I've been struggling with cooling my temporary "closet" since I've had it. Just when I think I've solved it, something else happens. I have a 400W HPS with two 6-in can fans to move air. One is before the light, after the filter; the other is after the light. They move about 540 cfm together, according to the packaging. This, of course, should be plenty to cool the light, and it is! The light enclosure is actually cool to the touch. However, I'm having a problem with intake and exhaust, I guess. Because no alterations can be made to the house itself, the exhaust is pumped out a self-made "half" door, with a box fan beneath moving air in to the closet. There is also another smaller fan moving air past the plants. The issue is that, due to poor air flow into the main room, outside the closet is getting to 80+ degrees! The AC is on in the house, but for some reason this room doesn't ever get cool. Now my grow closet is reaching temps near 87 sometimes because the main intake is pumping 80 degree air from the outside room. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cool this hell hole?? Outside of the closet. Fan attached to filter before light. Fan after the light, exhausting air out. Ducting leaving closet through "half door". I should add that the closet temps usually match the outside room temps, so the question is more getting cold air into the outer room.
my last apartment grow i taped into the bathroom vents to dump heat exaust i seen all kinds of soulutions from homehade heat exchangers to cooltubes blowing into furnaces somewhere you have fresh air pipe it to your room and find somewhere to exaust the heat old chimney? anything?
Go ahead and run that exhaust another 20 feet or so away from the intake around a corner near a window or your thermostat. Two frozen gallon jugs of ice in front of that box fan will give you about 3 degrees for 6 hours, it's a lot for a little, but it's free. And get rid of that poly, all you are doing there is trapping hot air at the top of your closet. Open door will be better. You should be able to get the air going in to be the same temp as the room. You can also close some of your AC vents in other areas of the house so the attached room gets more AC.
with fans like that he can run ducts anywhere he wants i ran a 1k under 110cfm with 10ft of ductwork its heat buildup that doesent happen outdoors so best place for the heat is outside. why waste power to cool when its free just move the air thats all fresh in hot out or get a cooltube fast simple soulution one can fan on a cooltube and the heats gone makeing ice blocks rather than a duct dont make sence to me but to each thier own and missed it before but carbon filter should be higher than ligt fixture as mentioned before
Things we have already tried: - Closing vents around the house - Blocks of ice - House AC blows into the closet, but isn't strong enough... other tenants won't let it be turned down too low. - Today we had all the fans we could find running on their highest settings... the temperature steadied at about 79 outside, 81 inside. I think the things I'll try are moving the carbon filter up... that makes total sense. I can't run the exhaust too far or exhaust outside also due to other tenants. I'll contemplate a way that I could potentially make that work. I'll try to remove some of the poly as well...
It looks like you intake is on the top too. Switch that around, make your intake on the bottom and put that filter on the top. Ditch the poly so you get some circulation through there. 2 degrees difference outside to inside is pretty damn good actually, tell the other tennants to eat a big old dick and turn it down a few more notches.
What he said^, you want the filter to catch the warmed up air that reaches the top. What's being pushed out of the filter is the cold air while the warm air builds up at the top with nowhere to go.
Buy some of those screw with the circle end, wire, and dryer vent hose. Screw the circle end screws every four feat along the ceiling corner towards the nearest window. Attach the wire to the screws about 3 feet each screw. Start adding dryer vent tube. Route the closet exhaust out the nearest window. Your ac unit will cool up the room. You won't be circulating the same hot air. Just my thoughts
i dont know how much of a issue water is in your area but you could rig up a liquid cool system to your light coper pipe coiled at the top of your light run a low flow of cold water