Some data from initial setup & after some adjustments, with the end-goal being good Leaf VPD, while keeping all of the parameters in ‘happy plant’ range.
After eight hours the box was running pretty cold. Around 77f to 78f air temps, & leaf temps were around 69f. RH was running around 56% RH as an average, moving between around 52% to 60%.
I can see running some quick numbers through the VPD calculator that my Leaf VPD is probably a little slow overall, & in my mind, the leaves are probably a little cold, & there is headroom in my air temps.
My PPFD is already set where I want it, & the light is set to minimum power (25%) running the ‘veg’ channel only, where I want it for now.
(I could bring in the UV/Far Red ‘bloom’ channel early to see what it does to leaf temps, but for now I’m not going to do that yet.)
In my mind, I don’t ever want the air temps to go above 86f, & I don’t want the leaf temps to go above 82f, & those are my max numbers that they might hit on a very hot day.
I have the least control over my RH & if ambient RH gets too high there is not much I can do about it, but right now ambient RH is low, so I can do some work.
First adjustments were to raise my A/C target temp from 71f to 74f.
Then I raised my exhaust fan setpoint around 5f higher than it was.
Then I lowered my RH setpoint from 56% to 51%.
Results after about 4 hours are air temps are up to 82f - 83f, RH 46% - 49%, leaf temps up to around 73f. Running some quick numbers though the VPD calculator & I can see that my Leaf VPD should be higher now. Right now I’m looking for a Leaf VPD of around .8 kPa thru 1.0 to see if the plant can take it yet. If not, I can adjust the air temp, leaf temp, &/ or RH to lower the Leaf VPD, & I can use the VPD calculator ahead of time to see what does what, & then go for what I think I can realistically do, keeping in mind not to use any ‘far out’ parameters that could lead to an unhappy plant.