Best Lights and other advice for Height/ventalation limitations

R

Researcher1984

Member
I have been doing a lot of reading a lot and am working on a plan. Looking for a bit of insight. Any advice is welcome.

It loos like HPS light outfits tend to get the best results, but I am not sure my available space will allow for HPS b/c of height/ventilation restrictions.

With a 4' wide x 6' deep x 4' height area and no chance of putting a vent to outside, is a CFL plan using LST the way to go b/c of the height restriction?

Any tips for utilizing my space would be appreciated.

Also, I own my house but still dont want my house to reek all over. What kind of odor should I be expecting? I have look at the carbon filter stuff, but without a vent I dont know how it would work. Could I just hook a can up to a dryer tube and have it blow air through one of the DIY filters suggested on the filter post? Could an internal filter like that be expected to limit odor?

Finally, what kind of power consumption spike are we talking about here? Assume for example 400 watts of light, fan, and internal carbon filter?

Thanks in advance.
 
DoeEyed

DoeEyed

Well-Known Member
You could put a 400w in there. Vent into another room - I do it with 2 400w, and 4 600w. One of those, plus a few fans, shouldn't cost you more than about $40 USD a month, depending on the cost of electricity where you live, and how many hours you run for.
 
R

Researcher1984

Member
The space is kind of a long cubby hole under the stairs. I can have the fan blow outward, but I cant really cut into the wall.

Any other thoughts on the 4 foot height limitation and lights other than CFL? Possible?

Comments re: odor on /# of poss. plants in a 4wx6dx4h space? I would need to have space to crawl in still.
Thanks,
 
S

speeka

Well-Known Member
That room is too small for a 400w even with good ventilation you will have temp problems.... also & more importantly, venting into another room in your house will cause condensation in the winter months when the temps outdoors dip below 10c approx! \This condensation will go through timber like you wont believe & you wont see it happening unless you are really lucky. Not to mention the condensation on anything electrical.
Finally... If you don't use a proper carbon filter then you will smell it, or more likely your neighbors will & you wont, because you are living with it daily.

Back to the drawing board im afraid, but you must vent outside.
 
DoeEyed

DoeEyed

Well-Known Member
Ummm - my lights are vented into a bedroom, why on earth would that affect my roof, exactly? The extra heat isn't any different than running a heater.
 
darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
also & more importantly, venting into another room in your house will cause condensation in the winter months when the temps outdoors dip below 10c approx!

really? lol, i dont see how venting the air into another room will cause water to condense on stuff and rot the wood......
 
S

speeka

Well-Known Member
DoeEyed said:
Ummm - my lights are vented into a bedroom, why on earth would that affect my roof, exactly? The extra heat isn't any different than running a heater.
Click to expand...
Really? Your heater's give out stale humidity laden air do they? "Ummm"?:clap:



When venting to the other room, if the other room is colder than 10c, as it will be in winter, (unless you keep the heating on 24/7) then the air in the room is too cold to hold on to the water within the warm stale air entering it. That water has to go somewhere.

Relative humidity increases with cold air.

:roll: I learned that the hard way, one of my past grow room's was in a room within the garage which is not heated, was venting inside the garage, thinking it would give me a nice early warning on my filter which was on it's final days. When the filter gave out, the inside of the garage will let me notice it before the outside world does. Which was all fine & well until the temps dipped below 10c & one day whilst mixing up some nutes i noticed it was raining... inside of the garage!
I looked up at the ceiling & there were droplets forming all over the ceiling & falling as they were getting too heavy. On closer inspection i noticed, that the ceiling beams were getting soaked in the same way & some were actually half way through wet.
So i vented back outdoors again pronto....A few days later all was well with the condensation but my roof beams had a thin layer of mold all over the half that was wet! I spent the next 2 weeks treating every single beam with wood rot treatment. As far as i know it's still standing, but had there been carpet on the floor i may not have noticed the "rain" falling & it could have been too late.
 
L

lucid1

Member
With your height limitations you may want to consider a T5HO system. You can have your plants within inches whereas the 400 HPS will need to be about 12" away. Also the height of a T5HO fixture is much less than a conventional HID lamp.

Another nice benefit of T5HO system is the 6 and 8 bulbs fixtures allow you to turn half the bulbs off which is perfect during most of the vegetation cycle for lower temps for the first half of your grow.

I have an 8 lamp T5HO system in a 4x3x5 closet. With ambient temps around 65F the closet still doesn't get warmer than around 75F. I open the closet up several times a day so that may be helping keep the temp down. The humidity does however get into the mid 50s...
 
DoeEyed

DoeEyed

Well-Known Member
speeka said:
Really? Your heater's give out stale humidity laden air do they? "Ummm"?:clap:



When venting to the other room, if the other room is colder than 10c, as it will be in winter, (unless you keep the heating on 24/7) then the air in the room is too cold to hold on to the water within the warm stale air entering it. That water has to go somewhere.

Relative humidity increases with cold air.

:roll: I learned that the hard way, one of my past grow room's was in a room within the garage which is not heated, was venting inside the garage, thinking it would give me a nice early warning on my filter which was on it's final days. When the filter gave out, the inside of the garage will let me notice it before the outside world does. Which was all fine & well until the temps dipped below 10c & one day whilst mixing up some nutes i noticed it was raining... inside of the garage!
I looked up at the ceiling & there were droplets forming all over the ceiling & falling as they were getting too heavy. On closer inspection i noticed, that the ceiling beams were getting soaked in the same way & some were actually half way through wet.
So i vented back outdoors again pronto....A few days later all was well with the condensation but my roof beams had a thin layer of mold all over the half that was wet! I spent the next 2 weeks treating every single beam with wood rot treatment. As far as i know it's still standing, but had there been carpet on the floor i may not have noticed the "rain" falling & it could have been too late.
Click to expand...
First of all, growing in an unheated garage is a far cry from a room in one's home. Why in the world would I have a bedroom in my home at that cold of a tempurature? 10C is only 50F - that's waaay too cold for a grow in the first place, which is probably why you ran into problems. Second, how do you imagine that the air is stale? Plants exhaust oxygen - that makes the air fresh, as far as we are concerned. And the air in my growroom is at a lower humidity than the rest of my house - if yours was that high, again, no wonder you had a problem.
 
JeffersonBud

JeffersonBud

Active Member
Why not try liquid cooled lighting?

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/fresca-sol-water-cooled-light-system-p-2680.html

Small res. footprint!
http://www.horticulturesource.com/48-gallon-stand-up-reservoir-p4518/

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/magdrive-350-gph-submersible-water-pump-p-241.html

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/cap-inline-water-filter-p-2305.html

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/12-inch-id-blue-vinyl-tubing-100ftroll-p-2297.html

Optional
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/fresca-sol-magnum-reflector-p-2682.html

Or use vertical. The stand up res can be inside the tent and has a very small footprint. Put the 400w or 600w bulb in there. put the pump in the res. and connect the tubing from the pump to the fresca sol. Then from the fresca sol to back to the res. Add h2o2 @ 1 cup. in the light res.

seal the room, and make sure you use co2.


This is a closed loop water cooled light. It will grab the heat from your bulb like a liquid cooled computer chills its microprocessors. Since the room is sealed, no smell. Use Ona gel if it get too stinky the last few weeks. Water cooling is no more expensive then air cooling. It is also cheaper to operate. Just make sure you use co2 when the room is sealed. Get a 20lb bottle. It should last a few grows in that space!
 
S

speeka

Well-Known Member
DoeEyed said:
First of all, growing in an unheated garage is a far cry from a room in one's home. Why in the world would I have a bedroom in my home at that cold of a tempurature? 10C is only 50F - that's waaay too cold for a grow in the first place, which is probably why you ran into problems. Second, how do you imagine that the air is stale? Plants exhaust oxygen - that makes the air fresh, as far as we are concerned. And the air in my growroom is at a lower humidity than the rest of my house - if yours was that high, again, no wonder you had a problem.
Click to expand...
You misunderstand, my grow room was heated & insulated, located in an unheated garage.
Wow was trying to help, but you are obviously at the wrong time of the month or something. Sorry about that, Plants exhale oxygen at night too do they? :clap:Perhaps you live in the tropics or heat your house even when your not at home.
 
DoeEyed

DoeEyed

Well-Known Member
speeka said:
You misunderstand, my grow room was heated & insulated, located in an unheated garage.
Wow was trying to help, but you are obviously at the wrong time of the month or something. Sorry about that, Plants exhale oxygen at night too do they? :clap:Perhaps you live in the tropics or heat your house even when your not at home.
Click to expand...
Nice - a personal attack based on my gender, because we don't agree. Way to go.:clap:

A good portion of indoor growers vent into their house - and you would be hard pressed to find a bunch that have had it rain indoors, because that requires the wrong environment for plants, to make it happen in the first place. Good luck with that.
 
R

Researcher1984

Member
i am figuring on using some kind of cfl set up. No more than 3-4 plants.

Exhaust is my main concern. If I keep the air moving around inside the area will I be ok? Also wondering about the stink. Any ideas?
 
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