I found an old cabinet in my basement that I'm making into a grow box. You can see a diagram of it below. (As you can tell.. I'm no artist) For starters I installed 3 26watt 1850 lumen CFL's. I've discovered that if I leave it closed with the lights on it can get as hot as 87F. If I leave the doors open it drops to 75-78F with lights on but its not really feasible to do this 24/7. With lights off its about the same both ways, it stays 65-70F. Is this going to be way too hot especially if I add additional CFL's? If so, would adding C02 into the equation make this setup usable?

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rollitup is just one massive role-playing game where we take on the fictitious role of a paranoid pot grower.

Is the diagram the plan for the box or is it what you currently have?

That many fans for a couple of low wattage CFLs seems overkill.

I'd have thought a high CFM 120mm PC fan (say 100CFM or so) for exhaust and a passive intake diagonally opposite it, should be sufficient.

This is what I currently have. The thing is I started with one passive vent and one exhaust fan. The temps were way out of control so I added the additional fans hoping it'd help bring down the temps. It helped somewhat but I still see upper 80's. Considering the grow doesn't have to be very stealth I'm starting to think it'd just be easier to pick up some B&W Poly and 2x4's and build myself a grow room in a corner of an A/C'd spare room. For whatever reason this box seems way too insulated to use. Its solid wood.. no idea what kind. Its kind of a pain spending the last couple days modifying it but oh well.. live and learn I guess. I took out two CFL's to see what would happen and temps have already dropped to 75F. Each additional CFL seems to add 5 degrees to the box.

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rollitup is just one massive role-playing game where we take on the fictitious role of a paranoid pot grower.

i just got a couple 120mm computer fans, they are about 55CFM each, but they are the quiet type, so i dont know if you could get a higher CFM out of a 120mm fan.

i've always herd that you want more fans on the intake side the the exhaust, but i dont know if that was because of cooling or just air circulation.

what type of CFL are you using? I know the 3000k bulbs add a decent amount of heat and the 6500k shouldnt add very much heat and if your vegging at this point then you want bulbs with a high light temperature(cool white)

the "Scythe Ultra Kaze 120mm Fan 3000rpm" moves 133.60CFM at 45.90dBA - that's almost 3 times the air your other 120mm fan moves, so they vary a lot in performance.

I'm using the same set-up for the 1st time...cfl's..I have a problem with 24 hr. lighting. I also just cut a vent hole in the top of box and a vent in the bottom..Heat rises, and as it does and vents out the top it pulls cooler air from the bottom...It works fine for 2 cfls. I've got no heat problems at all. If you use more lights or stronger lights, it won't work..

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As of right now I'm using 6500k 26watt cfl's. It really looks like this box is a bust. One CFL will work, my max temp was 77F but anything more and the temps are insane. I bought 10' x 100' of poly online today for $100. I've decided to just turn half of a guest room into a grow room. Heat will be much less of an issue and I'll also be able to throw 15-20 CFL's into it if I want eventually.

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rollitup is just one massive role-playing game where we take on the fictitious role of a paranoid pot grower.