I'm trying to get my first grow started, still waiting on a couple more materials to finally get going. I'm going to do my first grow with CFLs to get my feet wet, but later I want to use LEDs, for the electricity savings. Problem is I live in Puerto Rico, and the temp in my room is 86 degrees before I turn on my lights to do some testing. My DIY tent measures 2'x2'x40". I'm going to include a picture so that I may get some suggestions as to what else I need to add to try and cool this down. If I can't get my temperature under control, this grow will be doomed before it even starts. Please help me out guys! As you can see in the picture I have 4 40W CFLs in the middle flanked by 2 23W CFLs on the sides for when the girls start getting a little bigger. I have a scrubber up top with a 4" inline fan attached to it, but it's kinda weak, but since I have so little space, I don't see that as much of a problem. Am I missing a couple of holes for exhaust and intake???? Even with the flap open, with the lights on for 5 minutes, the temperature increased to 88 degrees.
Slight update on my progress. I cut out a 4" diameter hole for the exhaust fan and I managed to create some negative pressure inside the tent. So at least that's a plus, now have to work on my intake of cooler ambient air. But right now the air temperature is about 85-87 degrees, but if I can keep the temp inside the tent the same as outside, I can start growing. Any suggestions as to what kinds of fans I can use for the intake side????
I wish I didn't have to grow outside, especially since it'd be another 5 months before harvest. I'm gonna have to seriously consider it though. I'll just build a little pen or a cage so my babies wouldn't get molested. Of course I'd also have to grow all 8 seeds that I have instead of just 2 at a time like I was planning. Running my A/C doesn't help because the humidity drops way down, not to mention it would cost to run over a dollar a day and that's just 8-10 hours.
Indoor growing is not a cheap hobby. I run air conditioning and I'm way north up in Canada. You could try doing a 6" exhaust fan, and 4" intake fan... it might help to cool it just a bit more... but you might just be better off doing it outdoors.
Hey bro, just my bit of advice. If you can't afford $1 a day for your AC bill, you should move your plants outdoors. It's super costly to grow inside and your plants will only suffer with high temp's like that. Hope this helps and you get some amazing buds outside !!
I am almost there with deciding to grow outside, especially since I don't really have choice. I never thought it would be this hard to keep temps down. I'm going to make one more last ditch effort experiment with a frozen bottle inside the tent with the lights, well at least 180W worth anyway and see what happens. But this really sucks, I have spent over $200 on getting started for an indoor grow and I'm this close to scrapping.
Go look at my post and see what I did, I live in Tx and can run 400w in a sealed tent in a closed closet in a closed room with the AC on 70. And anyone who says plants can't grow at higher temps is just wrong, its seedlings and clones that can't stand the high heat. Will your yield suffer? yes. But can something grow? yes. Just think about how damn hot Afghanistan is. There must also be a ratio of heat to humidity. So if temps go up humidity needs to go down to correlate the amount of water that can be taken up as the same. Make sense? But long story short, move the carbon unit out side in a sealed container, add ducting fans until it works. You could also toy with ducting in your air from a cooler room if thats possible. You'll need a cool tube as well.
First off, I got rid of the dinky little fan I thought would work enough to cool my tent, and as soon as a sale I made on eBay clears, I'm going to buy one of those professional looking fans, 190CFM and that draws 113W, which should help out more. Then when I buy that, I'll buy some ducting to connect to a passive intake with air coming in from outside. I'll probably just leave the filter inside the tent because my tent is so small (24"X24"X40") and attach the fan to it so I can exhaust the hot air out. I won't be running a bunch of CFLs either. Just a few around the corners for later when the ladies start growing. And the main light will just be an LED because my grow will only be small, 2-3 plants tops. But of course most important, is to buy the fan from Amazon so I can get free return shipping in case I decide to scrap the indoor grow altogether. Just as long as the temp inside the tent stays the same temp as outside(82-86 degrees) then I'll be able to get started.
You are correct you will be able to grow, but then again you won't be growing the best. Yes the Stan is hot but those plants are made for those climates. Find a plant that grows in super high heats maybe ?
Well, I bought the real 4" inline fan that will suit my needs. I'm going to duct the air through a passive intake which will be attached to an open window with a very good breeze coming in all the time. The ceiling fan will be running pretty much non stop and my dark period should be some time in the late afternoon when it tends to get hottest. I'm probably going to have my dark period be sometime between 5-6pm, depending on how much the temperature increases during the day. I just checked a little while ago and the temp is right around 84 degrees and maybe later on in the afternoon/early evening, it'll reach 86, and that's without the ceiling fan on. As long as the fan does it's thing, I'm not going to worry about anything but money for the LED light.
i run 2x450w leds and my grow rom 60x80cm isnt higer then 27*c. Living in sweden doh were we got like 10-20*c outdoors ^^ LED POWA GROWA! S4 + Taptalk = Stonerific
Must be nice, one of the actual happiest places on earth despite being one of the most remote. I bet even electricity is even cheap there too, hehe.
As for my original temp problem. I help it with a home made a/c blowing cooler air into the tent, two passive intakes, and I run the wall a/c for about an hour or two a day during the last part of the morning when it gets hottest. The highest my tent gets during this hottest part of the day is 86-88, but my Northern Lights are according to most, pretty tough plants and I shouldn't have problems with that. I just wish it would rain more to bring temps down. But hurricane season is fast approaching so you never know.....