So i just bought this cabinet from lowes for about 75 dollars. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=228730-444-WS24MP1&lpage=none I want to turn it into a perpetual sog, spliting it into a mother/clone area, and a flower area. I will be using cfl's for the flower area, and cfl's for mothers, maybe eventually switching to floro's. How many cfm's would i need to exhaust the cab using a diy scrubber? I also am not sure, can i exhaust the entire cab from one big exhaust at the top, or does both mother/clone area and flower area each need its own intake and exhaust? Thanks for the help GC!!!!
That particular cabinet seems way too small to do both a mom and flowering chamber. Can you explain a little more detail, are the chambers going to be side by side? or stacked on top of eachother? As far CFM, you'll want to exchange the air in your cabinet at least once every few minutes. Since the cabinet is so small, this shouldn't be hard. That cabinet is about 17.5 cubic feet. So you can get away with a pretty small fan, even a 100 cfm fan would exchange the air almost 5 times every single minute. Pulling through a carbon scrubber will reduce a fans efficiency, but only slightly. You can use 1 fan for both chambers as long as the chambers are connected. Exchanging the air will help you control temperatures as well, so if temps become a problem, u can always add another fan.
Thanks for the help donetodeath! I was planning on making about the top 24 inches for the mother/clone area, leaving about 46 inches of height to flower with in the bottom. I can make my own shelves if needed. I think i will fun some type of ducting/vent to connect the chambers so i can use only one exhaust fan. I will definalty get a fan that is an overkill just to be safe.
it sounds like you will have plenty of room since the cabinet is so tall. will you be putting rooted clones straight into flower or giving them some veg time? about the fan, it all depends on how powerful a fan you plan on using. with computer fans i would suggest maybe using passive intakes on the bottom of the flower chamber and exhausting out the top with 1-2 fans depending on how many cfls you use. if you plan on getting a vortex type fan you could probably manage the whole cabinet with one main exhaust, especially since you won't be using HID and the cabinet isn't very confined. to give you an idea, i cool a 2ftx3ftx2.5ft veg chamber with 200 watts of fluorescents using one 12v computer fan. on the other hand, i use a 6inch vortex running full blast to cool 600 watts of HID in a 2ftx3ftx4ft flowering chamber. both sections have an average temperature of just over 80f
So i have a small change of plans, i have to make one of the shelves permenant to make the whole cab more stable. I have decided to use the top to flower in, with 3ft of height. I plan to put them straight into flower when they root, unless i have room to let them veg a week or two and still finish within my height restrictions. I was going to order two fans from the surplus website link i put in my other post. I was going to get a 200cfm fan like this: http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2008090916215286&item=16-1039&catname= and use it for my exhaust in the flower area, and then use my current 80cfm inline duct fan for my exhaust in the mother area. I was going to make passive intakes in both the flower area and the mother area, using some type of darkroom louver or my current pvc ones on my other box. If you guys dont think that my 8- cfm inline will work for an exhaust, i am willing to get another fan from the same site or the same fan and use it for the exhaust. I would like to flower under at least 200 watts of cfl's maybe more, still have to setup the lighting and we'll see what i end up doing. The mother will be under about 150 watts of cfl's-only have two mothers. I plan to buy some good indica seeds something like nirvana's NL and Auroura and possibly Chrystal(NLxWW) and maybe some hindu kush. Still have to decide on that. Thanks for all the help everyone. Keep the idea/advice coming.
So this morning i worked on my cab for a few minutes and got the entire inside painted flat white, and i also caulked all the edges to seal out the light, and to help keep it air tight. I might also but weather stripping around the door, and flower area to keep it light proof. I just have to go buy more weather stripping...just too lazy right now lol. I plan to order my fans on monday, because i will be out of town for the next few days partying in vegas. Once i get the fans, it should come together fast. The lighting wont take too long, i am going to hook up a power strip or two to a 2x4 and plug the lights into that with an adapter. Oh also have to buy some small hooks to hang it from. Cant wait to get back and finish this! Any more suggestions? Help a first time grower out lol! Sorry this is so long and rambling, im once again blazed!