Hooded HPS Light with No Air Flow Problem?

[Need2Know]

See attached picture. My 600w hooded air flow light outlet reducer has melted. It melted while doing a test run of my tents set up before introducing seedlings. I ordered a metal reducer to replace the melted plastic one. This made me start to think that these 600w HPS lights need constant exhaust fan air or there could be catastrophic damage done. To regulate my 1x1x2m tent temperature, I’m thinking of installing an ON (26 degree) and OFF (22 degree) exhaust fan temperature controller to get away from using a heater during these cold (0 to 10 degree c) temperatures. The tent set up is in an unheated garage. It’s winter. What to you all think? Is it not good to run a 600w light, with a washer/drier expanding vent duct exhaust, while the exhaust fan is off?

[Bluey]

Insulate the outside of your tent and use a 400W ish LED.

LED's keep my insulated grow room at a comfortable temp during winter nights (0 to 6⁰C) and winter days (10 to 16⁰C) I just give the heater a short run from time to time when the dehumidifier is not quite putting out enough heat.

[Need2Know]

Thanks for the input Bluey.

[Rootsruler]

I would consider using light umbrellas if you aren't cooling hoods.

[Smallgrow]

I definitely wouldn’t use plastic expandable pipe , with a 600w HPS, you shouldnt use that with a dryer either, honestly.
At a minimum the metal expandable, but really it should be proper metal ridged duct pipe for safety

[Need2Know]

I ended up going with a unbrella light hood like Rootsruler suggested. See pic. I also got a couple of metal vent reducers for the ends of the air cooled 600w lights when I use it next time. Maybe some insulated expandable vent duct also. Attached is a pic of the simple set up of my basic set up with the exhaust fan temp control. Merry Christmas all.

[Rootsruler]

You can place the fan on the top of the tent and run the duct into the tent so that the fan is pulling air. This will save you some head room in the tent and you can raise the light higher if you need to now that the fan is out of the way. It'll be a little louder so if it's setup in your bedroom then you may want to reconsider but the fan outside will save you room in the tent.

I noticed you are using an inlet fan. I like to use the exhaust fan to also pull air into the tent through the bottom flaps rather than pushing it in with a fan.

When I set up the environmentals in the tent I like to set a base fan speed so that fresh air is constantly circulating in the tent. I have a digital controller from AC Infinity so I set the temp and humidity ranges I want the plants to live in and review the graphs to see where the temp and/or humidity go out of range and adjust the exhaust fan speed accordingly. Depending on atmospheric conditions I can usually get the environmentals to stay within range for almost all of lights on with it occasionally going out of range but getting back in once the controller detects it turns up the fan speed to compensate.

[Need2Know]

Rootsruler: I looked up the AC infinity fans and really like the Cloudline Pro T6, Quiet Inline Duct Fan System With Temperature Humidity Vpd Controller, 6-Inch
Regular price£169.99... That's the ticket! Wow. It's what I'm trying to do, only better. Ha ha. I'll have to see if Santa brings me money this year. At the very least, I'll take your info and put the data in my records for a possible future purchase. Thanks. Also noted moving the exhaust fan out the 1x1x2 tent in the garage. The greater noise isn't a problem. I'll go there if I have to. I'm currently growing Auto, so height shouldn't be a problem. Last point is the inlet fan... There are no circular openings at the bottom of my Budda tent, only rectangular flaps. That's why I'm leading down with the inlet fan duct work from the upper area rather than the bottom. I got most of my equipment used off local online market places. Thanks for your input. Your input has helped me think more clearly about my basic set up. Thumbs up.

[Rootsruler]

I purchased their T6 package when the only controller they had was the Controller 67. The 69 Pro is really nice. I don't remember if it is Wifi compatible but if it's not, opt for the Wifi version. It will allow you to be able to access your tent specs wherever you have an internet connection.

My main tent is a 5F/1.5M x 5F/1.5M x 6F/2M.

The way I size my fan to my tent is to calculate the amount of air exchanges I want in the tent by the cubic feet the tent occupies. Ideally, you want a complete air exchange every 5 to 10 minutes so you're looking at between 6 - 12 exchanges an hour. Using your tent as an example, converting it to american measurements, you have a 3 x 3 x 6 tent. That converts to 54 cu/ft. The T6 can move 402 CFM. Six air exchanges would mean you need to move 324 cu/ft/hr of air out of your tent to satisfy the minimum amount of air exchanges. As you can see the T6 is more than enough for your size tent. I would say it's a bit oversized but that's not a bad thing. You could probably get away with their T4 but you'd probably be running it at max for a majority of the time. That means faster equipment failure.

[Bluey]

Also the faster it runs the noisier it is so uprising for silence works too.