whatsup grasscity, first time grower here. been smokin for a long time, but the way the economy has turned, I have decided to start growing myself for the first time. This is going to be a 300w HPS grow (dual 150w) and i'm going to give the scrog technique a go. Well I have been working on the cab in my spare time for the past few weeks now, and is no where near completion. However, I am running into some serious design decisions and need some help! So first, let me run down what I'm doing. I'm going to be building a small cabinet (roughly ~4ft x 1.8ft x 3ft) I will give exact dimensions later. But basically it is going to be the 3-chamber design with a flowering room, veg/mother room, and a utility room. I will be installing two 150w HPS lights in the flowering room, and currently have 4 14w floros in the mother room now. Defiantly going to be adding more light to that room, but we'll get to that later. Here is a picture of the entire dresser. Im sure many of you are familiar with the design, I got the idea from other grows SORRY FOR SHITTY QUALITY: Heres a picture of the veg room....i'm going to be adding a few more lgihts in here and the extension cords with not be exposed once the cabinet is final: heres a better picture of the flowering room....this is where my two 150w HPS lights are going to be coming out. Not sure whether to go with those 69.99$ 150w vented hoods "plug n play" things like from HPS supply or to build two cooltubes here and run some ductwork. Thats an issue we will be facing later too Im no where near done, so no worries on the slopiness. I will be cleaning tiding a lot of things up and painting a 1-2 more coats of the white. Heres a picture of the utility room above the veg room: I'll be posting some more info and be asking a lot of questions, just wanted to go ahead and get this up. excited to finally get this thing rollin!
Like I said, don't mind the slopiness. There will defiantly be a thorough cleaning of this thing and adding a few more coats of white
So my first question is this: What should I do about the light situation? I am torn between two choices, so im trying to get some help. One of the things om thinking of doing is just throwing two of these in there: HTG Supply - FLORALUX 150w HPS Mini Grow Light They are compact (which is definatly a plus) and a pretty good bulb (16,000 lumens). Comes ready to go, and do difficult wiring. My other thought is to run 4" duct from those ports and connecting a cooltube to the end of the duct ( duct wouldn;t be more than 2-2.5' long) and hanging the cooltube over the center of the flower room. I'd leave the other end open and use it as my exhaust too. (if that makes since) So what are you guys opinions? Whats the best way to get 2 150w HPS in there?
Very good job so far on the NGB cabinet my brother. I will subscribe and follow. Also I would go for 2x 150w HPS if you have the space and venting options.
Thanks man. Yeah I'm doing the two 150w HPS but i'm not sure how to go about doing it. Thats what i was talkin about in that other post. Anyone think the vented hood would be fine for this box? Or would it be worth it to build a cooltube? The exact square footage of the flower room is 2.58ft x 1.9ft x 3ft.
It would be more worth it to build a good cool tube. Or you can buy a pre built one if you are DIY savvy, which it looks like you are. If it was me I would get a bake around pyrex tube to make the custom cool tube, it takes up minimum spacing. Also I would consider hooking up the cool tube to pull cool air from outside the cab, and T split the exhaust to keep the temps down, instead of pulling all your air from your cool tube setup. It only knocks down about like 5 degrees depending on your room temperature but those 5 degrees count sometimes.
I mean have your exhaust split to your cool tubes, and your cabinet. Unless you are using 2 fans, which would be more beneficial. I was under the impression that you would be running 1 exhaust fan and passive intake.
Well I have decided I really just want the pre-assembled hood. I was thinking if I just went with those vented hoods then one exhaust fan (heavy duty, inline fan(hooked to a carbon scrubber). Kind of like this: HTG Supply - GrowBright 4" High Velocity Inline Fan Don't you think this fan would be enough to vent this cab? Even if its connected to a scrubber? Then maybe put small fans in those ports, helping pull air from the hood/cab?
Yes that would be very efficient. Only thing is I am worried about you venting air from the cooled hood, it kind of diminishes the "cool" part. It's only going to really be sucking hot air from the hot room making the room still hot. It could still work, but your room will be slightly hotter then if it was pulling it's own cool air from outside of the cab. Only way I see the room being cooler if you strategically place a decent amount of passive air holes.
Well there will be a few holes in the bottom of the flower room...but the "hot" air from the lamp is immediately getting removed if a fans hooked up to it right? I mean as long as i've got a few passive holes in the bottom, and fans getting that hot air right our of there, it should be fine right?
Yes, but the room is only going to be as cool as the room your box is in. If your room is 80 then your box will probably be around 82-85. which can be hell in summer unless you get a ac unit. or you will be seeing 100 degrees in your box.
Temp in my room outside of box would never get hotter than 85 degrees. So i think you've helped me figure out my light/ventilation man. I'm going to get one of those heavy duty inline fan from HTG that i linked earlier and put it in my utility room in the back corner. The exhaust will pull air from those open ports and exhaust it out of the side. The 110cfm fan should be enough to vent this room, as long as there are plenty of passive intakes. If it isn't enough, I have the option to add a cheap computer fan for an intake. I can also add some small, cheap inline fans to put in those ports connecting to the hoods.
Should be more then enough, just remember, a ac unit can be very detrimental in the spring/summer time, depending on where you live, I got one and if I see temps going above 83 I set the ac on and let that baby do it's magic.
Anybody have any ideas on the best way to go about closing up the back of this thing? Should I build a door opening the veg room and build a door opening the flower room? Maybe material on the back, and just heavy duty velcro it shut (like the grow-tents) Just trying to figure out the easiest way to go about doing this, I just feel like two big doors on the back is not a good idea....
some people like to separate the 2 rooms then put up velcro doors for each room, fast, easy and efficient.
Is there material for this? Something that is lightproof and insulates well? I was just going to build a door for the veg room, then velcro material to close up the big flower room. So my question is what type of material is typically used for this? I looked around Lowe's last night looking, but didnt see anything.
They have adhesive velcro at Lowes/Home Depot. You could always put it on the door, and also get some black tarp for the open door space if the door isn't completely light proof.