lumens vs heat

i have an air cooled 600w hps in a 3x3 tent. It is a digital ballast that i have kept on the 50% setting thru veg with temps about 75. If i use the 75% setting my temps are about 80 and at 100% about 85 degrees. I am a week into flowering on 75% setting with temps at 80, should i go full 600w and raise the temps to 85. Or would i be better at 50% percent with temps around 75? thank you for reading this, hope to hear some input.

you need to set that fukcer to 100% and quite destroying your bulb, but other than that you need a bigger fan, or more fans pulling air out no other option really, your best bet for now, would be to swap some cooler lights in if you have them, if not just continue to run at 50% power.

All else equal, go for max light. 85 degrees is not so high, esp. for a heat-tolerant plant like Cannabis. A friend gets results at sometimes over a hundred degrees, low humidity, no supplemental CO2. Jmo. cn

I live in an apartment building with paper thin walls. And as i dont live in a medical state, i have to keep my 4" vortex turned all the way down with a speed controller. I have done all i can about quiteing the fan, its the end of the duct where the air rushes out that i cannot silence. any ideas

Kandy, OG, OG18, Cannalope Kushes one week into 12/12

Humidity plays a factor ,i find my plants can tolerate much higher temps with very low humidity

My flood tables are light via 3 600 HPS per table with 34'' X 38'' air cooled hoods ,the hoods are cooled using dual high cfm 6'' fans in a push pull configuration , even with the massive air flow going thru my hoods my rooms can hit as high as 88 degrees durring june & july , the reason is from radient heat from the light/lumens so im familiar with your exact situation.

Running a 600 watt at 75% is roughly 400 watts which has very weak penetration ability as well as a light spread thats too small to effectively cover your 3 x 3 area ,you need to turn the ballast up to the full 600 watts.As long as you can keep temps below 90 degrees & humidity at or below 50% your plants will suffer no bad effects from the increased heat & lumens.

Plants are much like humans , the lower the humidity the longer we remain comfortable in hot enviroments , mj plants are much the same , as long as they are comfortable with the enviroment they will flourish .

cannabineer said:

All else equal, go for max light. 85 degrees is not so high, esp. for a heat-tolerant plant like Cannabis. A friend gets results at sometimes over a hundred degrees, low humidity, no supplemental CO2. Jmo. cn

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Depends on the strain. My BB kush like 85, my ak-47's like 75. 85 pisses the ak-47's off big time.

That is exactly what I was looking for! I have learned very much from you on here panhead, thank you very much for your help. I dont have a barometer right now, but i will get one to keep on eye on things. I would think my humidity would be low as i have good air exchange and im in pretty sealed 5 gal dwc buckets, but i dont know if its below 50%. thanks to all for reading and input rep+ to all!

IF I can find away to quite down the exhaust airflow coming out of my ducting, I can turn my fan up a ton as the fan itself is fairly quiet. But when lights come on I will be turning the setting to 100% and hope to drop the temps somehow.

this is what i did, i had about 4 pairs of old pants. i cut 2 holes in the bottom and top(pants folded length wise) and i made a chain of pants connecting them with ziptiess, then i wrapped this around my fan tightly. problem solved.

you could do what iv sen other do and make a custom carbourd box for the job and fill it with Styrofoam packing peanuts or polyfil.

oh and move your fan to directly attach to filter and push air across light, this will quite things significantly.

sk8nbmxr411 said:

IF I can find away to quite down the exhaust airflow coming out of my ducting, I can turn my fan up a ton as the fan itself is fairly quiet. But when lights come on I will be turning the setting to 100% and hope to drop the temps somehow.

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You could build a simple S-baffle muffler out of particle board, if you don't mind some fabricating. I think I've seen ads for mufflers in grow catalogs, but right now i am not quite sure. cn

i get what your saying, but i dont know if it will help me. i Have my fan quiet inside my tent, its 4' away from my tent at the end of my ducting where the exhaust air is blowing out. I dont think it would be a good idea to cover the end with anything, slowing down the airflow and backing things up. ya get what I mean, I can take some pics to better explain my situation.

I have seen these mufflers and just didn't know if they were worth the time.
so poly, your saying instead of having my fan sucking air out of the cooltube, I should switch it and have it blowing air through the cooltube?
that makes alot of sense to me if that is what your saying. Would it cool my light any less?

oh the whoosh noise haha, just add a Tee with a piece of foam in it, the 2 6"holes will provide more area for the air to escape and a flat piece of foam placed inside will slow the air down as it exits.

sk8nbmxr411 said:

I have seen these mufflers and just didn't know if they were worth the time.
so poly, your saying instead of having my fan sucking air out of the cooltube, I should switch it and have it blowing air through the cooltube?
that makes alot of sense to me if that is what your saying. Would it cool my light any less?

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it will be better on you fan, the bulb will be cooled the same. the air whoosh noise will be buffer by the bulb a bit. i thought you where talking about the fan at first. but yeah moving the fan will help a ton still and give you better filtration.

Wow thank you so much poly this was perfect advise! I will post back tmrw after I do the switcheroo. And yes Whoooshing is the noise i slighty hear from outside my apartment door.

So I did as poly said and went carbon filter--> vortex--> cooltube. Not only did this get rid of the whooshing noise, but it dropped my temps to about 80 with lights on and 600w ballast at 100%. Thanks to everyone for helping me with the ideas.

I love it when a plan comes together. cn

sk8nbmxr411 said:

I live in an apartment building with paper thin walls. And as i dont live in a medical state, i have to keep my 4" vortex turned all the way down with a speed controller. I have done all i can about quiteing the fan, its the end of the duct where the air rushes out that i cannot silence. any ideas

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Yes, build a wooden "box" around the outlet and isolate the box with an old matress or something. Drill a big hole on the side of the box to let the air out that way. It helps a lot with the whoosing sound.

from this to this

Thanks again guys


heres my other tent under just a 250w hps.