How's this cab design look?

[Hawk]

Two separate airflow circuits.

The green line is for cooling the ballast and hood only. The hood is sealed so no filtration is needed there (although I might add a simple carbon filter element for extra odor protection and dust filtration).

The blue and red lines are the other airflow circuit. The size and exact location of the cab intakes and in-cab air flow ports are not determined. The diagram is just a rough representation of the general pattern of flow. The upper left port feeding the scrubber box would actually be a tube extending to the top of the flower chamber to pull air from up there.

Here's an alternate arrangement that swaps the location of the scrubber box and the ballast box. Maybe this is better/simpler? It would be easier to pull air from the top of the flower chamber this way.

The general idea is to remove as much heat as possible (light and ballast). I received one suggestion of having the veg box exhaust into the flower box instead of directly into the scrubber box. This might create a more circular pattern of air flow. My reservation about that is I didn't want heat from the veg box to add to the flower box. I'm considering incorporating both ideas---> Drawing most of the veg exhaust into the flower box but leave one small exhaust at the top of the veg chamber leading directly into the scrubber box.



Comments?

 

[FullMetalJacket]

Nice, I actually like the first design man on the very top..

I disagree with circular airflow if you can avoid it. It is harder to control each compartment independently with circular air flow. With your set-up you can add/remove/cover intakes and "exhausts" in to the carbon filter chamber to control temps humidity.

Definitely wouldnt be gaining any thing by filtering your hood exhause if you are sure it is sealed. I would reather filter the intake. Doesnt have to be a good filter just something to keep the dirt out. May want to filter the intakes if you can. Make sure you carbon exhauset is trong enough though to bring air through passive intakes with filters. I love floor intakes..so much simpler...

 

[Hawk]

Thanks for commenting. I think I'm going to move forward and start building as soon as I'm able.

 

[P@ssw0rd]

Hawk i must ask, Will this cab be for hydro use only, because if you plan to grow in soil/containers the floor intakes may be a problem. Just a thought.

P@ssw0rd

 

[Hawk]

Maybe hydro at some point--but soil for now.

What issue are you envisioning? Intakes taking up space that could otherwise be used for pots? I was thinking if the intakes are at the edges of the floor it wouldn't be much of an issue.

Do you see a simple alternative?

 

[Hawk]

Nice, I actually like the first design man on the very top...

Any particular reason you like the first design more?

 

[FullMetalJacket]

Any particular reason you like the first design more?

Just simpler, not into those tubes through ballast chamber. How deep is your cabinet? Couldn't you keep the ballast on the same level as the carbon scrubber? Or have the ballat area "behind" the scrubber? What about mounting tha ballast remotely?

I do agree that it would be nice to get the heat from the very top of the flower, i would just find another way to do it than image two...

 

[Hawk]

The cab is a not-quite-as-deep-as-I'd-like 22". No two foot flouros in the veg box (damn!). I hadn't thought about combining the scrubber and ballast boxes. Hmmm. If I turned those two chambers into one larger chamber I guess a few things would happen.

--The hood vent would intake straight out of the cab without detouring through a separate chamber. If I wanted to modify the setup down the road and use some of that airflow for something else (like additional flower box venting) it might be easier since it wouldn't already be tied up with the ballast. I've already considered doing something like that with a "T" between the hood and the ballast chamber but then I'd need another fully functional scrubber.

--Ballast cooling might be reduced. Airflow going over the ballast would likely be more diffuse if that flow was shared with the scrubber. Hard to gauge the impact there. With a pc fan on my 250w Lumatek it probably would cool the same as the original idea. But what if I've got a 400w magnetic that doesn't lend itself to having a pc fan bolted on? Then I might want the more concentrated airflow of the hood vent circuit.

I dunno. It's easier for me to justify all the work I've but into using two exhaust fans if I spread out their duties. In other words, one fan for the hood and ballast; one fan for exhausting and scrubbing the rest of the space. Maybe that's not logical though. Also, there's something about compartmentalizing everything that appeals to me. Whether that's wise or not I'm not sure but it's the way I lean.



I could also do something like this diagram--make the ballast area a box within the larger box of the scrubber area.

That would allow air from the top of the veg chamber easier access to the scrubber. It would be harder to build like that but I can envision how I'd do it. It would just be a question of framing the ballast chamber. Also, the door or doors to the chambers would need some thought.


Thanks for facilitating this design excercise. I'm tempted to build the damn thing with simple 1" x 1" framing, cardboard, and duct tape so I can test it in action before building for real.

 

[Hawk]

Not sure if I addressed your points.

I don't want the ballast remote. I want its heat sucked out of not only the cab but the room. Not that any ballast I might use creates all that much heat but I've already got a few things that put extra heat in the room and I'm counting degrees.

I don't think I've got enough space to have the ballast and scrubber chambers side-by-side. They'll have to be stacked or some sort of hybrid stack like that last diagram.

For-and-aft chambers I probably don't have the depth for. Plus access might be problematic.

thanks