better venting and temp control

[BROMAN]

My first grow is finishing within about a week. I'm already looking forward to the next grow. I'm in the south and during the winter the temps sometimes spike.high sixties low seventies means I'm above 80° at canopy with no ac and cross vent. It spiked here recently and I put the ac on set to 70. Its like it had no effect. My room's ac vent doesn't blow directly into the room but, into a wall and is mounted below the ceiling. I'm set up in the closet with a passive intake and venting into the room. There is no option for venting anywhere else. 6x14 intake, carbon filter, insulated ducting, cooltube, Ins ducting, 6" cap fan, ducting, exhaust. Besides the bedrooms vent issues I think its the kinks in my ducts where they bend that's keeping the negative pressure low. How can I fix this in my tight space? I do plan to increase the size of the intake.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

How big is your closet? What size light are you running?

 

[zem]

well, those bends in ducts, even long ducts, diminish venting by a lot, and it can be frustrating. however, 80 is still okay imo. to increase venting, you absolutely need to find a way for easier airflow. i place the exhaust fan at the very end blowing straight out with no duct, and i always gave this issue priority and figured a way to do that stealthily. if you abslutely need a curved duct, make it as big as possible, and make the curves as smooth as possible, even if you had to sacrifice breaking or cutting some wall to make it happen. one more thing that can happen, is misplacing the oscillating fans, which can actually cause the exhaust to become almost null in exchanging air, especially if they are oversized for your chamber, it can become a a windy hot as hell chamber in there with all the fans working, so check on that by turning off the oscillating fans and see if the temps go down

 

[BROMAN]

Sorry.. The closet is 2'x8 (3' sectioned off for dark period)', the light is a dual 400w cool tube. At one end the filter sits on the shelf with duct leading down to the light which hangs from the shelf. After the tube and duct the fan is suspended in a box from the shelf then, duct to exhaust hole in the door up high. Temps can reach 85° and I hydrate the girls and unplug one lamp.. Like right now the temps were high so I fed after two days instead of 3 and cut off 1 light.
The oscillating fan is drawing air from the intake vent and blowing it over the ladies towards the filter.with it off temps go up a couple degrees or more depending? A 6" duct bend didn't fit in or over the cool tube opening, I'll have to anchor hooks then I could hang the fan from the ceiling.

 

[zem]

with 1 400w and 6' fan there is definitely something diminishing airflow. i would do watever it takes to get it right, and believe me if a couple of anchors do the trick, then that is nothing to worry about

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Are you vegging or flowering? I got a little lost on your description of your space...are you using a 2 x 5 space out of a total 2 x 8' space? Is this for vegging? And the 3 x 2 space for flowering ("3' sectioned off for dark period")? If so, you are probably going to want to reverse this as the flowering space needs to be bigger than the vegging space.

Do not connect the carbon filter until you need it. The filter will affect your air flow a lot--far more than bends or long duct runs. I do not believe that a larger intake is going to help you any. Also, I believe that sitting the filter on a shelf is probably obstructing the air intake even more. This should probably be hung, so you can actually pull air in all the way around it. I am having no problems at all keeping a 400W cool in a 32 x 32 tent in a space with ambient temps around 65--the tent is running about 70 with the fan on low.

 

[BROMAN]

I've got three plants going in 4gal mass p buckets, one a single plant scrog. I switch them from light to dark on schedule. The plant are cool to the touch when the come out of the dark. The dual 400w was fine when temps outside were say 50° or less. I'd just open the window(s). Now with the ac on at 68-70° the room is hot and canopy temps are 84-85 if I don't turn off one light. This drops it to 79 80. I figured ifncreased airflow would increase neg pressure drawing cooler air from the rest of the house. And a larger intake had been councilled by some early on.

 

[BROMAN]

Oh, and as always Thg , Zem and others your expertise and help is appreciated.