For the short version here are my specs and a diagram of what I'm dealing with. This box is currently for one lowryder2 plant. My temps have been in the mid 90's sometimes hotter however I think I can keep it steady at about 94 right below the lights and a steady 86 a few inches above the rim of the pot. The room I have the box in gets warm. I do what I can to keep it cool, I will be adding ac later on when summer temps reach 90-100 but since it wont be run all day I still have to count on the ambient room temperature being about 80 degrees. So my question is will adding one or two of the homemade sugar/yeast 2liter co2 bottles allow me to grow in these conditions? I hear mixed things on how effective it is for co2 enrichment, but could it generate enough co2 to enable my plant to deal with these temps? I tried putting pc fans over the lights and around the box with no luck. For the longer version of why I did what I did in the box see below the pic. The box is 3hx2wx1d. Fan: S&P td-100 97cfm can 2700 filter and homemade silencer intake: a rectangle which is 2in W x 12in H. It has a 1250 rated filter over it Lights: 4 23 actual watt cfls Inside the box is painted white, no mylar The box is sealed pretty well, if I place a piece of paper up to the intake it gets sucked against it heres a quick pic of what im dealing with In order to mount the can filter up high I would have lost about 6 inches of height, plus the lights being below it and taking the pot into account I wouldn't have much room for plant growth. So I decided to have the filter standing up on the bottom left of the floor. I know hot air rises and it should be the reverse but due to the space issues I guess I was thinking since my fan is a bit overkill for a 6 cubic foot grow room it should get all the hot air out with no problem. But as you can see this has not been the case. As mentioned earlier my temps about 3 inches below the lights are around 93-94, and about 5 inches above the rim of the pot its 86. When I add pc fans above the lights (trying to blow that hot air towards the can filter) my temps directly below the lights have hit 100, when adding pc fans below the lights (trying to blow cooler air up) they hit about 97 below the lights. Both placements of pc fans also raised the temp a few inches above the rim of the pot. I was debating whether my intake was big enough, when I took the 1250 filter off of it temps went down by a degree but didn't seem to be enough to warrant leaving my intake unfiltered. I would really prefer not to redo my whole box. What do you think about the co2? Other suggestions are appreciated as well.
Brainstorming with a buddy generated another idea, what if i put basically a wall between the filter and the plant area and cut an opening in the top so the filter would be forced to pull air hot air from the top of the cab only, vs now its probably pulling most of the air from the bottom of the cab where its cooler. Would that help get the hot air out? Or would it just restrict airflow and make it hotter? Thanks.
I had the same problem my lights are mounted on a piece of wood that holds a lot of Cfl's so i drilled some large hole that pulls the air out into two vents that connect into each other. That duct connects to a 6 inch fan at the top of the box with a 4 to 6 inch duct converter. then the filter with is outside the box. I blow the air out the filter. Then i added a 10 inch fan blowing cool air in and but a box around it with a opening so you can't see the light but with enough vents for the fan to pull enough air. My temp use to get over 100 now it is down to 79.
thanks for the input igrwdro, im not so sure I would have room for something like that, however, maybe a wall between my plant area and the filter with a fan at the top pulling hot air from the lights would work in a similar fashion. Still waiting on more input though.
I have been working to cool my closet grow for years. It is the most difficult part of indoor growing. Always pull air in from the lowest point of the grow room/cabinet and exhaust out the highest point. So place your intakes at the base and suck the hot air in from the roof/ceiling. Placing that fan and filter outside your grow room would free up space. You can plumb it into the top of the cabinet via ducting. The answer to this is no. It will do nothing to boost the CO2. It will only add a weird smell. Even tanks of compressed CO2 wont do much for a room that needs to be venting all the time. Home brew makes very little CO2 and is a total waste of time in ideal conditions.
Rumple, thanks for the input. I know what you say is the best way, however I suppose I was trying to avoid it because I thought it would involve a good bit of reconstruction. However, after thinking more about your post and a little inspiration, , I believe I have come up with the perfect solution in theory, and actually has me kind of excited despite that fact it means reconstruction. The filter will be placed in a box in the grow room, which will be sealed along the red lines. The yellow line represents the outer side of the box which will have holes drilled in it so the filtered air can escape. A flange will come through the filter box which my fan will sit on and then the ducting will suck the hot air out. I'll be ditching the silencer because I think pushing the air throguh the filter will silence it enough, if not I guess I will have to figure out a way to utilize the silencer. floor. It sucks ill have to cover up my previous intake and exhaust holes but oh well. One more questions, when pushing air through the can filter, should I leave the prefilter on, or take it off? Thanks.
actually, you should take the filter off the outside, and trim it down so it fits neatly in the inside. careful not to cut more than necessary, as you dont want to leave the carbon partially unfiltered or, you can filter the intake on the duct work....this wont help reduce noise on the fan/filter end, but you need to pre-filter the air before it hits the carbon whether pushing or pulling imo.