air cooling your hoods

im hoping to get advice/ideas on venting my hoods..

i figure il pull air from the outside through my hoods using ducting and an inline fan..

an run the ducting from outside--->through lights--->back ouside..

i hear you should also use duct tape around the glass panels to make sure its air tight?

thanks in advance for the input



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Dude..Im on the same page as you..I know pretty much everything else,but I just dont know how to setup an exhaust/cooling system..I know that you have to vent air from outside thorugh the hood..and then back outside(better yet thorugh a carbon scrubber)..but how the hell do I set it up??What parts do I need to buy??

outlaw-

you would need a fan, id recomend like an inline vortex fan or ecoline (if your ona tight budget)

you need to buy ducting to PULL not PUSH the air outside...

you want to pull in cold air (from the basement/outside)

and you want to pull the hot air from the top of your room (cus hot air rises)

you can run a fan to cool your hood..

or to exhuast your room of hott air (carbon filter is important then, cus ur exhuasting smelly air)

hope that helps..

alrighty, if you have a sealed reflector ie a cooltube then you want a fan outside the room ducting to reflector then ducting back outside the room. then you will need a carbon scrubber inside the room with a fan pulling air through it venting outside the room. thats odor control and bulb cooling. that is all you need basicly, if temps are on the rise add a intake only fan from outside the room

if you have a good sealed hood/ducting then you dont need a scrubber do you?

cus youd just be pulling clean outside air and it wouldnt have an odor..

stonestone said:

if you have a good sealed hood/ducting then you dont need a scrubber do you?

cus youd just be pulling clean outside air and it wouldnt have an odor..

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True, but most people have a second fan for the grow area, it gets too hot in their otherwise. My hood fan line has no scrubber, I use a Sun System 2 hood that was very well made. No additional duct tape needed. It seals up very nice and tight. Made in America too.

I have a second fan that pulls air through the grow area and then out a carbon scrubber. This way you can run CO2 and leave the hood fan running and just shut off the interior fan for periods while you drop CO2.

Right if you are just cooling the lights. I think Ivantheterrible was gining a lighcooling/cab exhaust combo design.

I have a cab (like picasso) where have a cooltube(sealed hood) where i dont need to duct tape anything or filter the air that comes out of my lights. I have a seperate exhaust for my carbon filter. I think this design is better because you can really use alot of cfm on the lights to cool them, more than any carbon filter would be able to handle that isnt 6ft long...lol. I am sure there is a point of diminishing returns but that point is higher than 300 cfm for a 600w hps i assure you. Having 2 gives you the ability to better control your temps/ventatlition issue more accurately.

On another not, i used panthose, yes panty hose to filter my light intake to keep dust out. It provides little air exsistence and also blocks light i have coming out my light intake...

Also picasos light reflector is probaby my favorite one out there. By design though the cooltube offers less air resistence as the path of air is straight. But the light dispersion licks balls. Since my foot print is 2x3 though the cooltube works well and i actually take advantage of the poor light distribution. Just depends on your needs. If i had to do it aian i might have gone with the sun system...

FullMetalJacket said:

Right if you are just cooling the lights. I think Ivantheterrible was gining a lighcooling/cab exhaust combo design.

I have a cab where have a cooltube where i dont need to duct tape anything or filter the air that comes out of my lights. I have a seperate exhaust for my carbon filter. I think this design is better because you can really use alot of cfm on the lights to cool them, more than any carbon filter would be able to handle that isnt 6ft long...lol. I am sure there is a point of diminishing returns but that point is higher than 300 cfm for a 600w hps i assure you. Having 2 gives you the ability to better control your temps/ventatlition issue more accurately.

On another not, i used panthose, yes panty hose to filter my light intake to keep dust out. It provides little air exsistence and also blocks light i have coming out my light intake...

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Exactly. I run about 290 cfm through my hood and I can hold my hand up against the glass of the 400 HPS and keep it there as long as I like and it is just nice and warm. Which lets me keep it closer to the plants.

Picasso that sunsystem, how large are in the hood ducts; and does it generate any noise at 290 cfm due to the shape? By noise i mean, noise you can hear outside the cab from the hood area?

TY sir

here is a pic of my 2 hoods, i did everything you mentioned above(about venting using inline fan). dont know if you can see the tape but I did seal my glass to make sure its air tight. I think the best way to air cool the hood is to vent from wall/attic space threw the hood back into the wall/attic space in another spot. it would require two seperate holes in the wall but if sealed properly you would not effect the ambient grow room air at all. the air in the attic or wall would keep the hood cool and you could use one more fan to exaust thwe man room with a carbon sok on it. I just did the easy rig vented wall to hood,,hood to a 4'' carbon SOK. so air passes Sok from room cools hood and vents through the wall.

FullMetalJacket said:

Picasso that sunsystem, how large are in the hood ducts; and does it generate any noise at 290 cfm due to the shape? By noise i mean, noise you can hear outside the cab from the hood area?

TY sir

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They are 6". I get absolutely zero noise from the hood or even the fan. The only noise is the air as it exits the fan...it sounds like what it is - a lot of air rushing by a vent. What I did was set an old air purifier I had on top of the cabinet near the vent and to a casual observer that explains the air noise.

blinkykush said:

here is a pic of my 2 hoods, i did everything you mentioned above(about venting using inline fan). dont know if you can see the tape but I did seal my glass to make sure its air tight. I think the best way to air cool the hood is to vent from wall/attic space threw the hood back into the wall/attic space in another spot. it would require two seperate holes in the wall but if sealed properly you would not effect the ambient grow room air at all. the air in the attic or wall would keep the hood cool and you could use one more fan to exaust thwe man room with a carbon sok on it. I just did the easy rig vented wall to hood,,hood to a 4'' carbon SOK. so air passes Sok from room cools hood and vents through the wall.

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not going to be ass effctive but you gatta go with what works

no its not as good as the harder way, who didnt know that right..lol but i tested it out and my peak temp was 83 which is high but doable. If i keep the door open i get 79-80. so being in that range and possibly adding a little CO2 later in 12/12 i think ill be ok