improving my spot

[BongToker]

whats up farmers,
i just need a bit of advise so please chime in... i got my 2x2 tent working out for me pritty good with a 250 burning but laitly ive really been itching to upgrade my light... my ventilation is pritty good, i have alll the neccesary gear to cool more watts, a powerfull 6inch fan for exhaust and intake and nice sun system hood... the only problem is my tent sits at 80 degrees... can my tent not handle the heat thrown of by a 400 or a 600... let me kno what you guys think...

 

[cacamal]

whats up farmers,
i just need a bit of advise so please chime in... i got my 2x2 tent working out for me pritty good with a 250 burning but laitly ive really been itching to upgrade my light... my ventilation is pritty good, i have alll the neccesary gear to cool more watts, a powerfull 6inch fan for exhaust and intake and nice sun system hood... the only problem is my tent sits at 80 degrees... can my tent not handle the heat thrown of by a 400 or a 600... let me kno what you guys think...

if it is at 80 with a 250 I wouldnt add a 400 or 600 unless you are willing to open it every light time and throw an osc fan in front of it.

 

[BongToker]

will it really be way harder to get a 400 coold?, ifeel almost no heat coming off my 250..

 

[TrichromeFan]

I built a closet system for a friend that was 2' x 2.5' lit by a 430hps, and we had no problems. The light was cooled by a 465cfm squirrel cage fan hooked up to 4" tubing. The closet also had a AC vent, that we made, and tied into the house AC. We just set the house thermostat for mid 70's. The grow temp would be no more than low 80's. The closet would yield 1/2 - 3/4 lb.

I say go for it. As long as your room is cool w/ AC for intake to your tent you are good. :character0050:

 

[BongToker]

NICE,thanks for the info my man, now i just gotta figure out how im going to rig the AC into my tent.

 

[TrichromeFan]

Does the room that your tent is in have a window mount AC, or is it hooked up to a central AC for the house/apartment?

 

[BongToker]

its a central air setup..

 

[TrichromeFan]

More questions:
What kind of temps does your room run that the tent is in?
How cool is it in relation to your tent temps?
Do you vent your tent exhaust outside, or into the room?

Central air is a bit tricky to manipulate. I have built a system that had dampers in the attic, and a thermostat in the grow that would trigger the house AC, while shutting off the other vents that feed the rest of the house. Do you have the knowledge on that kind of stuff to hook it up?

 

[BongToker]

dam man i kno these are the issues im facing but its going to be real hard to work around them, im all the way in the back corner of my big closet and theres no windows or attic to exhaust into even ducting into another room might be hard.. so that being said im exhausting into the same room that the intake is sucking into my tent explaining the same temperature in the tent and outside.....

the only things i can see working with are a small central air vent in the closet(maybe i can rig my intake fan to) and an exhausting fan located in the bathroom just next to the closet(maybe i can rig the exhaust to..) i dont kno my man... let me kno if you got any ideas... the one you riggd sound very sweet but a bit to complicatd for me.. very sweet tho

 

[TrichromeFan]

Is your setup in an apartment or house?
Do you rent or own?

These factors have some impact on what you can or want to modify to achieve better temps.
You really need to vent that exhaust out of your room (so you're not drawing in the same warm air), unless you invest in a dedicated air conditioner for your room.
I always thought of airflow in and out as one of the foundations of a successful grow. Cutting a hole through the ceiling and/or roof was a normal thing for me, renting or not. I would have to deal with the repairs later.
You could rig your air intake to that vent. The winter months won't be the best for that (heater on), but the summer would be fine. At the least, it will suck air from other rooms that are a bit cooler, even when the a/c is off.
If the closet is that big, you could always divide the room with a wall that has an a/c unit, and a door to enter the grow side of the divider.
You could also use one of the light hood chillers. The one that I have seen is called a hydro innovations ice box. They have like a radiator system that hooks up to a fan to cool the air coming off your light hoods. You have to have an extra water tank with a chiller, but it will also get the temps down some more. Sorry I didn't think of that before. Check it out.

 

[BongToker]

that ice box is really cool man, i had no idea about these things.. thanks for bring to my attention... so im in a rentd house and have always tryd to keep my set ups simple as possible... you have alot of good ideas my man, i figure as of right now ill work with what i have and duct my 4" inline fan onto that AC vent.. i figure this gets rid of that recirculating that same air problem, and will get some actual fresh air in there.. plus i tend to keep my house pretty cool anyways so this might actually work out for me.... ill keep you postd man

 

[BongToker]

so does this sounds about right, i conectd the ducting from my AC vent to a 4 inch fan and then into the bottom of the tent, my 6 inch fan i have hookd up to the air coold hood and my temperatures have droppd about 5 degrees from 80 to 75.......

 

[TrichromeFan]

Well, 5 degrees drop is definitely a big improvement. Is there any way to increase the size of the intake to the grow? It sounds like you are using 4" in and 6" out. If the in is equal or greater than the out, it should help cool even more.

 

[BongToker]

alright so if i where to switch my fans around, using the 4 inch to cool the hood/exhaust and the 6 inch for the AC intake.. you think it will run cooler and more efficient my man??

 

[BongToker]

or what if instead of having one side of my hood open as exhaust, i just duct the open side of the hood to the outside of the tent.. so it doesnt take any air from in the tent but the AC is still just pumping in from the 4 inch fan.. will this be no good cause theres no way to exhaust, or can i just open a vent up and passivly exhaust?? just klet me kno what youthink....

 

[BongToker]

am i looking for postive pressure from the intake/AC?

 

[TrichromeFan]

Alright, The first thing. I would think that just with the 4" fan on the duct from the A/C to the tent you should feel good airflow coming out of that duct so far. As I said, I always try to make the air inlet the same or greater than what the exhaust is. That doesn't necessarily mean that I would want to use the 4" for exhaust instead.
How are you hooking up to the a/c vent right now?
Did you make some sort of adaptor plate?
Have you tried removing the vent grill to look inside?
I have done an air in/out through one of those openings on a smaller setup, where people don't want to cut walls or ceilings. You would have to remove the cover. Look inside to make sure that the duct is not a rigid metal duct. You are looking for a flexible duct hopefully. If so, you can make a piece of wood with 2 holes (for the largest ducts possible) that will take the place of the old grill. At that point if it is, you can go to home depot and get a reducing collar to size the tubing of the duct a size or two down: IE: 8" to 6" or 4" duct. Then you can run the sized down duct tubing through the piece of wood that you make as a plate to take the place of the old grill. The other hole will go to your tent exhaust fan outlet duct. That way, you have fresh air in, and your hot & smelly air goes into the rafters of the house. Sound possible?

 

[BongToker]

this is pretty much the exact set up i did, i didnt bother with the exhausting out of the room because i have a carbon filter... but the a/c is blockd and ductd to the 4inch tubing to the 4" intake fan pumping fresh air from the house into the tent.... but as of right now the tent runs with negative pressure because the exhaust fan is way more powerful than the intake... should i go ahead and duct the stronger fan thats cooling the hood,,to outside the tent so its not exhausting the tent at all.. then just leave the weaker fan pumping the a/c into the tent but now with positive pressure and just let that a/c air passively vent out of a duct at the top??

 

[TrichromeFan]

I think that the exhausting out the hot air from the room is the most important part. The carbon filter is to knock out smells only. You still want to get that hot air away, so it doesn't heat up the ambient temps of the tent, or get drawn back in. How big is that AC vent? Does your tent have the ability to use a 6" duct for an air intake? Even if it didn't have a fan on the intake, a 6" duct would be better. I gotta think that would cut down on your negative pressure. Definitely don't stop using the bigger fan. I actually only use 1 fan for all ventilation, using 6" ducting. If I was using CO2 then I would have to go to 2 fans. Right now, I'm keepin it simple. I even have it turned down, as it is cold outside now. My airflow starts from my carbon filter mounted in the chamber, into the light hood, out of there through the roof of the chamber, connects to my fan, then a few feet to an outside vent. Check out the pics in the intake fan/filter post of my ducting.

 

[BongToker]

ya, so 4" ducting that the vent will allow so right now i pretty much am exhausting the air from the hood into the same room, but i have done my best in sealing up every little hole in my tent, the only air going in is throughj my AC, the only air coming out is through my hood..