JP's Cabinet Grow

That's a good idea CD, I could trim some off each side. Ill have to look and see if i have a pair of tin snips. I wonder if that effects performance at all.

JP

I am planning to fit the 8 inch fan, And see how the temps react.

Im wondering if i should seal off the upper hole, that would mean the air is drawn in down low and crosses the cabinet and exits through the new fan. Not perfect but i believe it should improve things.

JP

I believe it will to JP. Block off all other intakes that aren't in the bottom somewhere. Then the air has to travel all the way through.

Good luck man

I'm looking forward to seeing if this works for you, ever since I transplanted to bigger pots I've been having more temp issues... I'm starting to get confused lol.. One day its holding within 4 degrees of ambient temps and next thing I know its right back to 87-88 when ambient temps are at 80...?? Almost doubled.. That fan looks nice for the price though, good luck hopefully this solves your temp issues!

thanks a bunch! It would be nice if this works. this is just part of cabinet growing i suppose. I think we have finally figured it out. I will let you know the minute something happens.

I will seal off the upper hole with 3 layers of aluminum tape, then i will cut a new piece of ir blocker and cover the whole thing up. My fan should be here in a few days, its already been shipped.

JP

Well tracking says my fan will be here tomorrow, so by monday i will install it in my cabinet and run some tests. Oh how i hope this works. A nice cool cab is what i dream of now that i know i can grow.

JP

You and me both!! My cab has actually been pretty cool today, thats what really confuses me.. One day its around 87 the next its holding around 83 and nothing was changed. I realize there's a lot of factors but right when I think I get it dialed in, I'm having to crack the door to get it to drop from 88-89.. I'm hoping to see this work for you, good luck!

justparanoid said:

Well tracking says my fan will be here tomorrow, so by monday i will install it in my cabinet and run some tests. Oh how i hope this works. A nice cool cab is what i dream of now that i know i can grow.
JP

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did you figure out your gonna run everything?, hope it works out for ya. have you seen gamblers update on his cooling system for his cabinet? looks like the plumbing dept at home depot, LoL.

Well i went to install the fan and the hole is way larger than the fan. Nothing about this cabinet is easy. So i have to stabilize the fan in the hole before i can do temp tests. I will figure something out. maybe ill stuff rags in there or tape the hell out of it.
its going to be installed one way or another.

JP

How late did you stay up working on this thing? I would have prob been in there till it was working. You could take a piece of wood and cut it to be the same size as the entire wall with the too big hole. Then cut a hole where the current hole is, but only big enough to fit your new fan. Hope you get it all worked out.

I didnt work on the cabinet long, I just rough fit it to see where i was at. I work on my cabinet on the weekdays.. weekends are too busy for me to get to it. Oh believe me, its gonna fit one way or the other..

JP

i got it installed and looks like its 86 degrees on the plant deck. way hotter than i had hoped but it is in a closet. now lets hope it holds cause i wanna plant dammit! i just filled it with water and plugged in the air pump, so lets see what that does to the temp.

JP

Nice, so what all do you have hooked up besides the bigger exhaust fan now? Your still running the 3 42w cfl's right?

Are you using the other fans for anything or is it just the new exhaust and passive intake?

I have one fan blowing on the 3 42 watt bulbs, two passive intakes and the large exhaust fan. still 86 degrees so looks like it worked.

JP

What were your temps b4? Are you going to try your new array of 23 watt bulbs with the splitters?

I feel the 6 bulbs are just way to hot to hang in my cabinet. i checked and their operating temp is 100 degrees. that times six is a bit much. at least i can hold the 42 watt bulbs when they are on.

JP

this fan is loud but it exchanges air extremely fast. i put 4 intakes in the bottom that were 1-3/4 inch each. (now i don't believe it was enough for that fan) anyways its an 8 inch fan and keeps the box temperatures just right above room temperature. i believe it was around 650 cfm. i am going to have to go back through and read about ur box. but one thing that i have found out in tweaking with different boxes and designs, is that you have to have a massive intake for a massive fan. otherwise it puts stress on the fan and causes it not to do its job. For instance, i kept the same big yellow whistle lookin fan in the box i have now for 5-6 months. thought it did pretty good. but after seeing how other boxes worked and testing out suff on that demo box i realized maybe my fan wasn't living up to its potential. i added three 1 3/4 inch holes in the box and shut the door. my temps went from 82 on average down to 77. to sum it up. the fan is tryin to pull all that air out of a little hole. you put ur hand next to it and feel the air suckin through it pretty good so you think its air tight and doin fine. but what its really doing is suckin air in at where the blades are at also, only lettting so much escape. Does this make sense? i tried to make this example easy to understand. hope it worked.

the only other thing i could think of that could be a cheap fix if making your intakes bigger didn't take the temps down low enough, would be to find a piece of glass or plexi glass and completely section off your lights with their own exhaust. for instance if you could put a piece of plexiglass right under your lights, kinda like a shelf and find something to seal off the front of that shelf. that way your lights are now boxed in. then put your intake toward the front (maybe just cut a hole in the bottom of the plexi or run a pvc pipe to an existing intake) and put your fan in the back. that way the cool air enters the front and has to travel all the way to the back to escape. i guess that would be a diy cooltube chamber.

brandon873 said:

the only other thing i could think of that could be a cheap fix if making your intakes bigger didn't take the temps down low enough, would be to find a piece of glass or plexi glass and completely section off your lights with their own exhaust. for instance if you could put a piece of plexiglass right under your lights, kinda like a shelf and find something to seal off the front of that shelf. that way your lights are now boxed in. then put your intake toward the front (maybe just cut a hole in the bottom of the plexi or run a pvc pipe to an existing intake) and put your fan in the back. that way the cool air enters the front and has to travel all the way to the back to escape. i guess that would be a diy cooltube chamber.

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I just suggested plexi heat shielding to a guy in another thread & it was kind of laughed off but I believe it has validity.

Nice hell box btw.

The things that helped my box recently was taking my 10" ocillating fan out and moving one of my exhaust fans up to the very top of the cab. Once I did that, temps seemed to drop within 1-2degrees of room temp. Thats with 150watts and a couple nice size passive intakes!! I just added a 68w cfl to my cab,"218w total now" and its still within 3-4 with the sensor right up under the lights.

My passive intake hole is actually pretty big and I have another open passive hole thats 4"x4" "where I had the old Exhaust." I know JP doesn't really have the room in his box but a bigger intake hole might help his problem for sure. I know a combination of What I said lowered my temps by 6-8degrees.

rombomb420 said:

I just suggested plexi heat shielding to a guy in another thread & it was kind of laughed off but I believe it has validity.

Nice hell box btw.

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I wouldn't doubt if this would help, thats basically the same concept of a cool tube...