement to work with: 1) Mount a vortex fan in the top of the cabinet that will suck hot air out of the top while drawing cool air in from the bottom....what you cut your intake holes at is up to you, but I'd think about something bigger than 1", my smallest hole saw I use in the grow room is 4" unless it's for wiring. 2) when I had a cool basement I mounted my fan outside of the grow area and blew that cold air in and through the tent and let it go out the top. Yes the sides billowed, but my temps were spot on While it may not be as efficient to blow air, we're most concerned with the temps. Now I'm in a closet and I have a 6"vortex mounted in the very top, sucking the hottest air out and blowing it through the lights and out through the attic. I have a register boot mounted to the door that runs to a duct booster that is pointed at the back of my oscillating fan. The air being circulated is at whatever temperature my house is at (usually 67) and this adequately cools a 4x5x8 room with two 600w HPS. Sorry so lengthy, I hope some of the information is useful for you. Setup looks very functional, nice work.

Well I will give another update in about a half hour.....I am running another test...I think I got 14 or 16 bulbs going for an hour....

thanks for your reply hermex...Yes stealth is a big key....

I think I am starting to hone in here....I am thinking eventually I am going to have to make a custom intake on the fart fan, and have that directly go to the two chambers....This way I can get rid of the fan venting the top electrical area...There is no need to cool up there, lol.....

I think I'll be able to run with this setup....How many bulbs can I run with this fan though ? That's the question....I think I may eventually have to get a larger Panasonic whisper fan...I really do love this thing...Can't hardly hear it standing next to it.....This is the smallest one they have so there are plenty of more options...

Well hopefully others can learn a thing or two from this thread....I guess I'm the guinea pig here, eh ? lol

I forgot, anyone know how long it takes for a seed to come out of the soil ? The taproots on my seeds came out about a day and a half ago...I put them in soil about 34 hours ago but they have not come out yet....Am I being too impatient ?thnx

For me it usually takes anywhere from 2-5 days yep just be patient. A warmer moist climate usually helps...

thanks rw...Our house is at 69 degrees,,,I just out a cfl on top of them to give them some warmth...

Back to the cab....18 bulbs just flower chamber and top chamber vented it was 93 degrees....I opened up the other side if the cab to vent, and I am runnin' 18 bulbs again (actually I think there might be two or 3 on in the vegg right now too...But I swear on one of my tests it was cooler venting both sides....

A BIT IF ADVICE: When running heat teats on your cab keep track of the data...It will help you....

I measured the room above the fart fan, and I am going to try and get some ducting to go from the fan directly to the top of the chambers....

thanks everyone for your support so far

OK...scratch all that ducting....I am going to do a complete revamp of the ventilation system....I just ran 14 bulbs - electric chamber and flower chamber only....temp was 86....But that fan had to work extra hard I think to suck not only the air out of the electric chamber but then through a 2" pvc hole, and then the air out of the flower chamber....Confused yet ? Just smoke another, you'll be ok....

Basically what I am going to do is to take the fart fan, and remove that wood frame, and homemade carbon scrubber....I am going to take the fart fan and flip it over 180 degrees...Basically it will be sitting the way it is supposed to in a bathroom now...Then I am going to cut a hole in the top of the flower chamber, and mount that bastard right in the top.....The air will be coming directly out of the flower and through the fan...No top chamber, and PVC pip to worry about going through.....

As far as the scrubber goes - c99 hardly stinks from what I am told...I will take my time, and come up with something original....I would doubt too if I have to upgrade to a higher cfm fart fan.....I want to stick with these Panasonic Whisper Ceiling fans...They are so quiet it's ridiculous...Total stealth which is what I set out to do......They have a lot of different cfm's.....Here's a link if anyone is interested.....

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelList?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&catGroupId=119507&surfModel=FV-15VQ5

I am heading off to work now so I won't be able to do anything till later....I'll try and update in about 12 hours from now.