how many cfm to cool 4 600's?

im ordering some cool tubes for 4 600 hps lights, and would like to know who you guys that use them set them up. im going to have to use a filter so will that cut my air movment in half? how many cfm should i move?

srryan2 said:

im ordering some cool tubes for 4 600 hps lights, and would like to know who you guys that use them set them up. im going to have to use a filter so will that cut my air movment in half? how many cfm should i move?

Click to expand...

Right now im running 4 X 600W HPS lights.
To cool them i use a 6 inch centrifugal Fan from discount-hydro.com with 8 inch insulated ducting.

And to vent the room I have a 8 inch centrifugal fan with a big ass carbon filter on the end

Heres a few pics to show you...

Also,,, I dont know if you ever ran 4 x 600 Watt lights before,,, But if you havent, make sure you dont go over 12 amps on any electrical line. That means no more then 2 lights per 120V electrical line.
12 amps is safe to run, Any more then that may cause the wires in your walls to degrade, and cause a fire.

The Formula to figure the Amps out is basically Watts divided by Volts.

2 X 600W = 1200W / 120V = 10A

So that means you can put 2 lights, and like one Big fan on One line.

rockstar is the hot air from your lights being filtered or are you pulling fresh air from out side and venting it back outside?

in the day my outside tems are 98 with a heat index of 107 if i pull air from outside will that still be cold enough to cool the 600's down with a 6" fan?

You should not vent hot air directly from outside into your grow area.

Before Air enters your room it should be coming in from your Air Conditioner.
A must have if your outside ambient Air temps are that high.
To have a succesful harvest you have to keep the temps constant.
That means no higher then 85 F, no lower then 65 F.

An Air Conditioner should be cooling the room, and the fan cooling the lights will be drawing air from inside the cooled room, then exited outside.

Also try to have the lights OFF cycle durring the Day at the hottest times. That will save you a little from battling the heat.

i have a 8" fan with carbon filter mounted at the top of my flower room and i also i have a window ac, running the window ac with the 8" fan on does no good unsess the fan if off but than it starts to smell outside with no filtering.

i dont have any fans cooling my lights right now @ 7 feet high the temps are 95F and @ the floor its 85

What do you mean when you say when both Fan/filter and AC are on its "no good"?,,,

Do you mean its still too hot when they both run?

Or ... Do you mean that When they both run, the room cools, but it starts to smells outside?

IF you ment its still to hot Then you need a more powerful AC unit.

If its when they're both on it smells, then your Carbon scrubber or Fan is undersized....


Heres the set up i have, works like a charm... maybe ya can use the info to help.

One AC cooling the room left on about 20 hours a day.

The Tent with the fans and lights in it pulls in the cooled air from the room its in, and exits the air outside the house.

One 8-inch centrifugal Fan mounted to a 40-inch carbon scrubber, hanging at the top inside of my tent, the air being sucked by that is vented Outside the house.

One 6-inch centrifugal Fan Cooling the 4 lights inside the tent, its pulling Air from outside of the tent but inside the room, and the hot air is vented outside the house.

One 16-inch occilating fan moving the Air inside the tent.

Maybe a tent inside your room would make temps a little more managable.
They act as a Heat, and Smell barrier.

A tent would seperate the smell from getting to your AC unit, and keep the smell inside the tent with your Carbon filter. And the fans in the tent would still draw in the cool air from your AC.

Or maybe you just need a Bigger carbon scrubber that can handle very dense oder.
I recommend "Mountain Air" Carbon Filters.

If your AC is cooling the room, its fine,,, but when you use it at the same time as the carbon filter and 8-inch fan, it starts to smell,,,,

To me that indicates your Carbon Filter or Fan is too small... Because the AC is exchanging Air outside at a higher rate then your 8-inch Fan and Filter.

Your 8-inch fan (if working properly) should draw much more air then the AC, So your carbon Scrubber is prob not keeping up with the load.

What is the CFM rating of your 8-inch Fan?
It should be at least 600CFM just for scrubbing the Air.
IF you want to scrub the room of smell, plus remove heat, you will need double the CFM.



If you plan on adding another 6 or 8-inch fan just to cool the lights, the 8-inch fan you have now have with the filter should be fine,

But if you dont plan on cooling the lights with fan as well,
Then you should have at least a 12-inch fan for the whole room.

Also try and Use good Ducting like HydroFarm, and keep the ducting length short as you can.


If you want, Take a few pics of your set up, Maybe I can spot something. Its hard for me to guage the problem with out seeing.

Am I allowed to butt in here?

I also run 4x 600w...

If I am, the first question I am going to ask is:

On a normal Summer day, what is the ambient temperature OUTDOORS?

Then, I would come over here and show you this diagram...

I am sure you know all this... but I have learned that pictures make it easy for me...

If you are looking to have control of the temps in your op... this is the recommended way to install fans and such...

Then I would suggest that each time the air gets blown over a bulb, it heats up... and does not cool down before reaching the next light...

SOooo....

By the time the third bulb gets "cooled", it is being "cooled" with warm air... and although the air current will carry most of the heat away, your glass will start to get warm and eventually hot...

Al B. Fuct suggested that 3 lights daisy chained is really pushing it....

My suggestion to you, especially since you seem to be in hot country, would be to split you lights in 2...

I would run:

outside air >>> 6" 420cfm fan >>> light #1 >>> light #2 >>>> outside world via attic or other room, etc...

Do the same for lights 3 and 4...

You may say overkill, I say it will cut down on your AC bill....

Now...

I'm not even sure I was supposed to butt in like this...

So I will just chill and see if any of what I said sparks a response...

Let me know if you think I can help...

Proper ventilation is the key...

Cold glass allows the plant to TOUCH the reflector and be just fine...

There's also radiators and such that can be installed in between the lights to cool the air... reducing AC usage even further...

ArrOgNt RocKstAR said:

lol
The ambient temperature just means the temperture surrounding you. lol

Click to expand...

I know what it means

I want to know what the temperature is...

GypsyBush said:

I know what it means

I want to know what the temperature is...

Click to expand...

OHHH! HAHA lol

sorry im very stoned and not used to explaining things lol

ill let you take over now lol

I didn't mean to take over...

I believe 2 heads are better than one, as long as we are on the same page...

Cooling an op can only be done so many ways...

I say we team up and help this guy set his op up properly...

Like a ... ummm... what's the word... a community.. that's it...

Where we get together and help each other out...

What do you say?

Oh and do you keep a journal? care to share a link?

Mine is on my sig...

Cheers Bros...

GypsyBush said:

I didn't mean to take over...

I believe 2 heads are better than one, as long as we are on the same page...

Cooling an op can only be done so many ways...

I say we team up and help this guy set his op up properly...

Like a ... ummm... what's the word... a community.. that's it...

Where we get together and help each other out...

What do you say?

Oh and do you keep a journal? care to share a link?

Mine is on my sig...

Cheers Bros...

Click to expand...

OKay, that sounds good to me.

I havent put a journal together yet.

But I'v been taking pictures every other day from the start of my latest grow and documenting on my cell phone. lol

So id like to put everything up sometime this week. Ill share as soon as its up.

ill check yours out tonight

Coolio!!!

and you're not arrogant at all... you actually seem like a pretty cool cat to me...

So, now we need outside temps for srryan2 's world....

GypsyBush said:

Am I allowed to butt in here?

I also run 4x 600w...

If I am, the first question I am going to ask is:

On a normal Summer day, what is the ambient temperature OUTDOORS?

Click to expand...

well today it was 101 F. outside and my grow room is outside in a shed, when i do run the ac it only drops the temps like 5 degrees in my room running 24 hours a day and it starts to smell out side so its just not worth it to run it.

anyways iv order 4 cool tubes and a 6" inline fan it should be here next week in the mean time i have a bunch of plants i will have to throw out cuase there not doing shit.

OK.. you live in hot country...

So you will be using AC for much of the year; right?

You could use a system like user SOG has designed...

It works like the ice box, but is bigger and way more efficient...

Hydro Innovations





So you have the fan, not connected to any ducting, drawing room air into the reflector... as the air exits the reflector, it passes through a radiator filled with cold water, which cools the air enough to turn the AC down or even shut it off sometimes...

There is an initial investment, but the ability to save on AC and help your crops by regulating temps is worth it in my opinion....

Here is SOG's set up...

With the res, the chiller and the radiator...

My Journal - SoG Grow Room Op
(pictures last updated on 6-19-09)
SoG Grow Room Discussion Here
SoG Albums Here








With a set up like that, and no need to exhaust for cooling, you become a prime candidate for a sealed room with CO2...

Run a small carbon filter to minimize some of the smell within the room...

I bet if you do it properly, You will cut down AC usage by 75% or more... saving a shitload in cooling electricity...

And although a chiller is not free... nor the power to run it, cooling water is just way more efficient than cooling air...

And your chiller could also be rigged to cool your res, if you were doing hydro...

This is just one way to do it... but it seems like a good one...

What are your thoughts?

Make sure to hit SOG up for some real world info... he is super cool...

Well, ball's on your court...

There's even a dude I read about in FL that had one for each light, and he was running the whole system off of his swimming pool...

Not cold enough to turn the AC off, but I am sure it helped a TON...