150w hps - no glass, no vents, built in ballast.... help!

I'm building my first cab and I have a few questions.

I scored a free 150w sunsystem HPS from a buddy, however, it doesn't have a pane of glass, nor is it vented. On top of that, it has a built in ballast.

My cabinet is 30" x 18" x 5 ft. (The light measures 23" x 15" at the base).

Considering it's a 150 and the canopy penetration is basicailly nil, I'm going to be using Uncle Ben's topping technique combined with a scrog for a flat canopy to get the absolute most that I can out of two plants (which are in 12" pots, about 8" deep). I really, really need to get this ventilation/light cooling set up soon, I imagine they'll be going into flower in three or four weeks.

How can I possibly cool this really crappy hood with a built in ballast? I really don't want to sacrifice any vertical height as I'm only going to have about 36" of total grow height available.

My concern lies with the carbon scrubber - I know most people go FILTER > HPS > FAN > VENT ... but I don't have a closed system with this hood. It's basically a giant metal housing hanging from the top of my cab. If I mount the light as close to one side as possible, I have 6" of space between the housing and the other side of the cab.

From what I understand, it is less effective to scrub hot air than cold, and it is also more effective to pull air through a scrubber than push it. I'm finding it hard to accomodate these facts in this cab.

Any ideas how I can scrub this effectively as well as keep things cool?

hey man, go buy 2 11w CFLs, ,way better and NO heat troubles.

bar said:

hey man, go buy 2 11w CFLs, ,way better and NO heat troubles.

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right because thats so much better. go take your dinky 1000lumens and enjoy your popcorn nugs. do u even read peoples threads or do u just go around RIU being an utter assclown? no one cares about you an your inexperienced opinion so piss off.

Now back to the OP. I know it's ideal to go Filter-light-fan-vent, but if you have to by-pass the light because it's impractical; thats just how shit goes brother. Filter-fan-vent is fine as long as you keep the in/out high enough, dont forget works better if exhaust is at the top because hot air rises, and bring the new are in through the bottm to get a good airflow. if you need to, angle a fan so it blows right across the light towards where your filter/exhaust is (just a cheap$10 desk fan) Hope this ramble helped in some way

bar said:

hey man, go buy 2 11w CFLs, ,way better and NO heat troubles.

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HAHA wtf? You're right about no more heat troubles, but 22w of CFL? No yield either! That will keep the plant alive but you're going to end up with less than a gram of poofy bud.

Certainly you jest? If not, worst advice ever. Is there a way to slam someone with a negative rep?

invest in new lite that isnt enuff or could go with cfls but it takes to long ,,good light is the most important aspect of it all an ur not giveing ur self much room to work with either ,scrubers start losing its strength at about 80 to 85 degrees with high humidity , an pulling it in is the best way to go

To begin with there is now way that 22 watts of CFl is better than 150 watt HPS, absolutely wrong information there.
Secondly IMHO , a 150 watt HPS is fine for 2 plants, sure a 400 watt would be better, but he has a 150...you could keep things on the cheap and augment the HPS w/ some CFL's for side lighting.

I think most people know to just ignore the stupid posts, you can get pretty good at spotting the smart people posting in here

-On your grow man, i have a 150w hps with no glass, i just got a piece of plexi-glass at home depot for like 10 bucks and cut it to fit all but an INCH of open space over the reflector.. then put my 4 inch exhaust line (with inline fan) right into the side of the reflector. Plus a fan going over the light. Works kinda like a ghetto cool tube.

My plants are at 5 weeks flower right now and they can get to under 1 inch from the glass without burning.

I'll take pic as soon as the light comes on.. it is NOT built in ballast (its remote) but i bet you could do the same thing.. its about 85F at 1 inch from the glass.

Box dimensions are 37"x17"x13"

bar said:

hey man, go buy 2 11w CFLs, ,way better and NO heat troubles.

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Yeah that's great advice for someone that's started a thread for opinions on a HPS system he ALREADY has. Not that 2 x 11w CFLs will much use except for maybe getting seedlings a few inches tall and keeping them warm.

Tweezy what are temperatures in the cab with the light on? I've got a 250w MH running in a similar grow space (2.5' x 3.5') and temps are being kept around 75-85 (I know, slightly hotter than I'd want) with a single 20mm fan blowing cooler air into the grow.

would a 150 watt hps with 2 125watt cfls and 4 42watt (mixed light cfls) be good enough for 6 plant or more?

where oh where can i find one of these sun systems under 80 with shipping, heres the tricky part, in canada haha i hear good things about htg buuut they dont ship here..