cost efficient material for cab

Made a cab but temps stay at 90 degrees steady. Had thin insulation with 400 watt cooltube, and still hot. Maybe walls made out of window screen material? Appreciate other ideas.

where do you get your intake air from?

Near floor. Out is at the top. Or are you referring to the cooltube

whats the temp of the room the cab is in? do you have seperate fans for cooltube and exhaust?

How big is your cab and what kind of fan(s) are you using? and AKAIK, material shouldn't matter much, unless you are growing in a metal cabinet?

HealthInspector said:

whats the temp of the room the cab is in? do you have seperate fans for cooltube and exhaust?

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Room temp is about 60 degrees before the light turns on. Light is venting into room and raises room temp about 5 degrees. I have seperate fans for exhaust and the cooltube.

Phatbowl said:

How big is your cab and what kind of fan(s) are you using? and AKAIK, material shouldn't matter much, unless you are growing in a metal cabinet?

Click to expand...

Cab is about 2.5ft x 2.5ft x 5.5ft. Only doing a personal 4 plant grow. I have 6" inline booster fans. Its working great on the exhaust for the carbon filter, as the door is made out of panda film and gets sucked in. The insulation I used is about 3/4" thick with the shiny side on the inside. Should I somehow try to exhaust my light out of the room or maybe into my furnace?

if you can run a hose from fresh air to your cooltube then exhaust and run that fan on the same schedule as your light. that should bring your temps down. 60 degrees is pretty good to work with. should have no issues if you move enough air.

So I've been researching R values for my insulation and the 3/4" foam and foil Polyurethane Insulation (Polyiso for short) has a R value of 7-8 per inch of thickness.

Whereas 3/4" plywood has a R value of .97

This very well could be my problem could it not?

I'm pretty sure hte issue is that you have a 400 watt lamp in a space not much bigger than the reflector. Lots of heat off the lamp, not a lot of air to heat up. you need to cool the lamp down, in my opinion. i don't think the material is any where near as relevant as cooling the light. I suggest a constant fan on the cool tube, from fresh air through the tube and out to exhaust. will be the easiest way to lower the temps.

get rid of insulation.............i run a 400 and 600 in a cb 1.2m x 1m x 1.4 hi without probs

sheapdog420 said:

Made a cab but temps stay at 90 degrees steady. Had thin insulation with 400 watt cooltube, and still hot. Maybe walls made out of window screen material? Appreciate other ideas.

Click to expand...

Check out my diy inline fan, its my sig, cost $30 and works AWESOME, you can prob make a smaller version of it for your cab and would def lower temps... mine lowered temps in my 6x8x8 room8 degrees in 10 minutes.

Anyway we can see a picture or two?

Lol, just fyi, insulating your cabinet will not help lower the temperatures, it will infact... Raise them

insulation or lack of won't solve your problem. airflow will. since your room is staying under 70, you need more air into the cab. inline fans are not great at moving air through a filter. can you remove the filter far a day? negitive preasure in a cab is a good thing to control smells but it could be because your airflow is to restricted by to small an intake. passive intakes should be double the size of the fan opening. can you enlarge it to the point your door barely gets sucked in?

reverof- Thats a great idea + rep, I already have that exact fan too.

mrmadcow- I'm gonna try your idea of increasing the passive intakes first before I proceed any further.

I think the issue is a multitude of issues.
1) Insulation
2) Small space
3) Not enough airflow

The combination of the 3 are what is keeping the temps up. I'm gonna start with airflow (couple of options), then insulation, then space.

Thanks for the ideas and insight. I'll keep you posted as I proceed.

Well I increased passive intakes and that lowered by 1degree. Then I replaced online fan with reverof's plan, and now down to 80-81. So I think im good to go.

Thanks for the help. You guys been very helpful!