High all,


This doodle is a working example of a good wardrobe/box set-up.

The dimensions of the example box are 70cm wide, 50cm deep and around 150-160 cm tall. A wardrobe of these dimensions can be bought at Argos.


The glass in the middle is 4mm tempered glass.

The fan is a 4" RVK/"LTI" if using 250W HPS and a 5" RVK if using 400W.

NB. If using 400W, an active intake is highly recommended, and with 250W an active intake will be better as well.

Note, balance or make the intake fan lower than the overall output with a speed controller, if using a carbon filter on the exhaust, otherwise you'll have over-pressure, and the smell will leak.


A small NFT tank does the job extremely well, but pots are good too, although with the hydro, it's much easier and will yield more.


If using passive intake, it's better to have a 6" clip-on fan or two positioned around the bottom chamber, to circulate the air.


Using this design, the plants stay very cool and happy, and the glass means you can get the bulb nice and close for some very fat and dense buds



NB. Not exactly to scale, just a sketch


All the best

hello trich,
nice piccie!! I wondered whether tempered glass went in the cupboard or on the light shade, know I know. I wonder though is this setup for scrog? Otherwise i presume you cut a few notches in the cupboard in order to move the glass up as the plants grow??

High blessed,


Yes, Scrog gives best yields on a small scale.

You could design a pulley system for the glass.

What I did was make holes a couple of inches up, so I think 3 sets, and used eye hooks to support the glass.

Each time I needed to move the glass up, it was a case of removing the glass, and unscrewing and rescrewing the eye hooks.

You could also keep the glass fixed, and move the NFT tank/pots up and down as most quasi-dual heat chamber growers do.

I've also used stacks of old video tapes with an NFT tank, removing tapes as the plants grew.

The plants will stretch, but this is better suited to scrog, where you can keep them on a fairly even level.

Thats almost exactly what my set up looks like! I havent shown it to anyone. Did you sneak in my house? Hadnt thought of the tempered though. Thats a great idea. Thanks TrichomeUK!
J-bo

ahhhh now I get it! Ta very very much Trichome. I'll get to it now with a lot more confidence.

Wilbur's given me the address of a place for the glass so its full steam ahead

Can i image post?


Edit - Wooo, yes i can

Here is a rough pic of my cabinet

And here is a plan view.
The black areas are where the air flows.

Ikea wardrobes have dowel holes about an inch apart all the way up the wardrobe so you can place dowels at various levels to move the glass to suit the plants height. I have the light on a pulley so it can be moved easily.

I worked out the area of the black areas where the air flows and ordered the glass so that the black areas were the same area as the 5" circular intake on the lti.

The fan just hangs in a cradle suspended from the roof of the wardrobe.

Remember to use square pots if using soil to maximise the use of such a small space. And draw where the pots are going to go on the wardrobe floor before drilling intakes (presuming that the wardrobe has a gap under it, like mine).

Wilbur

This is nuts!

I was going to ask a question (mainly aimed at yourself) regarding fitting an LTI/RVK fan into a small scale grow... And you've answered it using the exact dimensions of my box...

Sound

One other question tho'.
I've seen the end of the fan that goes into the grow area (+filter).. But what about the other end? The bit that does the work..

Where do you house that on a grow of this scale? I'm under the assumption that it is quite bulky and slightly noisy...

I'm growing 1 plant scrog in a pot at the moment but as soon as it's finished I'll be doing a few more....
I'll also post some pictures up soon - hopefully.

thanks, j.

Hope this answers your question.

Due to the size of my wardrobe, i can't fit in a carbon filter so i am going to make one to suit my available space.

Scuse the shitty picture.



Wilbur

its a good job i saw trichome's sketches cos I was gonna try and fit the glass to the reflector - I didn't realise the glass was being used to create a sort of second chamber. top idea! I reckon it will work good in my set up.

Just a quick question, does fitting glass between the lamp and the plants have a detrimental effect on the intensity of light ie efficiency loss/mm of glass ?
Am presuming that the loss is far outweighed by the benefit of getting the plants much closer ?

Just interested in these things

Little Rach x

I havent looked into light loss through glass properly, but on a few aquarium sites, they reckon it is about a 5% loss. They are using flouros though so i dont know if that makes much of a difference.
I would think being able to have the buds 4-5 inches from the bulb would more than make up for the loss of light.



Wilbur

Thanks - this is just the response I was hoping for.

"One other question tho'.
I've seen the end of the fan that goes into the grow area (+filter).. But what about the other end? The bit that does the work..

Where do you house that on a grow of this scale? I'm under the assumption that it is quite bulky and slightly noisy... "


> Do you mean the ducting m8?

If possible, duct to the loft or directly outside through a vent., etc.


The noise is very low indeed, and the fan and filter can be housed even quieter by creating a cradle, as per Wilbur's, and hang with elasticated rope (£1.19/m at B&Q - blue/white & thick).

To secure in the fan and filter in the drawn configuration, I used 2 chains, crossed across the bottom of the filter, and supported with heavy duty eye hooks at the top.


But, this is the main idea, and is subject to adaptation, depending on the circumstances.

Inside the box, paint flat white, or coat in black and white plastic.

Mylar can be used as a foot wide strip around the colas, but is not recommended for the whole box ("Wilbur!!!"), as it creates too much heat - not so bad for a 250W HPS, but a 400W HPS in there will appreciate white walls.

I constantly hear about glass being bad because you lose light!

> The extra lumens you get through having the bulb closer, far outweigh the loss, and the plants appreciate the temperature difference immensely!


The difference in temps. from the top and bottom chambers is phenominal! This is because most of the radiated heat is kept off the plants

Thanks trich..

"Do you mean the ducting m8?"
No, I was under the impression that the fan was made up of...


Cylindrical intake/filter ----> Ducting ---> Big box with some kind of fan workings ---> Output Ducting ---> Outside...

but - I thought wrong - i think....

No m8, connect the carbon filter directly to the fan with a "fastclamp", and also some duct tape to be extra sure.

This will mean more power than separating the filter and fan with ducting.

I hope that after all this technical stuff is sorted out you lot will get back to growing plants.

How fickle fashion is. One minute it's air-cooled lamps then it's quasi whatsits.

I recommend Highlander piss to improve your grow.

Highlander, would this not be a more suitable avatar?





Wilbur

Wilbur

Is she yours or mine?

I can't remember!!!!

Do you like this?

Animal porn!!!