1st Grow Questions - 400W Stealth Room

[JoeRocket2]

I will be setting up my 1st grow room & would like some advice. This operation must be as stealth as possible to keep my wife happy & me out of the doghouse.

The space I will be using is a small concrete room on 3 sides & the ceiling, with the 4th wall being wood with a door. The room measures 4.5' x 4.5' x 6' , or roughly 120 cubic feet, and is in the basement of a house we own.

Fortunately, this is an old well room and there is a 15A outlet on its own circuit that I believe used to run a pump of some sort, so I dont think power will be an issue.

I am planning to purchase a 400W electronic switchable ballast with a 4" or 6" air-cooled hood.

I am also planning to buy a 12" x 14" x 4" Eco Plus Carbonaire carbon filter (16 lbs. of carbon) and suitable fan for odor & temp control.

Fan Questions - Remembering that stealth is #1 concern, I am looking at 2 styles of fans....the Eco Plus 4" inline 170CFM or a Panasonic FV-10NLF1 - http://www.iaqsource.com/product.php...product=111089.
I would like to be able to use a "speedster" or similar speed control with my fan to help control noise & air flow. Anyone have experience with either of these fans that can comment on noise? Do the speed controls cause inline fans to hum or make more noise? The instructions with the Panasonic state NOT to use a solid state speed control with it. It has a capacitor type motor, any idea if another type of speed control will work?

I have heard that the Panasonic is very quiet, but I want to make sure I have enough power to pull air thru the scrubber, the possibly the light, then out an exhaust vent.
With a 400W electronic ballast light setup, do you think I will even need to air-cool the light in my room or do you think that pulling warm room air thru the scrubber & out might be enough?

Exhausting the scrubbed air will be another challenge. The one wood wall in my room with the door connects to the main room of my basement. 2/3 of that wall is door, the other 1/3 has a large wooden wardrobe closet sitting right outside the wall, leaving a small gap of about 1" - 1 1/2" between the two I can use for intake & exhaust. The gap runs from top to bottom, but is very narrow. My thought is to place a 4" to 6" passive intake at the bottom of the wall (room can also draw some air from the area between the rafters in the ceiling as there is about a 12" section in the top of my room that connects to the area between my basement tiled ceiling and the floor above).

For exhaust, I am considering a couple of things to try to keep exiting wind noise at a minimum. One is splitting the 4" hose into 2 (or more) and then runnung it out a couple of 4" exhaust holes at the top of the room. Again, this will basically blow the air at a wall right outside the hole.....Too much noise? The other is to construct a long box with a 4" intake and seal it up against the inside of my wall. Then make either 1 large cutout in the wall for exhaust or many smaller ones. Because of the close placement of the wardrobe closet to the outside wall, I should be able to make large exhaust holes in the wall without it being noticed from the main basement room.
Does anyone have advice on how to best vent my room while keeping things quiet?

As far as Odor Control goes, I am planning on growing 4-6 plants at a time right now.
I am VERY limited as to exhaust options so I'm pretty much needing to control odor inside rather then vent it outside.
Do you think I will be OK venting my carbon scrubber into my main basement room?

What kind of smell can I expect.....nothing at all.....minor smell in basement....smell leakage upstairs in house?

Fan/Air noise and odor are my two biggest concerns as my wife will not allow anything too noticable.

Any advice I can get from you experienced growers will be much appreciated!!!!


Thanks in advance,
Joe

[Hanky danky]

You should just tell her man, she is going to find it sooner than later and its not going to be worth the headache... trust me. Its your house, tell her whats up.

[GotzMahGatt]

You'd be fine with that carbon filter, they're pretty heavy duty. Another thing you have to look at is light leaks. Make sure there's none.

And your wife will find out. Women have luck like that.

[JoeRocket2]

She definitely knows what I'm up to, she's just very worried about someone else catching on. She's not much of a smoker but is OK with it, but the growing thing is just a whole other level for her.

I'm planning on using thick black plastic on the door side wall to block light, then possibly 1/2" - 3/4" thick styrofoam type sheets on the walls & ceiling to insulate the room from cold & sound.

[JoeRocket2]

What would you recommend as far as growing style, scrog, tree? I'm looking to use an area about 3' x 3' or 3' x 4'.