HELP! 1st Grow - Heating problems!

Hello everyone, this is my first post and first grow that I'm working on. I've been lurking the forums for about 3-4 years, and attempted a few grows before, but something always came up and I had to ditch my plants for personal or legal reasons. This time though, I'm going super stealth and hoping nothing goes wrong!

I've got a nice big case that I've stripped out and lined with reflective material. I've got some seeds germing just to give a little test, and I'm about to order some feminized Papaya strain seeds from Nirvana Shop. It's actually the same case sold by "Mr. Grow Pro" but luckily I had it laying around and didn't have to pay $279 for it!

Anyways, I sorta wish I hadn't been cheap and had just suffered a little while longer to save up enough spare cash to buy Mr. Grow Pro's premade case, but live and learn, right?

My main issue now is my lighting! I've got four (4) 6500k 26w CFLs in the case. The CFLs are powered via adapters hooked to a surge protector/powerstrip type deal, which I unfortunately had to hot glue/tape to the wall (big mistake). I wanted to get some magnets and use it like that so I could adjust it, but I couldn't find any strong enough at any local stores

As of the moment, I don't have any fans set up in the case, although I do have fans to set up (I don't know how to set them up to run without a PSU from a computer), so as you can expect temperatures are running a little high. By a little high, I mean 110°+, which melted the hot glue and dropped the entire powerstrip shattering four good bulbs!

I need some insight on how to lower the temperatures in my case, will the 2 fans (one intake one exhaust) be enough to drop me to a 70-85 range or will I need to do something else? Anyone have any ideas how to mount this damned powerstrip to enable verticle movement without magnets, and last but not least are there any other ways to cool this project of mine? I'm on a shoestring budget (I'm willing to steal stuff, so long as it's from Walmart, as I hate those bastards -_-) and this is -SUPER STEALTH-.

Thanks everyone, and have a good one!

-Pistol Panda

Humidity/Temp Monitor


Lights out w/o Side Panel


Lights on w/o Side Panel


Side Panel


Closed w/ Lights on

Forgot to mention it above, so I'll mention it here, with the side panel off, the top of the case gets hot but the temperature remains around 77-80°, yet if I put the side on it spikes to 111° within 20 minutes. I need the side panel to keep this stealth though =/ plus, I need to sleep, and light fucks with me.

You need ventilation, go grab some 80mm fans and a 12V adapter.

What's the make/model of that case?

With a couple pc fans wired up to an old cell phone charger your temps should be fine. Ive got 6 cfl's in a pc case and my temps never go above 85.

@electronug:
I've got two (2) 120mm fans that I can hook up, but I'm not sure how to hook them up to a 12V adapter. This is probably because I don't know what it is, I'm not good with electrical wiring, I usually end up with burnt fingertips and heart problems when I attempt, but nonetheless I will head down to Radio Shack tomorrow and see about picking one up.

The case is a Chenming 901a if I recall correctly. Do you think two 120mm fans will be enough ventilation, or will I need more? I only have two spots for fans on the case, one in one out as the spot for the fan in the front is sealed up, and exposing it would leak a lot of light. I plan on building a DIY carbon filter over the fans to prevent light leaking and to help with the odor.

@paperplanesmoker
How do I wire them up to an old cell phone charger?

Its very simple bro, just use the red and black wires on the fan, black for the negative and red for the positive. Its fool proof Because the fan will not turn on if its wired the wrong way. Also make sure the old charger is 12v DC

@paperplanesmoker
Thank man, I'll have to try that out, just strip 'em and twist 'em I guess. +rep for such a simple solution!

No problem and happy growing

You can't put both fans at the back, you need to create circulation.

Just looks at the Mr. Grow Pro case and see how he sets them up.

electronug said:

You can't put both fans at the back, you need to create circulation.

Just looks at the Mr. Grow Pro case and see how he sets them up.

Click to expand...

Yeah I would have to agree with you on fan placement. I have one fan up top and one in the back towards the bottom.

electronug said:

You can't put both fans at the back, you need to create circulation.

Just looks at the Mr. Grow Pro case and see how he sets them up.

Click to expand...

what are you talking about man?? ive built plenty of PC cases with both fans on the same wall and everything worked out just fine... installing fans on opposite sides of the box is certainly a good idea for better circulation.. but it CAN be done with no problems...

I'll see about clearing up a third spot up front for a fan, but I don't know how I'm gunna manage it without leaking light. I'll try though. Can I wire all of these fans onto the same 12V adaptor, or will they run slower that way?

pistolpanda said:

I'll see about clearing up a third spot up front for a fan, but I don't know how I'm gunna manage it without leaking light. I'll try though. Can I wire all of these fans onto the same 12V adaptor, or will they run slower that way?

Click to expand...

they will run a little bit slower, yes.. the more fans you connect to one adaptor- the less power will run to each fan.. if you cant afford that then hook the extra fan up to a seperate adaptor.

Do you think 2-3 of these puppies on one (1) 12V adapter will be okay?

the fans will run , but they wont push as much air in/out of box .. if heat is an issue than i would consider just adding a second adaptor.. its all up to you bro they will work just will run a bit slower thats all

Okay, thanks Oswald, +rep and I'll be sure to get 2-3 adaptors up. I'll just bundle all the cables and run them out with my powerstrip.

lee harvey said:

what are you talking about man?? ive built plenty of PC cases with both fans on the same wall and everything worked out just fine... installing fans on opposite sides of the box is certainly a good idea for better circulation.. but it CAN be done with no problems...

Click to expand...

Highly inefficient.

pistolpanda said:

I'll see about clearing up a third spot up front for a fan, but I don't know how I'm gunna manage it without leaking light. I'll try though. Can I wire all of these fans onto the same 12V adaptor, or will they run slower that way?

Click to expand...

lee harvey said:

they will run a little bit slower, yes.. the more fans you connect to one adaptor- the less power will run to each fan.. if you cant afford that then hook the extra fan up to a seperate adaptor.

Click to expand...

See if you can tunnel the intake up the front of the chassis, effectively acting as a light trap. Aluminum tape it your friend.

Don't bother with multiple adapters, just buy one GOOD adapter that can handle the load.

Here's a 12V 2A AC adapter with a DC terminal adapter.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/110748123220?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

pistolpanda said:

Do you think 2-3 of these puppies on one (1) 12V adapter will be okay?

Click to expand...

Those are fine, provided you utilize cross ventilation or, at the very least, passive intake.

Also, overloading an AC adapter with fans is a good way to kill the AC and/or fans... Just FYI.

The AC will run hot and may burn out the windings.

paperplanesmoker said:

Its very simple bro, just use the red and black wires on the fan, black for the negative and red for the positive. Its fool proof Because the fan will not turn on if its wired the wrong way. Also make sure the old charger is 12v DC

Click to expand...

you don't want a full 12v will make the fans hum i use a 9v bb charger works great also i herd 12v will burn the fan motor if you leave it 24/7
I've noticed the fans run way to fast with a 12v charger i guess because when there in a pc there controlled by the motherboard

I'll be sure to use a heavy duty AC adapter, as blowing out my fans would pretty much shut my grow down. As for the tunneled intake, that's what I figured I would do. It's gunna be a pain to keep this thing looking and sounding like a PC.

@stealth grow 11
I'm using a 12V right now, and my fans are running really slow, but I'm fairly certain that's because they are garbage. I can watch them spin =/ they're very old, have seen years of use and have lots of dust in them that I have not yet removed.