so need help completing my grow room. my problem is that i need a good way to block out all light while controling temp and ventilation. I took the door off the closet, and hung a sheet for the time being. I thought the door would make it too hard to control the temp and all ventilation....here are a few pics of my grow room its about 3'w x 2.5"d x 8"h, but has a shelf that about 5"7" high from the floor. I plan on running a 400watt hps/mh light, and was going to use cheap fans to help cool the room. I was thinking of putting a fan or two near the bottom blowing upward, and a few hanging blowing air out toward the top. Any help is great! Thanks! pics: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/238184-richirich_99-s-first-grow-bagseed.html
What I did with my setup was to use cardboard lined with heavy duty black garbage bags. This will help to cut down on light, and it's easy to cut through if you need ventilation holes. As for how to ventilate it, your only options are to cut through the walls in the closet or build light traps to cover the holes you cut in whatever you put up to light proof the door.
agreed^^^^ if its on the 1st floor & u have a crawl space under the house u can cut a hole in the floor & mount a fan for intake and exhaust threw the ceiling into the attic or over top the door blowing back into the room if theres a will theres away but just sticking fans in there with no intake and exhaust = a maryjane oven if theres no way u can cut holes u need a stand alone a/c unit which is 200-400 $$
another way to do it if you cant vent into a roofspace or get air from below is to put the door back on, have a baffled intake at the botton of the door and an extractor fan connected to a vent at the top of the door. just leave enough spare ducting so the door can be opened. not very stealthy but prob more discrete than a sheet! you would still have to control the temp of the room the cupboard is in though. 400w in a cupboard with no extraction would roast a turkey, let alone your plants
90 degree bends on any fan cuts light out and computer fans fit dam nice on 90 degree bent 4 inch pvc tubing
would this help enough to cool that room if i hooked up near the top blowing heat out of an exhaust hole? http://cgi.ebay.com/4-INCH-CENTRIFU...VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247 my other idea was using the diy ac that i've seen with a fan and copper tubing and a bucket or cooler of ice water. my last resort is to send back my 400watt hps/mh and get something much smaller that wont put out nearly as much heat. if i do that i get a credit at hydroempire and could buy a few other accessories that are needed. As for the door, i think im going to try the cardboard and cut intake and exhaust holes in it that way. I really dont want to have to buy a ac unit if they cost 200-400 dollars.
I really don't think that a single 4'' fan is going to cut it in a closet with a 400w hps/mh light in it. You'll need a larger or more fans, as well as enough air intakes to get a constant airflow that will cycle the hot air out fast enough to lower the closet's temperature. As for a DIY air conditioner like you described, that doesn't sound like it'd do enough to reduce the temp to a workable level, especially since the big light would melt the ice pretty fast. Plus, you'd have to keep replacing the ice and emptying the bucket, which sounds like a huge hassle. I'd say buy a couple of cheap desktop fans at a store, and then you can try your light for a day or two without any plants, and see where the temperature is. Then, if it's still too hot, you may have to change your light type.
so here is what i did. I put up cardboard which worked really good. I put just my one fan in there with the mh light and closed the door to see what the temp would get to, with no plants of course. So with it closed and on, after about an hour the temp was at 92F. So i plan to put up about 4 or 5 small fans with an exhaust at the top and an intake at the bottom of the door. My next question is how do i go about making something like these aluminum elbows not let any light in while allowing airflow? thanks guys!
those elbows are machine made & can be found at a/c supply houses for cheap a few bucks a peice sh6t maybe try homedepot or llowes
i bought those two already, but what im trying to figure out is how to make the light now go through the from the outside of the room into the grow room while still allowing for ventilation....any help on how to make these work?
ok get some sheetmetal snips and cut sum V shape outta one end till it looks like this VVVVVVVV all the way around then cut ur holes & flang them in & duct tape around the inside then turn lights on in room go in closet see if it leaks in if it does u need a short peice of pipe on the end
so i dont completly understand...so i cut one end so it is vvvvv all the way around, then cut a hole in the cardboard and duct tape it in the hole....i dont understand how cutting v's around will stop the light from coming thru??? and do i put the end with the v's on the inside or outside or the grow room door (cardboard)?
ok that makes sense, but what about light coming thru the inside of the elbow tube? thats my biggest concern.
well then u could take two of those eblows screw them together in a S shape &light will not pass threw
so i tried that really quickly and it didnt work completly so what i did was when i put the vent at the bottom of the door for an intake, i pointed the outside one downward like an inch two off the ground, and covered it with black construction paper and made little holes in the paper to allow air in, and with the other vent on the inside pointed downward also, hardly any light gets in....if i have to i could do the same with the paper on the other end...is this a bad idea or will it work and allow enough air flow? now just to figure out the top exhaust....may try the same or look for something else at lowes that would work.
at lowes with the a/c stuff they sell flex duct in a box 25ft for like 15$ it comes in 4,6 & 8 inch round u could mount it to ur fan put a few turns in it and light will not go threw the inner liner is black
thats a good idea, thanks for all the great help! you rock! lol I'll take a trip to lowes and see how much it is, im on a tight budget right now. as long as i get it all set up in about a week and a half i'll be good to go when i turn on the mh light.