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By Sundews69
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Joined:  Fri Dec 03, 2021 5:57 pm
#425875
Has anyone used this cabinet for plants https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rudsta-gla ... -50450137/? What lights did you use? I'm thinking of switching to yescoms from these: https://www.amazon.com/SZHLUX-Spectrum- ... NrPXRydWU=. These are way to hot and they make the inside of the cabinet unlivable for my helis. Usually it raises the temps by 15-20F
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By Camden
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#425877
I’m not all that familiar with lighting but maybe if you switched to light bulbs and used something like this you could have more room for flowers and things. I can’t say I’m familiar with the cabinet, great idea though! I might just have to make a trip to ikea (or more likely, take advantage of the moment when we do actually go to ikea lol).
By Sundews69
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#425879
I've thought about using bulbs but it's just easier to use a large panel. I have an old goose neck grow light leaning against the glass because the middle level doesn't get enough light though. So if you do get one (which I highly recommend. It holds humidity great with some weather strips and electrical tape over the cracks) you'll need to get lights that don't emit heat. Also the plants on the top level prevent 90% of the light from reaching the middle shelf.
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By Intheswamp
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#425881
All lights will put out heat, including LED lights. I've got three cheap 48" Walmart LED shop lights (5000-lumens each) and they get really hot on the cord-end. I've got the two "garage" LED lights hanging from the ceiling (8000-lumens each) and they get hot. And finally, I've got the Mars Hydro TS600 panel...it gets hot. None of these get anywhere near as hot as an incandescent but in a completely closed cabinet any of them would be deadly hot for plants.

I take it that you've already got the cabinet from Ikea, Sundews69? If so then what you need is some ventilation fans of some sort. Google "grow tent ventilation".
By Sundews69
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#425882
I'm aware that all lights put out heat. I just mean ones that don't emit as much. Mine are too hot to touch without getting burned.

Yes, I already have the cabinet. I've had it for a few months. I did have a fan but I think it didn't work well with the cabinet so I took it out. I meant to look for a new fan but forgot
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By NightRaider
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#425886
If you're handy and have the tools you'd need already you could fit some 80mm pc fans in the back for ventilation, but you'd probably lose too much humidity doing that. The solution I decided on when making mine was adding a second shelf with glass or plexiglass for the lights to set on and then ventilating the light shelf, but with this cabinet that's probably not practical and you still might would need to put a sheet of foam insulation between any lights and the shelf above to keep the heat from cooking the next shelf up.
It could probably be done, but cabinets take quite a bit of work and planning for heat dissipation and can get expensive fast. Even if you got cooler lights, I would expect it to still take a lot of work to hit a good humidity/heat balance, to the point it may not be practical for this one. There IS a chance with all thin sides and progressively adding ventilation bit by bit that it might could dissipate enough heat and hold enough humidity to work out for petiolaris, pygmies and LL neps though, but you probably couldn't get much more than 150ppfd on them which is enough light IME but not exactly ideal. The only way is to try it though, and it could very well end up not working out like you'd hope or getting more expensive than you'd planned for.
If it helps though, I actually use similar lights to those for my cabinet and with 2x24W, separated from the plants with a plexiglass panel, 3/4" wood sides on the light shelf and thin veneer for the back, and only the gaps around the door for ventilation I get these temps and humidity:
LLData.PNG
LLData.PNG (28.31 KiB) Viewed 4696 times
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By Intheswamp
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#425899
Sundews69 wrote: Thu Dec 15, 2022 3:32 am I'm aware that all lights put out heat. I just mean ones that don't emit as much. Mine are too hot to touch without getting burned.

Yes, I already have the cabinet. I've had it for a few months. I did have a fan but I think it didn't work well with the cabinet so I took it out. I meant to look for a new fan but forgot
The thing is that even something putting out a small amount of heat will build heat up in a sealed area. A 1500W electric heater will do nothing (to speak of) for heating up a gymnasium, but put the same heater in a small 8x10 square foot room (640 cubic feet)and it will heat it up. The same thing with putting a light that doesn't emit much heat in something the size of your cabinent (maybe 12 cubic feet)...it will heat it up, maybe too much, without ventilation.

You might want to check this webpage out: IKEA Greenhouse Cabinet Guide I didn't read into it, but it looks like it might be helpful in giving you some ideas and pointing you in the right direction for what you want. ;)
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