My New Homemade Stealth Box

OK, so after countless hours of researching numerous threads, pictures, and tutorials, along with some friendly advice on the forums, I built myself a grow box. It's all CFL (for now) as I am dealing with the heat. I live in an area where there are no basements and therefore no place that stays cool year round. So for the mean time I'm going all CFL.

The box features 3 chambers, one for veg, cloning, and flowering. I have learned that what was going to be the clone chamber (top right) is probably going to always be way too hot to be functional due to the lights for the veg chamber being directly below it. It'll probably just end up being storage space. It's hard to see in the pics, but at the top is a chamber which houses 2 carbon filters and a 6" duct fan exhausting out the side of the box. The ballast I made from PVC and lamp holders. I used a piece of 8" duct that I bowed out and zip tied to the ballast as a reflector hood. I drilled some holes in it and put a couple computer fans on top of it hoping it would suck the heat away from the bulbs a little. So far it's not enough. Temps top out at about 92F. Obviously this is too hot for flower (or so I have read) but I'm hoping that by the time my seedlings (which just hatched) are ready the ambient temps will have dropped enough to get temps to a reasonable level. The ambient temps now are no cooler than 80F. It gets REALLY hot and humid here. Things will get cooler in Oct, but not until then. I figure that 5 or 6 weeks of veg puts me into October, so I should be good. I may just clone first which will probably delay things another couple weeks, which can only help temp wise. Any advice on how to lower temps or improve the setup? I'd be open to any tips. Thanks!

Looks great!

Looks greats, not exactly stealth in my opinion. If cops came through your house... what do you think there gonna do when they see that shit.

Very true, but if cops are in your house you're fucked regardless of what it looks like. The k9's nose doesn't give a shit if it looks like an end table or if it has a weed leaf painted on the front. This is more or less to keep smell and light contained. Plus it's in my shop with a bunch of boxes and bullshit stacked around it. Like you said, not exactly stealth, but better than a closet or bathroom grow.

Looks good. And if a cop is at the door you have otherthings to worry about there 8-12 plants. Fuck them. They can come to my grow and count under 99. Guess what they can't tuch it. And won't even try.

drudinpc said:

OK, so after countless hours of researching numerous threads, pictures, and tutorials, along with some friendly advice on the forums, I built myself a grow box. It's all CFL (for now) as I am dealing with the heat. I live in an area where there are no basements and therefore no place that stays cool year round. So for the mean time I'm going all CFL. The box features 3 chambers, one for veg, cloning, and flowering. I have learned that what was going to be the clone chamber (top right) is probably going to always be way too hot to be functional due to the lights for the veg chamber being directly below it. It'll probably just end up being storage space. It's hard to see in the pics, but at the top is a chamber which houses 2 carbon filters and a 6" duct fan exhausting out the side of the box. The ballast I made from PVC and lamp holders. I used a piece of 8" duct that I bowed out and zip tied to the ballast as a reflector hood. I drilled some holes in it and put a couple computer fans on top of it hoping it would suck the heat away from the bulbs a little. So far it's not enough. Temps top out at about 92F. Obviously this is too hot for flower (or so I have read) but I'm hoping that by the time my seedlings (which just hatched) are ready the ambient temps will have dropped enough to get temps to a reasonable level. The ambient temps now are no cooler than 80F. It gets REALLY hot and humid here. Things will get cooler in Oct, but not until then. I figure that 5 or 6 weeks of veg puts me into October, so I should be good. I may just clone first which will probably delay things another couple weeks, which can only help temp wise. Any advice on how to lower temps or improve the setup? I'd be open to any tips. Thanks!

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Buy an air conditioner?

You have the air going out, you need air going in my man. If you put an exhaust and inlet for air in every chamber you'll be fine. Inlet fan at the bottom of the grow chamber and exhaust at the top. I keep a fan blowing at the tops of my plants and also pointed at the light. That will keep the plants cooler/ less prone to mold and the heat off the lights.

Jloi I just went with passive intake at the bottom of the chambers. Seems to be working for now. Put a small air conditioner near it (5000 btu) and blowing at it and it has kept temps low enough for veg anyway. Temps are only going to get lower, so who knows, I may be dealing with cold before too long. Anyways, I started a grow log if you want to check it out

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/556900-first-time-growing-mj-also.html

Just as long as you got enough air going in and out you'll have the right temps for the most part. just make sure you got enough cfm's or over for the space. I go over the recommended cfm's for my area. Mine will stay about 80-82deg on a hot summer day normaly 75 on a good day. We just had 115 deg weather here and mine were still fine with no a/c and it's in a non a/c area or basement. I'll take a look at your log!

What kind of air conditioner did you put (5000 BTU)? I wonder if you are using it as a "Spot cooler" for the plants and in turn heating the rest of the house with it?

It's not in the house. It's in my shop. I know that breaks one of the commandments, but I absolutely cannot have the box in my house, so it's in the shop or nothing. It's mounted in the window so the a/c exhaust vents out. Where I live it's super hot and temps in the shop can top out in the low 100's on sunny days. I've set the a/c on a timer to periodically turn on every hour and a half for 30 minutes. I'm trying not to spend a ton of money air conditioning, so I just want to keep temps manageable. So far it's kept temps in the grow box topped out at 88 on sunny days, 84 on cloudy days and ~81 on rainy days. From what I understand I can work with those temps through veg. The plants seems healthy anyway. The only thing that worries me is the possibility of neighbors wondering why in the world I have an air conditioner constantly turning on and off in a building I'm never in. I'm hoping that within a month the weather cools enough to allow me to get by without the air conditioner running at all. Much more stealthy that way. Then all I have to worry about is a way to quiet the exhaust fan in the box. It's not as loud as the a/c, but if you get within 20 feet or so of the shop you can hear it. I think the people behind me would be able to hear the fan if they walked near their fence. And I know they can hear that air conditioner from their back porch. In a perfect world I'd have a big ole walk in closet where I could park this thing.

Looks pretty good man...bummer about the wasted space that u wanted to use for clones...I would think if you drop your cfls down a bit away from the top of that veg compartment that would fix your heat problem in that clone cab...just a thought