Duct Sizing for Light Ventilation

Discussion in 'Beginner Lounge' started by MedicineMan, Sep 9, 2016.

  1. MedicineMan

    MedicineMan New Member

    The AC is 11,000 btu
     
  2. Mrgreengenes

    Mrgreengenes Administrator

    You should not have any heat issues with that unit.
     
  3. MedicineMan

    MedicineMan New Member

    This is a perpetual grow, so there will be two lights, are you suggesting that I use a 600W for veg AND a 600W for the flower? I have not purchased the light for my flower space yet...so does it make sense to move my 600W to the bloom room and buy a big-ass T5 light for VEG?

    I am not sure what to do at this point. If I use a T5 for veg then my ducting becomes much simpler and the grow will be substantially cheaper. I want to reduce costs wherever possible (of course) but it is crucial that my setup produces potent high quality plants. These buds are going to fight cancer! Having T5s in veg would reduce all of my costs, but are they intense enough to bring out the best in the plants?

    Great discussion so far, please keep it coming!
     
  4. Mrgreengenes

    Mrgreengenes Administrator

    My room is roughly 6 ft by 6 ft and I run a 600 over a 2x4 table and a 400 over a 2x2 table. Both have 6 inch exhaust that downsizes to a 4 inch line and with ac my temps run max of 80.
    You could run two 600s in line on the right side of the room with that ac unit with no heat problems.
    You can use T5s for vegging too.
     
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  5. MedicineMan

    MedicineMan New Member

    Thanks MGJ. Would you go with T5s or another 600W in my case?
     
  6. Mrgreengenes

    Mrgreengenes Administrator

    I see no reason why you can't run two 600s that shamelessly cover the right side of room. Are you kidding reflective Mylar on the walls that helps a lot. I would just run the T5s left side of room.
     
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  7. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    You shouldn't veg and flower in same room, specially if you this you are going to do this with hid lights, it won't work and you'll hermie your garden.

    T5s in a well constructed tent will work, but unless I'm not understanding you, don't evend try to veg flower at same time in same room.

    T5 is fine to veg with. I only use t5s anymore and trust me, it works out fine. Would I prefer a 1k Super blue, yeap...but then Im taken available amps from flower, adding heat, etc etc etc. T5s are all you need, if someone says otherwise they don't know what they are talking about.

    I like Mr green jeans idea about in line 600s, it's prob all you'll need for that room. Frankly start with 1 600, it's all you need for your current seedlings when they go to flower.

    Honestly I if we're you, get your 6, once they get big enough to clone, clone and wait to get roots then through the bases in flower to sex under just a single 600.

    You're saving shit loads of money and headaches, honestly when dealing with seeds it takes longer and you're not going to need that extra light for a few months. Money is better kept in your pocket for now.

    But t5s are great for veg, let me know if you go with hortilux. I'm prob going to grab some but theyreally like 4x the c9st. But I like hortilux and they usually put out good product.....except don't buy their gold ballast. I went thru a bunch of em because they got a 0.10 switch on them that breaks. I'm sure they fixed em by now, but I feel their bulbs are superior to most others
     
  8. MedicineMan

    MedicineMan New Member

    Thanks Nippie, there is one main room, but the bloom space (not completed yet) will be in a tent. Thanks for the feedback on the T5s. I'll wait on buying any new lights until it gets closer to bloom time. I'll set up the 600W for veg and get it going!

    Thanks tons! I'll post a few pics of the setup when it's done.
     
  9. nippie

    nippie preachin' and pimpin'

    You may want to veg in tents and flower in the room. Plants can get kinda big, unless you're dropping the cash on a huge nice tent
     
  10. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Great advice guys.

    T5's only for veg here for the same reasons as Nip. It's easier om the electric bill, easy on the heat, and does just fine for vegging. If you check online sales at places like plantlightinghydroponics.com you can pick up nice 4 bulb 4 footers for under $100. Main problem with mine is they eat bulbs like a motherfucker. Just had to replace two today.

    Thinking the guys are right on the veg in a tent or cupboard and flower in the room. A small tent for vegging is cheaper and the low heat of flouros will make it enormously easier to cool.

    If you go with the T5's another problem is solved and that 6 incher on exhaust will be plenty. No more need to upsize there.
     
  11. Justcheckingitout

    Justcheckingitout GK Old Timer

    I do veg and flower in a closet but the veg is in a 2'x4' box I built in the closet using two existing walls and a plywood top the air cooled light sits on the top, its sealed around the bottom with black gorrila tape, the door is a two hinge that opens upward with a lip where is closes for added light lock out. It works good. But if you dont get it light sealed, even a littke light leak can cause the flowering plants to herm, which is a kick in the dick at chop time when you realize how many seeds are in those buds.
     
  12. Justcheckingitout

    Justcheckingitout GK Old Timer

    Also a thought on the veg light, t5 is great for veg, my only problem I have had with them were with thunder storms and power going out all the time where I live and like 3 times a year atleast, I get one to all 4 of the bulbs in my 4 bulb t5 light burnt out, even with built in breaker power strips (at $8 a bulb I spent almost as much as the light cost to replace bulbs in one year) its not everyones results but made me think, I also would suggest thinking of (as a option) getting a led veg light for veg, only because you never have to replace the bulbs and the heat is next to nothing with the exhaust. They are more money up front but Pay for themselves in the long run, Just another option to consider.
     
  13. JuggaloKing420

    JuggaloKing420 Just clownin around

    I may be the only person who runs this way, but I have 2k flower and a 8bulb 4ft t5 for veg. My 1k's are in unsealed hoods and are cooled by a 10k btu window unit, NO exhaust. I intake/exhaust veg room into flower room. I'm in the deep deep south where summer can hit 110 and fall is in the 80's, and in the middle of the summer I keep it consistently 75 and fall I can hit the 60's no problem.
     
  14. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

    Run the T5 for veg, it will work just fine and use one six hundred for flower. And I'd veg in the tent and flower in the room. These are seeds started in end 0f july and have been under a T5 24x7 for two weeks now. I have a 10x10 room and two 1kw's. I grow only with an 4ft 8 bulb t5 in the summer and just use the regular house ac to cool the room. In the winter I switch over to veg in the garage in about middle of October and use the room for flower exclusively. In the room I have a 10 inch duct bringing in outside air with a small fan attached to it. I'm getting a line voltage thermostat today and am going to hook it to the fan and use it to keep the room cool by switching the fan on and off at 75 degrees. I had a blower motor contraption that I took out of an old furnaceI rigged up doing this the last couple of years without a thermostat and just using a pin timer set to on every 30 minutes for 15 minutes and it was overkill and too hard to regulate.

    now


    and various iterations



     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2016
  15. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

    Your duct sizing and cfm are all wrong insofar as cooling your lights is concerned. (I do this for money)

    one 600w light needs 300 cfm of air when there are no turns or obstructions in the duct. you have the light and I am sure some turns.
    one 1kw light needs 350 cfm of air "
    your min required airflow to cool your lights is 650 cfm. "
    Your vortex fan has a cfm range of 400-600 cfm but is rated at 452cfm on high.
    one 6 inch round flex duct is rated at 12ocfm

    Based on that diagram I would do it this way...

    All calculations/cfm are based on 100 foot max duct run at .5 inches water column and 1000cfm vortex fan.

    1. Use something like this for the airflow (it's variable speed). http://www.homedepot.com/p/Vortex-8-in-Low-Powerfan-Inline-Duct-Fan-VTX800L/204262767?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-VF-PLA-D26P-Plumbing|&gclid=Cj0KEQjwg8i_BRCT9dHt5ZSGi90BEiQAItdjpC5-3s38cH28QkFgcK2f33e3NBcL51mJ-nm4uHR6eSsaAsGO8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

    2.You must start from the floor with a 16inch round flex duct (1000cfm) then reduce it with a 16" to 10" Y or use this plenum and attach two tens to it, I'd use the plenum because you need to filter the air (even though it is only theoretically going thru the lights), also, this plenum is sized for aprox 1000cfm input http://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-16-in-x-25-in-Dual-Filter-Plenum-Kit-PK1625DF/205430361?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-BASE-PLA-D26P-AirCirculation|&gclid=Cj0KEQjwg8i_BRCT9dHt5ZSGi90BEiQAItdjpCUHkofd7MnQ0dyqdnOV8OLxmNpeBZPG8wSGG7LAzlsaAhvL8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

    3. Come out of each light with a ten then couple them together with a 10" x 10" Y and run that to the vortex fan. The ten run to the fan will be a little large (because you started with 1000cfm in and theoretically only have 800 cfm out, maybe less after length and turns of entire run) but it will work and at worse just cause the fan motor to load a little more but that's doubtful.

    http://www.waptac.org/data/files/website_docs/training/standardized_curricula/curricula_resources/duct system sizes and airflow quick chart.pdf

    Once you get the lights cooled then you need 3500 btu per 1kw light to cool the room.

    or you could just skip all the above and install a 1.5 ton dual zone mini split and be done with it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2016
  16. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Lol....BW... Love the simplicity of confusion my friend. Cup of coffee Agree that sketch for exhaust ain't gonna work smoothly at all.

    How about just building a plenum and going 6" on the 600w and 8" on the 1000w with a 1200cfm fan? Or is that exactly what you said? I dunno, way lit and kinda confused-n-shit. That's what I'd do anyway. Maybe a damper on the 6"... But yeah. Then you gotta cool all that shit since it's a closed loop. Sigh....
     
  17. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

    lmao. I was high as fuck trying to write that and it's the readers digest version, but yeah, that's kinda what I said. And the funny part is I'm like the mechanic that never has time to work on his car so always rigs it, but.... my shit works.

    The 600w needs 300cfm, that's a 9 inch duct minimum, if you try to pull air through the 6 inch duct with a 1200cfm fan it will not deliver the required cfm. What it will do is cause extremely high water column and load the fan motor, but you won't get 300cfm out of the duct. Short answer is like Dolly said. You're trying to get 50 pounds of taters in a 25 pound sack.
    :photographe:
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2016
  18. mytwhyt

    mytwhyt Established Healthy Roots

    Taters, what a nice way to describe a blivet...
     
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  19. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

    so did you ever figure this out?
     
  20. SuperMoChombo

    SuperMoChombo Well-Known Member

    He's got the 600 for veg and the 1000W for flower.
     

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