much appreciated, Daniels. I read through the thread, and apparently remote-ballasting cfls doesn't really do much for heat. (seemed to make sense to me)
Author: "Turns out it may not help out much with heat. I checked the temp and it seems that almost all the heat comes from the bulb itself. The ballast remained at about 80 degrees while the bulb climbed to 180 degrees."
As of this point, if I add any filters to my system (which will be essential), I will be running way too hot. I've decided not to use filters for flowering, and just throw them into the flowering chamber when they start to smell.
My problems come down to the fact that my cabinet is in the back side of a poorly insulated room (opposite side of door + window), which is in a relatively warm/sometimes hot climate. When its hot outside, its hot in the room, when its cold outside, its cold in the room. I knew this problem from the start, but I thought I'd be able to solve it with a lot of ventilation. I don't have much choice because I'm renting this room, and my modifications can only be minimal and non-permanent. The stealth problem is that all intake and exhaust must be on the back side of the cabinet, facing the wall (about a 3-4 inch gap).
The room ambient temp rarely gets over 80˚F, so my idea was to hold ambient temps inside by using a cool-tube like device, which, in this case of the metal box, doesn't work as well as planned.
The flowering room has the same area, but twice as tall (and directly underneath). I'm thinking of using to a 150W HPS in a cool tube with a remote ballast outside, instead of my 2700K cfls (just use them for mixed-spectrum vegging).
I'll be researching other small grows with similar temp/stealth issues, so if anyone knows of one, I'd like to hear about it, THx.
