Air Cooled Hoods for Temp Control
- Thread starter Ingvar
- Start date
HydroRed
Well-Known Member
It makes a huge difference.
If you are using a smaller light (150W-400W HID) in a large open basement area, its not that big of an issue. Now if you are in a 5'x5' room with a 600W-1000W HID light, then you are going to NEED to use a vented hood unless you like high temps and soaring utility bills from running your room exhaust fan 24/7, ac etc. What kind of room size you planning to work with? What size lights you planning to use? With air cooled hoods, you have total control over the heat output from the lights. Whether you vent it outside or heat your house with it is up to you. I use it to heat my rooms in the winter months so then Its actually very efficient to use HID. The warmer months....not so much.
twostrokenut
Well-Known Member
I run Inductions so I don't have to worry about it. With HID its a really BIG DEAL.
HydroRed
Well-Known Member
Did you retrofit ballasts you already had?
Six 1000w HPS lamps in a 330 sq ft room. Right now the heat is a major issue, and the damn AC keeps breaking so I'm looking for ways to keep the room cooler. The hoods would be a considerable investment so I kinda wanna make sure it makes sense financially
twostrokenut
Well-Known Member
No, Inda-gro's. I run the ProPAR 420's without the pontoons. They have a 10 year warranty and I have had to send one back with a warranty issue. Ballast crapped out, since then I keep a spare just in case but this is the only issue I've had in years.
HydroRed
Well-Known Member
It makes absolute total sense in your case. Buy the air cooled hoods and connect them in a "manifold" design and bring air from outside, through your hoods, then exhaust it back outside and let mother nature keep the lights cool for you. Then your AC only needs to keep the room cool, & not try to eliminate the insane amounts of heat it is currently trying to deal with. You can spend a few hundred one time or you can spend that on one months utilities trying to cool a very inefficient setup.Six 1000w HPS lamps in a 330 sq ft room. Right now the heat is a major issue, and the damn AC keeps breaking so I'm looking for ways to keep the room cooler. The hoods would be a considerable investment so I kinda wanna make sure it makes sense financially
twostrokenut
Well-Known Member
Six 1000w HPS lamps in a 330 sq ft room. Right now the heat is a major issue, and the damn AC keeps breaking so I'm looking for ways to keep the room cooler. The hoods would be a considerable investment so I kinda wanna make sure it makes sense financially
What are the temps without the AC? Are you flowering and if so lights on at night?
twostrokenut
Well-Known Member
B4 I went induction I though about this setup to help heat the house with thouies. You have a selectable manifold so you can dump inside or out? Thats pretty neat. I exhaust with a big carbon filter to the other end of my house.
HydroRed
Well-Known Member
Mine is basically in a nutshell changed over from summer/winter with the exchange of placement of (2) 6" ducting and rolling my portable AC unit out of the room. Built and insulated room, just not finished yet with drywall and sealing it off. Carbon filters on both inlet/exhaust.
About your induction light...I've seen the retro kits for magnetic ballasts, but the light you posted is news to me. Is it supplemental light for a green house or is it a stand alone unit?
How are the temps managed differently than HID?
twostrokenut
Well-Known Member
They have one for greenhouses that has a photo eye on it so it turns on automatically. They have submersible units for aqua apps and also vert units. There's an LED "pontoon" attachment that simulates dusk and dawn as well.
The room gets slightly warm but nowhere near as warm as HID. I imagine they're cooler than fan cooled led's but I don't know. My room intake also heats and cools off the main HVAC plenum as the little floor vent simply wasn't enough. Not because it was too hot or cool though just because I wanted more air exchange in there.
Temps run at most 10 degrees warmer in there than the home's thermostat. That's two of the lights in about just over 100 sqft.
If you're interested here's a link, they've been around for a while.
http://www.inda-gro.com/IG/
This dude was on RIU for a while and had a big thread about the lights. Can't find it anymore though IDK what happened there.
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LOL I wouldn't know tbh! I never dared take A/C off because I am positive it'll hit 100
So that's my feeling as well. But I gotta sell my significant other on this 'investment' in order to go through with it. Which is why I kinda wanted to get actual numbers from people w/experience. Almost any numbers would work - electric bill dollar amounts with VS without, temperature #s with VS without, or whatever.. the investment would cost more than just the air-cooled hoods, because I'd need to punch holes in walls, buy several fans (at least 3 for the 6 lights since it's not good to daisy chain more than 2 from what I understand), and whatever other crap I'd need to get for the project.
twostrokenut
Well-Known Member
LOL I wouldn't know tbh! I never dared take A/C off because I am positive it'll hit 100
My bad I thought you said AC was broken. You dump the heat and prolly save money in the long run on AC costs. Good luck on your endeavor dude.
HydroRed
Well-Known Member
You dont need to daisy chain. You hook up to a manifold style exhaust and have one large fan exhaust all of it.
get rid of the heat, and your utility bills will reflect this.
Put it this way, its safe to say that if you spend $1000 on hoods,manifold and fan for the lights that your reduction of utility bills will pay for that investment likely over a 6 month period or less. Then its all savings after that. Why not let the cut in utility usage pay for the hoods, then after its paid for you just save a couple hundred every month there after. It will pay for itself.
get rid of the heat, and your utility bills will reflect this.
Put it this way, its safe to say that if you spend $1000 on hoods,manifold and fan for the lights that your reduction of utility bills will pay for that investment likely over a 6 month period or less. Then its all savings after that. Why not let the cut in utility usage pay for the hoods, then after its paid for you just save a couple hundred every month there after. It will pay for itself.
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HydroRed
Well-Known Member
This is what I was referring to with a manifold exhaust setup. You vent your 6" hoods to one 10" or 12" manifold all controlled by a single 10" or 12" exhaust fan.
http://www.grozine.com/2014/02/19/setting-up-air-cooled-grow-lights/
Set your exhaust up properly, and turn your AC unit down and watch the savings roll in.
http://www.grozine.com/2014/02/19/setting-up-air-cooled-grow-lights/
Set your exhaust up properly, and turn your AC unit down and watch the savings roll in.
Thanks for this! Any idea how powerful of a fan I would need to blow hard enough for 6 hoods? Also, not sure what he means by "use reflectors with 6 inch cooling connected to 8 inch, 10 inch, or 12 inch ventilation", do you know?
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