400w HPS in closet safe?

I want to put a 400w HPS bulb in my closet, but i'm afraid it will be too dangerous, will this have a chance of fire? It'll be kept away from clothes. Is there anything that I should do to make it as safe as possible? I don't want to burn anything in my closet.

as long as it isnt touching anything it will be fine. and if you dont do something drastic with ventilation it will 100+ degrees in there. use a aircooled reflector and your temps will be fine and you could put close on top of it without worrying about fires although i still wouldnt.

thats what my set up is. dont have any clothes or anything like that in it. purely used for a grow room. got a bit of a problem with heat stress with the plant but going good so far.

like i said gotta go air cooled

i have a 400w air cooled hps in a closet. it's not dangerous but without fresh cool air the temps easily get in the mid-upper 90s. keep the ballast outside the closet if you can and remember there's only so cool you can keep things by recirculating the same air.

Definitely take everything out of the closet that doesn't absolutely need to be in there. The major thing likely to lead to a fire is if your household wiring is faulty or outdated, or the ballast you're using is old\faulty, or you have flammable materials close to the bulb (use common sense).

I'm using fluorescent's right now, I have a good sized fan giving a lot of good air flow, I also have the swamp cooler on in my house keeping it at 75 degrees or lower.

you can use a couple cfls without an in/out fan, just a small clip on 6in fan blowing at them will do with cfls but as for hps you will need in/out air flow as they get realy hot

Just hang your light from something secure.

And know that HID lighting will give you some serious temp issues in the summer.

....I'm gonna go with "Too hot for the long run" on this one, but I'm not seeing the dimensions of the closet, for some of us in old houses small can be a relevant term. If you have to leave the door shut and no ventilation, I think it might be a bit too warm

I am using a 400W hps in a 5x2 1/2x8 closet. I took off the closet door, took the shelf and closet rod out. Hung some sturdy hooks from the ceiling and a fan mounted so it blows the hot air from the light out into the main room. If you don't have ac in the room plan on keeping a door open so fresh air comes in from your house. And also plan on using a butt load of fans keeping things fresh and circulated. With 5 fans running and cool air pouring in from my apartment temps are still no lower than 82. I would run your light at nighttime too as running it during the day without ac in the room will push temps into the 90's 100's no matter what you do. This time around I have learned it is much easier to invest in a cool hood. Saves a ton of hastle.

I have a 600w HPS WITHOUT a duct hooked up to it, and no glass under the light - (Open reflector hood) - I have a box fan over it, and a fan on the ground near the plants - house is set at 72f and room stays a constant 77.5f - I don't think I could put the same light in a tent though, without some major ventilation hooked up to it.

400 watt in a closet.... YIKES!

Is this a regular run of the mill closet? OR is this a walk-in closet?

If its a walk-in closet then you MIGHT be OK but you definitely need to find a way to circulate air in and out of that closet otherwise its going to get to be 120 degrees in there very very fast.

If its not a walk-in closet then you are asking for your house to catch fire. I MIGHT try a 250 watt hps in a regular closet--- still need to think about ventilation.

Look at grow tents online built for 400 watt hps and see the LxWxH of the tent--- does it closely match? If not don't do it.

I tried a 400w in a closet and the temps went into the low 100's with the door closed with a fan, not an air cooled reflector open wing style. I had to move my seedlings over to a grow buddies cloning setup where he killed them shortly after they sprouted. He is not very good at cloning.

Well of course you have to vent the closet somehow like you would any grow room. A 400 watt digital system doesn't get too hot, like say 600+ watts would. Especially if you have an air-cooled reflector. Even if it did get 100 degrees in the closet nothing should catch on fire, unless you're keeping highly flammable materials in your closet\grow room... which you really shouldn't be.

A regular household fan isn't going to cut it. It will just be circulating the same hot air. Even if you don't have an air cooled reflector, you should still definitely vent the grow room somehow. Either make two holes; one high to the ceiling and one low to the ground, to vent passively, or make a hole in the ceiling (with a circular saw) and set up some ducting and a high output inline fan if this is convenient (such as if there is an attic above the closet).

unknown1231 said:

400 watt in a closet.... YIKES!

Is this a regular run of the mill closet? OR is this a walk-in closet?

If its a walk-in closet then you MIGHT be OK but you definitely need to find a way to circulate air in and out of that closet otherwise its going to get to be 120 degrees in there very very fast.

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Click to expand...

...Yeah, thats the first thing I thought. The only way thats even going to work is with a air exchange, bringing in new air and sending the heat out somewhere.

Having the same issue with a 400 watt hps open winged hood in a utility closet (8' x 4' 5" x 5'10") 208 cubic feet. Room temps low to mid 90's (with the door open) and two isolating house fans. Going into 3rd week of flower , I will be adding 1, 4" hole up high and 1, 6" hole down low on the door. 4" hole up high for 4" inline fan and Carbon filter and exhaust, and 6" hole down low for 6" booster fan for fresh air intake. That will also allow me to finally close that door

Also a marshydro 140 watt ( from the wall)

Before you buy anything for reflection check into an insulation called corolite. It looks and acts like Styrofoam but is non-flammable. It comes in many colors including white. You can fire-proof the closet by lining it with this stuff. Fire-proof drywall is another way but that stuff is so heavy.

Any intake or out vents from the grow room should clear the building. If you don't own it don't damage the closet door. Buy a second hand door and put the other door away. If you have to go through the ceiling be sure you are ready to replace/repair the drywall.

I wrecked the cedar siding on this guys house once because of f^cked up venting

Whenever I get the opportunity I put the attic hatch in the walk in closet regardless of what the blueprint says, on every new house I work on My buddy;s have no problem with this and we all "think" it's the proper thing to do

comparing my old hps grows to my 5watt led grows I like my leds better...

These ten watt leds I have for sale now should trump hps by a longshot in true wattage in growth health yield and quality

if interested I have flowering leaned specced 600 watt 10w bulbed leds at 110 each

Closet safe with almost no heat