Ventilation in SoCal 4x4 tent

JoeBudz420

New Member
Hey guys, I've been looking around quite a bit for ideas on how to keep a 4x4x7 tent running a 1000 DE hps cooled and ventilated properly. My plan is to use passive intake from an air conditioned room and have active exhaust drawing through a carbon filter, out of the tent and directly out a window. What I'm wondering is what my ambient temperature in the room should be to keep my tent ~75 F? And will keeping proper ventilation of the tent actually send a lot of useful cool air out my window? I know its probably hard to give estimates but I don't actually have the air conditioner yet and would like to get an idea of how big of a unit I'll need
 

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
I have a tent that I put my cuttings in to keep it a couple degrees warmer for them. The tent is normally 4-5 degrees higher than the room but thats with a 4' 8 bulb t5.

I run 1000w DE's and they definitely put off a lot of heat. It might be hard to keep it cool with just a passive intake. Id say your best bet is to use a fan for your intake as well. My bet is you will need to some how directly blow air from an ac into the tent though. Especially in so-cal. Im in nor-cal and I have to use ac in all my rooms.
 

JoeBudz420

New Member
Damn that's what I was afraid of. So I'll find a way to directly blow a/c into the tent, but then will I run into the situation where I'm just blowing my a/c right out the window with the exhaust? And do you think it'd be best to blow the a/c through the top or bottom?
 

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
I would say ac in the bottom. If your lights are air cooled you could just do a passive exhaust or no exhaust at all. Just cool your lights with a fan and exhaust that heat out the window
 

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
Thats what I would do. I would air cool my lights, run ac right into the tent, and have no exhaust or intake. The ac will bring fresh air into the tent. Just run your filter in side the tent and recirculate the air
 

JoeBudz420

New Member
That was sounding good until I realized I wouldn't maintain negative pressure.. lol dammit. It's my first grow anyway, maybe I'll just run a 600w and see how that goes and upgrade from there if I think I can keep it cool enough. I know there's plenty of people running 1000w in 4x4s but I don't have the money for all the extra fans atm. How does air cooling the lights work? Do you know where I can read about it? Thanks for the replies btw
 

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
Yea no problem dude. They sell air cooled hoods that you attach ducting to and pull air through the hoods to eliminate some of the heat they put off. If you are going to go air cooled DE, the ac/de is the only viable option. You are not supposed to directly cool DE bulbs like with regular hps, the ac/de has a separate space above the bulb that the air flows through so it doesnt affect the temperature of the bulb but still pulls the hot air out. Imo if you are going to use any type of hps in a tent, I would use air cooled hoods. It will be a million times easier to keep it cool. Go to hydrofarm or sunlight supply web site and they have a lot of air cooled hoods to check out.
 

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
Imo if your going to run a 600, I would just go all out and do 1000w DE. You will be much happier with the yield/results. If you get serious about growing you will want to upgrade to those eventually any way.
 

JoeBudz420

New Member
Cool, thanks man! I appreciate the advice. I'm going to look into air cooled hoods. I thought because you couldn't pass air directly over a DE that you couldn't even air cool them haha. Do you have any recommendations on a particular brand? There's so many out there and I don't know whats good vs. bad
 

707humboldt

Well-Known Member
The sun systems AC/DE is the only air cooled DE hood that you can use with out affecting the temperature of the bulb. All of the other ones directly air cool the bulbs rendering them useless.
 
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