Help with deciding on scrapping my tent! Heat issues!

Hey folks!

I just got a cheap 120x120x200 tent with lumatek 600w ballast and open shade with a 100mm 175cfm RVK fan and PHAT 200cfm 100mm filter. The fan works out at replacing the air once every minute but I do have to take into account the ducting and filter reducing the flow, I know that but still, how do I manage the temps with passive as I see many others managing fine with same equipment I have.

I have the filter hanging in the top of the tent then connected to ducting leaving the tent and then going to the fan which is heavily wrapped in loft insulation in a box to dampen the noise a bit which works good enough for me to reduce noise. Then It exits on a short straight bit of ducting into the same room.

The intake is passive, but the intake vent does not seem to pull as much air as the exit of the ducting blows which leads me to believe that the tent has lots of leaks meaning it may be pulling in from the top ( warmer intake? ).

I am having mega heat issues with this setup. I would consider upgrading to a larger exit fan and then putting the 100mm one on the intake taking air from below my floorboards. I have about a 2-3 foot gap under the floorboards and the temps down there are very rarely above 16c.

But the issue with that is noise as the tent is merely half a meter from my bed and the extra noise will mean restless nights.

I could just scrap the tent idea if no one can come up with any reasonable solutions to keep the tent where it is without increasing the noise too much...

I have thought about scrapping the tent to build an enclosed area up the loft but the temps up there are crazy during the day which means I would still have to get some fresh air from the coldest part of the house which is under the floorboards. I live in a bungalow so I would only have to go down 1 level via a closet to get the cold air up. But where would I vent the hot air from the groom? Into the loft itself or should it go into a closet below the loft or outside? And would venting be any cause for concern with the eye in the sky as it would constantly be venting out hot air even on hot days when heating should not be used so that may draw attention from the infra red spies in the sky...

I know I am rambling on but I am at my wit's end. I have forked out a lot of money so far and I am on a low income atm and have not even got anywhere near ready to put anything in it.

There is a problem with the loft also, there is horizontal beams running across the loft every 50ish cm that are 1m from the floor of the loft. I could build a box around the beams but they may cause problems blocking light? or interfering with the plants growth? I can supply pictures if necessary, if any builders see this reply please as I would like to know if I could remove 2 of them to place the tent there as larger fans are a possibility up the loft.

If anyone could help point me in the right direction as my head is in overdrive trying to think what to do.

I am in no desperate hurry to get plants in it, but I am rather impatient and would like it setup and tested for at least a few days to monitor how well I can control the environment.

By the way, temps in the tent reach 45c at times but the lowest I have managed to get them is 35c with only passive intake. I am trying to shield the temp probe but even when I put my hand through the zip I can feel how uncomfortable the heat is in there.

I know I am going to be told I already know the answers but I may have missed something so I am asking for your advice.

Thanks.

Issue number 1.
You're venting straight into the room with the tent in it. You are heating up the ambient air and then recirculating it back into the tent.

Issue number 2.
IMO your fan is nowhere near powerful enough. I use the rvk150E2-a1 480m3/h with my open reflector 400w. Through all this heat my closet has only reached 29C.

Resolution.
Duct your hot air into the attic. My own attic is well ventilated with soffit vents and under felt vents. Used this way for 4yrs. Upgrade your fan to the 150mm RVK. however though with a fan upgrade then requires a filter upgrade.

Initially start by ducting your hot air into the attic using your current fan and see how that drops temps.

If temps don't drop to where you want them consider a fan/filter upgrade or AC.




J

Ok thanks. Yeah I see your point of venting into the same room. Would this be an issue if the test was only carried out for less than 1 hour just until temps stabilized?

I am going to get some flanges and a hole saw and get that vent put up the loft, I have just had a brainwave that if I vent it up the loft I can also put the fan up there so if I do require an upgrade the extra noise will be lessened by putting it up the loft. Just the swooshing of the air flow which I can sleep through ( used to fall asleep with my noisy laptop next to me all the time and slept through that lol ).

I have thought that if I were to get a 150mm fan and then get acoustic ducting I can lower noise further, BUT my tent just has 150mm outlets and acoustic ducting's outer diameter is larger than 150mm. Are these tents easy enough to sow by hand to replace the vent with a larger custom on? Or is that just being stupid trying to alter the material?

What size of closet are you running your 430m3/hour fan in?

I have just noticed my fan is not 175 "CFM" but 175m3/hour. Which replaces the air 60 times per hour for my tent. That is what you are supposed to aim for, but I know that I need more. What size should I go for? Should I go overkill and get a fan controller so that I will never have issues or is that too much for my tent?

Some say to get a fan rated above the carbon filter due the the filter taking 20% from the flow, plus the amount of ducting also. Should I go for that rule or get one equally rated for a filter?

Questions questions questions and I haven't even started growing yet lol

yeah what he said is pretty spot on, you venting you air right back into the ambient air outside is not going to help your heat issues. Unless you have an AC outside running pretty cold so your intake air is like 60 degrees your going to be stuck with high temps. Having a larger intake fan would definitely help you out. Or getting a cool tube setup for your lamp would help a bit. This is one of the main reasons i went the LED route after combating massively high temps with my HPS. You can always sell your HPS and go LED although at this point thats probably not a reality. I'd recommend Jondamon says, upgrade your fan/carbon filter, add in an A/C, or get a cool tube type hood, and run your ventilation into an attic, or out a window. Anywhere but into the space your using to bring cool air back into the tent.

heres a good recommendation for a fan/carbon filter combo
http://www.virtualsunhydroponics.com/agricultural/products/VS400F-SET.asp?CAWELAID=1544825742&cagpspn=pla&"cagpspn=pla"&gclid=CO2d0Jr51bgCFe9aMgodZmYAuA

cool tube bare bones hood
http://www.virtualsunhydroponics.com/Agricultural/products/VSGC6000.asp?rt=2

Ok well I have looked for a 4" fan to replace the one I have but at a higher rate of air flow. I would like to go for a higher size ducting but the tent restricts me to 150mm outlets and I would like to put on acoustic ducting which I have just found out has a 25mm layer of insulation, so double that for both sides of the duct and 100mm becomes 150mm which would be a snug fit in the vent on my tent.

Is this fan any good for a 4" ducting?

The KSA-100 4" Acoustic Box Fan with Temp Speed Control


I cant find anything on youtube about it to check for loudness reports. Would this thing hum due to the temp speed control or should it be quiet as possible due to the price tag? £153.76 ($236)


It would take a while to save for that but I don't want to spend any more money on crap like I stupidly already have...

I do also aim to get a coolshade in the near future but its all money money money lol

The amount I have spent is starting to scare the other half but it is an investment that will return much more than I put into it due to the lower costs of getting my bud

just curious, would it be possible to get a 6 or 8" fan and put a "reducer" on it to have the higher CFM while still being able to fit to your vents?

If you think that's a good idea then I would be all for it but I have read that using a reducer may reduce the fans life by restricting the flow and overheating the fan? Fire is not something I would like to happen. But if I am wrong, someone please correct me!

your probably quite right in that aspect actually, would need a fan speed controller when doing that just to make sure you didnt overload the fan which is what would surely happen when you reduced it down. Good thinking. Without pics I dont know exactly what your setup is but i did realize your tent is fairly large. Honestly what i would do is definitely buy a cool tube type hood if you dont already. This is really going to help reduce the temps to atleast close (+5?) the temp of your ambient intake air.

Yeah I have done my research! My head is overflowing with info, been on this forum day after day for about the past month researching. I have been a regular visitor to the site for a few years but not with the intention of growing up until recently.

I will go take a few pics of the setup to show you what it looks like.

I am wandering if acoustic ducting 125mm stuff will fit through a 150mm "sock shaped" exit on the tent, as the insulation is 25mm thick so that makes 2 walls of 25mm thick making total of 175mm outer diameter.

I am going to take a trip to a grow shop when I have some money to spend on the setup, I got a new grow shop a few miles from me but they let me down big time with a big order and just build up my paranoia levels greatly so I have a good one about 40 miles from me that is quite clued up but I will only go there when I actually have the money to spend.

Right a few pics, back soon.

Pics of my tent.

Found a setting on my camera for white balance that makes it look like I have a MH bulb in there but it is a HPS and it is an orange glow believe it or not... as you will see for the first pic looking into the entry vent hole.

Don't laugh at my hammer!! LOL It is balancing the light for the mean time till I get a better weight or a better hanger for the light as it wants to shoot up when I have little weight on that side.

yeah you know what bro, i really really think you could significantly lower your temps just by purchasing a cool tube style hood like the one i posted above, this is a cheaper alternative and you can hook it up to your current setup without any more purchases. Just run duct from filter to the hood, duct from the hood back out to the fan. Then all you need to do is make sure from your fan vents either outside of the room the fresh air is coming in from like Jon suggested, or you run some a/c in that room to keep the temps down. This alone is going to bring your temps down at a lower cost simply because the cool air running through the light is going to vent all that heat off and keep the bulb much cooler, instantly dropping your temps.

ok would you recommend a cooltube or a coolshade, the shades are only 20 bucks more than the cooltube and i have heard mixed reviews about the tube one, the light spread is supposedly not that great due to the small reflector on them.

have u used a cooltube as i do like the fact they are lighter and can be used horizontal and vertical if the need ever arises.

i have looked for some fittings to attach to my floor or roof for fitting some ducting to and they are only a few quid to get them so i will see about venting outside that room to save on heat buildup. temps in my house right now are 23c and its 3.46am, thats with windows open and no heating. I live in north UK, its usually cold here but this house is insulated like i dont know what... theres layer upon layer of the stuff up my attic.

I gave you rep for your helpful replies!! Thanks for all the info, its really helped settle my mind a bit.

My friend used a cooltube in his setup and it worked great, he did have to run a small A/C to keep the ambient temps for the intake around 70f but that made his grow room 75f max. I'd probably use a cool shade style setup if i needed to because like you said its going to spread the light a bit better. But the cooltube did work and he had very successful grows. Either way you go, your going to see a huge improvement in your temps if you make that change. Plus its going to be a fairly cheaper route to take since money is somewhat of an issue. Just remember venting the exhaust into another area of the house or out of a window is going to help alot as well since you will keep your incoming air to stay cooler

Ok well I think I have got all the info I need to take it from here. I may manage to get a cooltube this week and see how that goes, if that does not work I will just put all the equipment away till I can afford to upgrade the extractor and filter to a higher rated flow.

First I will vent the air up to my attic as I have a vent hole above the tent that can be changed over to a round flange to take the ducting.

I suppose it will just be trial and error till I am fully happy with the setup then it will be time to go get some seeds

One thing I'd like to say is that I am impressed with the level of help that I can get on this site, I would be lost without it!!

Hey no problem, i want to see anyone who's going to grow to be successful at it. I know it took me good while to get going with a small personal setup for myself through trial and error and this place helped ALOT. I really think your going to see significant results once your cooling your lighting as well as venting it into the attic. Let us know what kind of results you get once you have it setup and running

I sure will let you know, I will post on this thread. I plan to do a grow journal so that I have help along the way with the grow when it actually starts.

I have grown in the past with a pathetic setup using bagseed in a closet without any ventilation and using miracle grow nutes and I was really shocked at how much I managed to pull with a 250w dual spectrum bulb for the whole grow.

But this time I want to do every thing perfectly with the right equipment. But anyway, I gotta be up early in the morning so thanks again and good night.

I have the same tent and the outlet sleeves are crappy and narrow.
Apart from a cooltube you could be on the lookout for a fan speed controller so your extractor will idle until the heat reaches a certain temperature then the hot air is removed.
I have a 6" inch and my insulated ducted ducting is only 5" so a reduction of one inch is not going to harm the fan.
Is your Lumatek a dimmable ballast, if so you could use lower wattage bulbs for the earlier stages of the plants life thus creating less heat.
Also if you mount your fan directly to the filter it would reduce the noise the flow of air makes.
Fair play you have done your homework and good luck.

Hey fr3d12, never noticed your reply. The notification email must have gotten lost lol

Yeah the tent's ventilation is very poor and I did attempt to return the tent due to the fact that it is not 100% lightproof like the advert stated but they basically called me a liar and said it is light proof so I would have to pay for return postage. But I will make do with it as I have purchased a Cooltube and am posting my results as I said I would.

So, I have run the bulb in the tent inside the 150mm Ecotechnics Cooltube for around an hour now and the temp has stabilized at 28.0c, with the probe around 75cm in direct light, although when I have the door open for a few mins the temp drops a few points to about 27.7c which is telling me that I could do with a bit colder intake or I need to un-tape the ventilation flaps which I covered due to the fact I was going to take cold air from below floorboards.

I have put a hole up above the tent into my attic so all hot air is now leaving the room that the tent is in. I have still to get a hole through to under the floorboards for cold intake but that requires a bit of planning as I need it to be easily closed up for times that I am not growing.

I know the temp is still about 4c above the perfect temp but once I get some cold air from under the floorboards I believe that the temps will drop even further as the temps down there are usually around 16c even if it is a hot day outside!

I have ordered 10 reg Durban Poison seeds from Sea of Seeds which should arrive tomorrow or Monday as they were dispatched this morning according to the email I got. Durban Poison is a pure sativa so I believe that they can handle the higher temps. Will 28c be a touch on the hot side even for a sativa or do I need to do more work to get the temps down?

I just have to say that the Cooltube is my best purchase for the setup so far. I have read that the glass is supposedly cool enough to touch when the bulb is on but no way would I touch that glass with the heat radiating it as it seems rather hot but still a great deal cooler than it was. It feels comfortable at around 20cm from the tube.

And fr3d12 yeah my Lumatek ballast is dimmable but I only have the 600w dual spectrum Lumatek bulb at the moment, I aim to get a 400w MH & HPS bulb for emergencies if the temps rocket up but I will have to do with the one I have for now.

When I feel ready to start a crop I will post a link to my journal here so you can follow if you like.

chemtrailsrbad said:

Hey fr3d12, never noticed your reply. The notification email must have gotten lost lol

Yeah the tent's ventilation is very poor and I did attempt to return the tent due to the fact that it is not 100% lightproof like the advert stated but they basically called me a liar and said it is light proof so I would have to pay for return postage. But I will make do with it as I have purchased a Cooltube and am posting my results as I said I would.

So, I have run the bulb in the tent inside the 150mm Ecotechnics Cooltube for around an hour now and the temp has stabilized at 28.0c, with the probe around 75cm in direct light, although when I have the door open for a few mins the temp drops a few points to about 27.7c which is telling me that I could do with a bit colder intake or I need to un-tape the ventilation flaps which I covered due to the fact I was going to take cold air from below floorboards.

I have put a hole up above the tent into my attic so all hot air is now leaving the room that the tent is in. I have still to get a hole through to under the floorboards for cold intake but that requires a bit of planning as I need it to be easily closed up for times that I am not growing.

I know the temp is still about 4c above the perfect temp but once I get some cold air from under the floorboards I believe that the temps will drop even further as the temps down there are usually around 16c even if it is a hot day outside!

I have ordered 10 reg Durban Poison seeds from Sea of Seeds which should arrive tomorrow or Monday as they were dispatched this morning according to the email I got. Durban Poison is a pure sativa so I believe that they can handle the higher temps. Will 28c be a touch on the hot side even for a sativa or do I need to do more work to get the temps down?

I just have to say that the Cooltube is my best purchase for the setup so far. I have read that the glass is supposedly cool enough to touch when the bulb is on but no way would I touch that glass with the heat radiating it as it seems rather hot but still a great deal cooler than it was. It feels comfortable at around 20cm from the tube.

And fr3d12 yeah my Lumatek ballast is dimmable but I only have the 600w dual spectrum Lumatek bulb at the moment, I aim to get a 400w MH & HPS bulb for emergencies if the temps rocket up but I will have to do with the one I have for now.

When I feel ready to start a crop I will post a link to my journal here so you can follow if you like.

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in following your journal for sure.
Ideal temps for MJ are probably between 24-29 so if so could keep it at 28 with plenty of air flow you should be ok.
To keep temps down you could use a few cfl's during the seedling stage and after a week or so use a smaller wattage HPS or MH for another while before breaking out the 600w.
The tent like mine isn't 100% lightproof, there are pin holes at the stitiching and on mine the passive intake flaps aren't big enough, what I did was buy some velcro tape on ebay, I think it was 3 quid and that works well at keeping it secure, the pin holes at the stitiching shouldn't affect you much anyway.
Have you thought of using a couple of small computer fans for intake, I use one of them and it works well along with the passives, you can get them small enough to fit into one of the sleeves.
Even if you intake air from under the house you could still leave the flaps open.

Hey I hadn't thought about using pc fans for intake. I know pc fans are generally looked down upon for venting grow areas but I suppose if I have good extraction a pc fan for intake would at least increase the flow of air going in, not by much, but it's an increase none the less.

I had thought about velcro to help close the flaps a bit but wouldn't that decrease the airflow on them? I have a tailor shop nearby where I could get some velcro cheap as chips so I will at least try it out. Thanks for the tip.

Well as it has gotten later on into the night the temp has now dropped to 26.5 and is staying there so I am satisfied that if I run the light during the night I can maintain a good environment for it. Temps in there during the day are 20 so that's a diff of around 6 degrees which does me just perfectly.

Just gotta wait for my seeds to come then get them germ'd and watch them babies grow!