Air cooled hoods vs. wing reflectors

[HeadGrow]

I'm a soil grower and I'm in the process of designing a new room. The one I have now is 3' x 6' with one 600W above on a light track. I simply use a wing reflector and fans with ventilation combined with my home heat pump to control the temps. In my new room I'd like to go with 4 600W lights in a 5' x 9' space. I'm going back and forth with if i should use air cooled hoods or not. I My main concern is yield reduction. I've heard from others that the glass on the air cooled hoods actually reduces the light intensity to the plants and drops your potential yield down.

Has anyone ever noticed or had issues with using air cooled hoods?

Also, with an air cooled hood system, does it make sense to run separate ventilation and exhaust to the room; or should i just leave it sealed?

Is it probable that i'm going to still need to air condition the room with cooled hoods?

Any insight helps. thanks.

 

[gudkarma]

snell's law dictates you will loose lumens via the refraction of the light on the glass (acting as an interface).

while i am no scientist, i can tell you this much... who gives a fu*k.

lol!

i use a 600w HPS (light mover is next) with an air cooled hood & glass.

imo, excessive heat has to be tons more detrimental to your plants than lumen loss.

plus, if you rock a hortilux bulb (or something that puts out more lumens than the average 600w bulb) you can still drop mad lumens onto your ladies... if the 90,000 lumens from the average 600w bulb isn't enough for your tastes.

i understand optimization & getting the most bang for the buck ...but heat, imo, is a real yeild bummer.

let's say i loose 6% to 9% of my lumens due to the glass interface, and i know for a fact there are theoretical issues with snell's law, i could care less because side lighting is your friend.

like anything just work around it, bro.

if you are still dropping 8000 to 10000 lumens per square foot of grow space... you're in da zone.

with proper intake & exhaust, on the hottest summer day in my detached garage, my 3 (veg & clone & flower) grow space temps rarely (and i mean rarely) get over 87 degrees... which i attribute to the air cooled hood & glass cover.

:afroweed:

 

[Element4NorCal]

Air cooled reflectors hands down!!!

If you really want to get some dense buds you need to have your lights close enough to your plants that you are not losing energy. In order to do this without burning your plants you need to cool your lights enough to have them close.

With a wing reflector you cannot do this. So wing reflectors are good for veg and air cooled reflectors are good for flower since flowering plants need a stronger source of light to produce heavy harvests.

With air cooled you can have an enclosed room with ventilation to cool lights seperate from the actual room ventilation. This will allow for co2 infusion and better temperature and humidity control.

Jay Frost

 

[fractal]

Your plants are not going to lose any significant light energy because of the glass in an aircooled light. And you can get the light closer.

I find it easier to seperate the light cooling ductwork from the room environment ductwork. 2 seperate systems that do not rely on each other, and a smaller AC can handle the room environment once heat from the lights is dealt with. Paying for AC to "fight" the heat generated by your lights is a losing situation, and expensive !

 

[2legit2quite]

In coparison to a wing, Air cooled will allow u to bring the light closer to the plants and hittem with more light, but depending on ur Hood, u might sacrifice coverage. If u use a mover in cunjunction with a wing and maybe a super spreader, ul be able to bring the light within the same distance as a Hood without compromising coverage again depending on the wing. If u have problems with heat, I'd say go air cooled. As for running a seperate intake and exhaust to the hoods, I wouldn't uless ur going seald with co2 and ac.

 

[HeadGrow]

Thanks for all the input. It looks like air cooled is the way to go. Right now with just one 600W I can get the light about 8 inches from the plants since the light is on a light track and has an equalizer (heat diffuser). I just don't know what the difference would be with the addition of 3 more heat sources (lights).

Now i have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to duct 4 moving hoods in series. haha.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know the light footprint of a 600W or 1000W HPS in a wing reflector vs. in a hydrofarm air cooled hood?

 

[TheBioMaster]

I would also like to know the difference of a 600W in wing vs air cooled hood.

Does anyone know if the diffusers work as advertised? It seems you would loose more useing the light spreader would you not?

If the light spreader works well, then that seems like a viable option to let use the wing and get still get closer to the flowering plant?

 

[gudkarma]

i think you'll have an easier time keeping things cool with 4 lights in the larger space.

...you'll just have to have the light exhaust & room exhaust independent form each other.

just for sake of complete coverage, and this is just my opinion, i would rock 4 @ 600w over 3 @ 1000... saving amps & wattage & getting the most bang for your bucks.

~karma

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

I made the mistake of thinking I could step up without venting my hoods.

It makes controlling your environment waaaaaay easier.

The thing is...if you spend your money on vented hoods, you KNOW you won't have to be upgrading in 2 weeks when you realize it they wont work. If you can run them without venting them....whoopee.

If you buy wings, and they dont work.....NOW....you get to go buy vented hoods and find somewhere to store the wings you wasted your money on.

You know vented WILL work.
Wings may.....or not.

How much time and money you wanna spend to find out if wings will work?

Anyway....my 2 cents.

 

[420 Vet]

Great info! I have been doing some research on the adjusta wing from Australia. I haven't done either so I don't know but I'm learning :banana1sv6:

 

[blueberry hill]

vented hoods every time

 

[BluntMazter86]

Hey guys, im not trying to interupt yalls convo but I got a question. Im planning on having a single 1000 watt with air cooled hood. Its going to be in abouta 3x5 grow tent. My question is, are the cheap 6" inline fans(25-40 bucks) good enough for the hood vent, would 2 be better? Or should I get a more expensive high velocity fan. I want it to be sealed so I can do c02 so do you guys think I will have to have a/c. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Great thread!!

 

[billybadazz]

Honestly I think it's better to seal the room and rock some adjusta wings. when you add up all the fans ducting and time for me to run all the ducting etc it just ends up easier for me to buy a mini split and cool the room that way. I run co2 so the sealed room is a must and although this will cost you more out the gate it will pay for it's self in about 8 weeks if you know what I mean. It took me 2.5 hrs to install a 3 ton mini split (size is irrelevent to installation time) and another 2 hrs to hook up drain to waste co2 burner. shit more than compensated themselves(s) first try. what I guess I am relly trying to say is always go bigger than you want in this hobby it will save you from buying the bigger better one in a couple of months!! hope that is some good insight for ya!

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

Honestly I think it's better to seal the room and rock some adjusta wings. when you add up all the fans ducting and time for me to run all the ducting etc it just ends up easier for me to buy a mini split and cool the room that way. I run co2 so the sealed room is a must and although this will cost you more out the gate it will pay for it's self in about 8 weeks if you know what I mean. It took me 2.5 hrs to install a 3 ton mini split (size is irrelevent to installation time) and another 2 hrs to hook up drain to waste co2 burner. shit more than compensated themselves(s) first try. what I guess I am relly trying to say is always go bigger than you want in this hobby it will save you from buying the bigger better one in a couple of months!! hope that is some good insight for ya!

What is a drain to waste CO2 burner?

 

[swizzlegrower]

i use vented light and a split for ac to get lights 6 in away

 

[Bobby Smith]

What is a drain to waste CO2 burner?

Firstly, I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring for AC and adjust-a-wings vs. aircooling lights.

Fuck running all that ducting and those monstrously loud inline fans running all day.

And Buddy, a drain to waste CO2 burner is a Hydrogen - I've got one I'm gonna be installing in a couple of days, but since they stopped making the Hydrogen in a natural gas model I needed to buy the "actual" product and not the Hydrogen re-brand - it's a Marey Tankless Hot Water Heater.

Supposed to remove 86% of the heat produced from your generator, which will help the AC tremendously.
http://www.amazon.com/HydroGen-Water-cooled-CO2-Generator-Valve/dp/B002B8WBNI

 

[Buddy Hemphill]

Firstly, I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring for AC and adjust-a-wings vs. aircooling lights.

Fuck running all that ducting and those monstrously loud inline fans running all day.

And Buddy, a drain to waste CO2 burner is a Hydrogen - I've got one I'm gonna be installing in a couple of days, but since they stopped making the Hydrogen in a natural gas model I needed to buy the "actual" product and not the Hydrogen re-brand - it's a Marey Tankless Hot Water Heater.

Supposed to remove 86% of the heat produced from your generator, which will help the AC tremendously.

http://www.amazon.com/HydroGen-Water-cooled-CO2-Generator-Valve/dp/B002B8WBNI

Not to jack your thread homie...but Bobby, please go on..I am a DIY junkie..

my current dry/cure room filter is a sealed trash can full of pine sol inline with a single hose portable A/C discharge vent..

I think climate plays a huge role in the hood deal. I had parabolics and couldn't cool them with a 4 ton (12 of em) in the dead heat of summer in my climate. I fucking hate having to re-do and REALLY hated forking the xtra cheese for vented hoods. Lotta factors to consider..but you da man on A/C.

 

[420king-MASSES]

i use 2 600 watters in a 3.5 by 7 with econo wings and im able to drop my lights to within 8 inches of canopy during late spring and summer and within 6 inches during the fall winter and early spring i only use 2 fans and my room never goes over 84 degrees i just had this discussion with my brother in law[apprentice] he wanted to drop 410 buks on a hood and light i was like wow you m8ust have money to burn but i will tell you what i told him low budget is the way to go imo theres less equiptment attachments it costs less and your always able to upgrade also if you were to get a bad ass hood my suggestion would be the xxx magnum hood now that seems worth it or the adjust a wing hood

 

[Bobby Smith]

Not to jack your thread homie...but Bobby, please go on..I am a DIY junkie..

my current dry/cure room filter is a sealed trash can full of pine sol inline with a single hose portable A/C discharge vent..

I think climate plays a huge role in the hood deal. I had parabolics and couldn't cool them with a 4 ton (12 of em) in the dead heat of summer in my climate. I fucking hate having to re-do and REALLY hated forking the xtra cheese for vented hoods. Lotta factors to consider..but you da man on A/C.

Truthfully, not a lot to go on about - it is what it is, a tankless hot water heater.

I bought an electric solenoid valve off of eBay for $30 that will control it - hook up the garden hose in my garage to my solenoid (hose will always be on, so the line will be constantly pressurized) and then run tubing from the solenoid to the unit. Run waste hose from the unit to outside.

My solenoid (pictured) will be hooked up to my Sentinel CHHC-1 and be controlled by its CO2 sensor.

The unit is activated by flowing water, so as soon as the solenoid receives power from the Sentinel and opens, water starts flowing through it, it starts heating the water and releasing CO2 as it burns natural gas.

The hot water then takes 86% of the heat produced from burning the natural gas and flows outside, drastically lessening the work my AC has to do.

Of course, this is all in theory as I've yet to hook the unit up - however, lotsa people use Hydrogens and they seem to have fixed the issues that people initially had with them.

I'll have lotsa details about the hookup when I do it in my construction journal sometime this week or early next week AT THE LATEST.

Clock is ticking.

 

[HeadGrow]

No worries about thread jacking, I love all the input and reading peoples different situations.

I'm still on the fence with wings or air cooled hoods. I live in Western Washington, so our temps are pretty mild. I would like to think that i could keep the temps below 85 in the peak of the summer without air-cooled hoods but even right now it can be difficult. If i added an air conditioner i think it would be doable though. So many things to consider. I got my new room halfway built last weekend. So pretty much i got the framework up. I still haven't popped holes in the ceiling yet because i'm still trying to decide which way to go with hoods.

Any insight from other PNW growers would be awesome. How easy is it to keep a room running 4 600W HPS's under 85 degrees without an AC in this climate?

I was looking at the Magnum XXL hoods and they look like a good way to go. I just hate having to run all the duct work if I'm going to have to use an AC anyways later on.

420King, if i may ask; what is your climate like? Your set-up seems very similar to mine right now just with another light. It seems that we both can get our lights to with-in about 8"s from the canopy but you have two lights running. I'm interested to know if you have an intake and exhaust running thru the room or just fans blowing the air around.

Back to designing.