well the 2 fans are 240v fans used to cool industrial control cabinets in manufacturing facilities. i have no idea what there cfm is, but they scream when there on. i imagine they would be kinda badass to use for a cooltube, but i dont liek cooltubes, i think there a pain in the ass! so i use tricks i have learned from my years on jobstes dealing with massive air handling systems in commercial buildings, just scaled down in theory and complexity. temps have never been an issue. that particular cab is a work in construction, one i use to run experiments in. the top exhaust stays on whenever the lights are on, in this case its 24/7. if the temps exceed 80f the temp sensor kicks on the bottom fan to pressurize the interior of the cab,which acts as a most efficient exhaust, similair to a smoke exhuast system used on large buildings just on a smaller scale. originally i had the bottom fan on 24/7 like the upper, but it was so cold in there it started to inhibit growth. i put it on a thermostat but it hasnt kicked on since. i havent run the cab in summertime yet so no idea how it will perform in higher ambient temps. right now the temp in the room the cab is in stays around 65-70 deg f, a little low but with the 400w i have in there it stays about 72-75 in the cab with the upper fan on only.
lightproofing is not an issue in this case, so i havent bothered with fooling with it. but in the past typically i would use mylar to cover the walls, using 3m adhesive... the headliner repair glue is the shiznit for this, but you have to work quick because the glue tacks pretty fast and the mylar film sticks to it like superglue so you have to be ready to hang it once you apply the stuff. i find its much easier to work with smaller peices rather than trying to use a whole emerg blanket, that way if you have a bad wrinkle or crease its not a big deal to peel off the small peice. the hardest part is blocking the light escaping from the crack between the 2 doors but after some thought i came up with the simpelest of solutions, a 2" cardboard strip glued down the backside of one door so that 1" overhangs. that way when the doors shut the seam is blocked. it would be just as easy to do the same for the top and bottom seams as well, but like i said, its not a problem in my case, stealth is not an issue. i just like using the cabs to fool around with plants for mothers because it is so easy to monitor exactly whats going on.
but when i started out in apts i had a few stealthy ops lol.
right now i just acquired another cab, but slighly bigger and made of wood, looks like something you would get at target or walmart, laminated white, with adjustable shelves, bout 36w x 20"d x 72" tall. i think it will make a great flower cab for a small dwc sog with room for vegging small clones on top. the way the cab is made light leakage between the top and bottom sections will be a cinch to solve, really just a matter of some duct tape because the shelves are a near perfect fit. i have a couple of old 400w pulse start magentic ballasts lying around, i was thinking of peicing together a 400w mh light for the top, and maybe line the sides with some vertical floro grow lamps i 'liberated' from a local university that was going to throw them out. (they were upgrading there lights and would have had to have paid them a disposal fee. call me a good samaritan for eleminating that fee for them, lol scored an entire case of free 4' lamps! like 150$ worth... so in my head the lower cab will look like some kind of wierd phototron/ old school vert mh inspired frankensteins lab contraption. for the upper ill just toss some cfl's in there, and i have a shitload of exhaust fans lying around so it will be fun to come up with a solution to make it all work. hopefully ill have it done by tommorrow (sans the rez, im lacking a big enough air pump and i havent took my lazy ass to town to get one. also will need nutes and that will be a problem cuz nutes and net pots are hard as hell to find around here, theres only one hydro shop in 50 miles from here and its expensive and kinda shady... called worms way. hate the place.
T
