lowering temperature under lights at night

18 years ago

I am growing orchids in my basement under lights. I have the humidity constantly hovering around 50%. My day temps approach about 85, and at night i am only able to lower this to the low 70's.

The room is vented to the outside, and at this time i am unablet to get outside air back into the room, other than through the door to the basement. My temps in the basement are about 68 at night. I have placed a fan to pull this air through the room, and even run the exhaust fan at night for the flow to go through. But i can not seem to get the temperature below 70 consistently.

any ideas on a cooling system or other ideas please???

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Comments (7)

utsharpie
18 years ago
try using aircooled hoods on your lights and connecting it to a squirrel cage exhause fan
nygardener
18 years ago
orchidgiant, I'm having trouble understanding your setup. How is your room vented to the outside? Does it have any windows? Where is the fan that pulls air through the room? Where does the door to the basement lead to? Are there other rooms in the basement, and do they get cool enough at night? What are nighttime temperatures outdoors? Are you trying to lower the temperature during the day, or just at night?

I generally use a window fan to cool my small grow room. (All my plants are now outdoors for the summer.) At night, when the light's off, it's still a little warmer indoors than out, because the building retains heat.
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orchidgiant
Original Author
18 years ago
The exhaust van is located in the back of the room, along the ceiling. Air is moved out of the room, through a duct to the outside. (I put a hole in side of the house for the vent, and my loving wife says no more holes, or i would just put a vent to allow cooler outside air back into the room)

The room is freestanding, covered with plastic. There are no other rooms in basement. The basement does get cool, about 65, at night, but my grow room does not get that cool. I am trying to find a way to make it cooler.

Thanks for the help, i will look into the aircooled hoods.
utsharpie
18 years ago
also try a window ac unit. just make an enclosure for it and hook up an exhaust fan to the enclosure. make sure your enclosure has a carb on it so air can be pulled from it
shrubs_n_bulbs
18 years ago
Have you tried reversing the direction of the air flow? Pull cool air from outside and push it into the basement.
nygardener
18 years ago
Another simple trick is to place a hassock fan on the floor of the grow room, to move cool air from near the floor and circulate it upwards 360Â°. Combined with a few small vents in your plastic, this might help move cool air in and push warm air out.
lucy
18 years ago
I'm also growing orchs, but in quite an enclosed place ('Indoor Greenhouse'). I installed a little fan inside which I just turn on for a short time when it seems to need it, but it never gets a lot cooler in there (~5 F.) o-night (no fan on) and the plants seem to be fine. I worried at first about it, but I think they've adapted pretty well... I have Dens. and Phals. and Vanda and Miltoniopsis and BLC's and Tillandsias, Broms, kumquats, a banana, etc. The lighting is a specialized kind that came with the g-house, but doesn't put out a lot of its own heat. I can't let it go very cool (below about 68-70) because I also have a betta fish in a 10 gal. tank in there with the roots of a drac. ("Lucky bamboo:) and piece of a peace lily in the water... and the fish needs to be kept warm.

lowering temperature under lights at night

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utsharpie

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lowering temperature under lights at night

Comments (7)

utsharpie

nygardener

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orchidgiantOriginal Author

utsharpie

shrubs_n_bulbs

nygardener

lucy

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orchidgiant
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