Does 250w need ventilation?

TheWiseInfidel

Active Member
I'm getting ready to buy a light kit for my first grow and i want to know if it would be necessary to get a cool tube for the light at that wattage. my grow space is about 2X8X9ft and i will be running(eventually) 2 250w on 4 plants. i want to know if it WOULD be necessary to get a cooltube and duct the heat out of the lights or if i would be alright with a box fan and a scrubber fan, and maybe a couple computer fans blowing directly on the lights.
 
you may not need a cool tube fixture but you will still need to vent the heat out of the room with a good exhaust system. when buying your ventilation setup, get something large enough that will also handle the additional heat from the 2nd light if not in cool tubes.

it would be nice if you could run a 250 in the room to see what your temps are before you order a light.
 
LMAO if only it were that easy. that's why i'm leaning on buying the cooltube to take the extra precautions for heat. assuming that i buy a reflector kit instead how would i go about venting the room? I was thinking of just keeping the ends of the sliding doors open about 8 inches and having a box fan blowing air on one side then having an exhaust fan on the other side. with the cool tubes i would be able to attach the exhaust fan to both the lights and duct it to vent the air but its 40 more dollars per kit to buy a cool tube. is there anything in terms of heat output that a 250w would be equivalent to?
 
LMAO if only it were that easy. that's why i'm leaning on buying the cooltube to take the extra precautions for heat. assuming that i buy a reflector kit instead how would i go about venting the room? I was thinking of just keeping the ends of the sliding doors open about 8 inches and having a box fan blowing air on one side then having an exhaust fan on the other side. with the cool tubes i would be able to attach the exhaust fan to both the lights and duct it to vent the air but its 40 more dollars per kit to buy a cool tube. is there anything in terms of heat output that a 250w would be equivalent to?

from all that i've read, cool tubes blow... you'd be much better off getting a nice air cooled hood over a cool tube.. cool tubes don't spread light very well compared to a normal hood, and i've also heard of loss of lumens in cool tubes over conventional hoods / aircooled hoods imo..
 
To the best of my knowledge there is not a direct proportion ratio of watt of bulb to potential degree increase.
 
i would guess without proper ventilation, no air cooled hood, ballast remote located , a 250 open bulb no reflector will raise your temp around 7 degrees. only a guess mind you. and a 2nd light will be hotter.

to exchange your air once per min. you need a 144 cfm fan

if heat is an issue then you will want to exchange the air 3-5 times per minute.

without air cooled hoods you may want to go 3 times per min or a 432 cfm inline fan. a filter will restrict some of that.


edit- if you use a reflector and close enough to the plants, you may see an even higher temp at the canopy without a good circ fan.
 
from all that i've read, cool tubes blow... you'd be much better off getting a nice air cooled hood over a cool tube.. cool tubes don't spread light very well compared to a normal hood, and i've also heard of loss of lumens in cool tubes over conventional hoods / aircooled hoods imo..

They do blow, just get a hood with a hole in both sides they make them so you can hook up flex to them.
 
They do blow, just get a hood with a hole in both sides they make them so you can hook up flex to them.

I wouldn't exactly say that. ;) Only 21 days into 12/12, 31 day veg.
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Now, I'm not saying it's the best invention since sliced bread. I wouldn't exactly say they blow. Air cooled hoods are a bit better. You won't really notice a major difference anyways. Also, lumen is a human measurement plants really don't give two shits about lumen. It's all about that spectrum and light penetration. 250W do put off heat, after all it's an HID light. You'd probably be ok running a batwing with an inline fan right behind or in front of it sucking the heat away.

Luminous flux is a measure of the amount of light that is visible to the human eye, and lumens are the unit used to describe this measurement. So, why don't lumens matter when it comes to growing plants? Basically, lumens will show you how well a human eye will be able to see under a given light source...but plants don't have human eyes.
 
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