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250w HID light in wardrobe, heat a problem, is light too powerful?


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Hi everyone. I have a problem with heat in my indoor grow, and I'd really appreciate the input of the experienced indoor growers on this site. 

 

I have a wardrobe. I'm trying to grow two or three small plants (personal use only). They're at the seedling stage now. Anyway, these are the relevant facts as far as I can tell:

 

  • The wardrobe is roughly 45cm deep, 80cm wide, and 120cm high. I have the plants on a shelf, so if necessary I can remove it and extend the height of the wardrobe to 150cm, but it's currently at 120cm. 
  • I have a 250w ballast and two globes: one is HPS and the other MH. Both seem to work in the same ballast (I think it's an HPS ballast and the MH globe is a special one that works with HPS ballasts). 
  • There is a 120mm exhaust fan at the top of the wardrobe, and I've drilled a few passive intake holes along the bottom. 

 

Anyway, the main problem is that when the HID light is on, the heat goes crazy. The wardrobe is in the shed, and it gets hot enough in there during the day, but the light adds about 15C to the ambient shed temperature. Thus when it's about 30C in the shed, I'm reading around 45C or more in the wardrobe. This is too high, obviously. 

 

I'm running the light about 40cm above the plants, but I can raise it if necessary. Regardless, I don't know if it will make a huge distance. The temperature readings that I'm measuring are taken at the seedling level. 

 

What I'm wondering is: is the light just too damn powerful for such a small place? Has anyone ever successfully grown using an HID lamp of this wattage in such a small space? Should I shift to CFL lights? I'd rather not, because I don't want to fork out any more money!

 

Does anybody have any input on this topic? Thanks all in advance for your help. 

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30C is pushing it, 45 is way over the top.

Have you tried vegging at night, 4pm till 10am, should miss most of the heat of the day ?

I grow and flower over the night hours

More ventilation or larger grow space.

Whatever you do you need get the heat level down.

Cfl’s will reduce the heat but also reduce your yield from what you can get from your HID light.

You have just started growing at the wrong time as the heat will only get worse

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Have you tried vegging at night, 4pm till 10am, should miss most of the heat of the day ?

...

You have just started growing at the wrong time as the heat will only get worse

Sigh... Yeah, bad timing I know. I tested temps at night a while ago and it was still pretty hot. I'm not surprised to discover that other people have thought of this, though. I guess I'll grow at night as you suggest, but I'd like to also get the heat down even more for those hot summer nights!

 

I'm thinking of getting a cool tube. Has anybody tried them out? Maybe a smaller one might do the trick. More money going into this project. Should have just stuck to buying the stuff!

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I forgot about cool tubes, they will help.

You will need to vent the heat out of the shed, not just the wardrobe.

Venting from shed, odour control ?

That combined with night growing should help a lot.

Without aircon you will never escape from the ambient temp.

You may be spending now but if all goes well you will save ??? habit dependant amount.

I have spent thousands over the years on equipment and seeds, saved 10's of thousands

Better in my pocket than some dealer with pissy deals.

No running around trying to score for me. :greedy:

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Yes, you're right. I'm not a heavy user, but I'm kind of determined to get this growing thing right just as a point of personal pride. I may not save much in the long run but I want to get it sorted out since it's an interesting challenge right now. Also it's more convenient than trying to chase down dealers etc. I don't like having to rely on other people for these sorts of things!

 

Thanks for your input, Train Wreck. 

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I have a 400w HPS in a drobe roughly 1200mm x 640mm and 1600mm tall.

I'm using a cooltube. I can't begin to imagine the heat without it! :faint:

I also have a fan sucking air out of the room the drobe is in to help keep the ambient temps down.

A shed, you're always going to have issues in I think, unless you have an AC unit out there, or you insulate the shed.
But venting the room the drobe is in, not just the drobe, is important imo.

 

Good luck.

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