Hey guys, so I am about to make the move into my newly constructed 6x8x8 grow room. I built this room in an already existing room and have sealed it shut so it will be its own environment. This being my first true room, I have some questions regarding airflow. Basically, I want someone to examine my plans and make sure ergonomically it will all work without issue. My plan is to have 1 6 inch inline fan sucking air through a carbon filter and out of the room. That will act as my exhaust. Then, I will have another 6 inch inline fan pulling (or pushing?) air over my two 600 watt hps lights and venting the heat into the downstairs of my house. Lastly, I have two windows in this new room and although they are on the front of the house I want to try to incorporate one into the mix to bring new air into my room. This is where my main question lies. My question is this, since I do not want the window to have to be open anymore than it has too, and since I don't want it to raise any suspicions, I am thinking of having a 4 inch inline fan pulling air into the room (the window is only 6 inches away from the exterior of the room) through a laundry vent type setup as to blend it in. Do you guys think this will work sufficiently?
Sweet! Thanks man! Yeah, dont they make a specific type of screen that goes onto the end of an airline filter to prevent critters from getting in?
They make everything lol... depends on how cheap you want to be... dollar store panty hose would probably work
Haha very good point my friend. Yeah I found one on amazon I am planning to order just to be sure I am being as safe as possible in regards to unwanted pests finding their way in lol.
Id just make sure the cfms match up. For instance i use a 700cfm blower that pulls hot air off my light threw a 500cfm carbon air filter. I used a bit larger blower as i was pulling heat off my 1000hps as well as for odor control. On the intake side i set my ventalalator to700cfms or close to it. (Its set to half power as its a commercial blower meant to filtrate an entire office). I always make sure my intake and exhaust are similar. Also on the intake id install a damper door so if its ever off cold air wont flood the room.
@Blackmamba77 Ahh that all makes sense...my one question is that I have a 4 inch inline fan planning to bring new air in and a 6 inch that will be taking air out. My only reason for this setup is because my grow room is in the front room of a house, right on the street. Not on a main road but pretty well traveled. I fear that if I have my window open 6 inches it would be too obvious as to what I was doing, not to mention too easy to break into. The only thing I could think to fix it is to do a 4 inch opening in the window and mock it like a laundry vent and then thicken it up to a 6 inch inside the window in kind of a reverse tapering. Do you think this would work?
Curious. How are you "sealed"? White plastic, drywall, etc all has leaks . Spray foam is the only way to really guarantee a seal. Reason I say this is.... If your not actually sealed, the 6in exhaust fan is all you need. Seal the windows. As that fan pulls air out of your room and thru the filter, air will naturally replace it through any and every hole in the grow. Maybe plan for a 4"passive intake in case the fan struggles, but I wouldn't cut it out yet. Connect the fan to one side of the hood and cool the lights/exhaust smells all in one fan.
Save some of your thinking and $on fans and consider led lighting. A room that size, with 2-600 its gonna heat up quick.
@187Budz Ahh I was unaware they made that sort of thing! Is there a name for something like that so I can know what to ask for at Lowes? @2CentGuy So I actually built a room within a room. The room I built has been built with plywood and caulked shut to prevent any leaks. The main reason I am including the window is for new air exchange. I definitely thought about not having that new air intake in the room since the thought of having any breaches in my room makes me worried about pests and such, even with a solid IPM, however, I feel like having the new air in will greatly increase my yields due to new oxygen constantly being pumped in. One thing I do worry about though is the winter time. What do you guys normally do for the cold air? I figure it wont be a big deal with lights on but with lights off it could get quite cold. Would you say to throw the damper on when lights are off and only open it when lights go on?
Ya im sure it would work. The only draw back i see is if you pull air from the outside into your room you have no temp control. So if its ice cold outside your pulling that air into your room and when your lights go off your room is going to get cold. At least if you live in midwest anyways. I have a similar setup though. I use whats called an air exchanger. Its basically a larger box with 3 pipes on top. Inside is a filter and blower. One port pulls in fresh air, one port pulls in grow room air, and one tube then is connected to blower and sucks both those threw a filter and then discharges it back to room. The air exchanger cools the grow room air and also mixes it with fresh outside air then discharges fresh air back to room. I think thats basically what you are looking to do. I bought this unit used from an hvac company. All i had to do was hook up
@Blackmamba77 Ahh I see I was unaware they even made something of that sort. HVAC is a new endeavor for me so I'm learning as I go. How big is a setup of that sort? I only have about 6 inches from the window to the side of the room I built so unless it could go on top of my room (i have 10ft ceilings in the exterior room) than I don't know if it would fit. My other question is cost..this room has set me back a few grand already and where I am only a couple hundred away from having it be operational I am very tight on what I can spend currently. Would I see a dramatic difference if I wasn't pulling new air in from outside and instead was pulling it in from the exterior room? I could also just leave the window cracked in the exterior room and suck air into my new room in that fashion and in that sense it would be much easier to control the temperature because the exterior room is heated like the rest of the house.
I can send you a photo. I got mine used for 500. But the filters in the unit are not the cheapest. What you could do in the mean time is run an inline carbon air attached to a blower. I think that would be alot cheaper. After a grow you could keep the inline and use it as a secondary setup. The exchanger is meant to do a entire house or office space. Easily would handle 2000 square feet. Personally i prefer pulling air from an adjacent room. Its much less hasstle. You could basically have two blowers. One that pulls hot air into a carbon filter and then out of the room and then another smaller one to pump in your fresh air from an adjacent room. Currently i discharge and draw from the same room. Just in different spots. I discharge high and draw low as warmer air will be higher up. I use the inline setup as well as the exchanger for large grows. One is for odor and the other is for air flow and pressure. But if i were just starting out i would go the two blower route. Least till you get some cash back. Attched is the pic of the exchanger right after i got it. The left side is the filters and rigjt side of unit is blower. Basically far left tube is fresh air intake, middle pipe is air being sucked out of room, and right tube is a filtered mix of left and middle that is pumped back into room.
@Blackmamba77 Wow! That's quite the wealth of info there! So when you say an inline carbon air do you mean an inline fan attached to a carbon filter? Secondly, sorry for a stupid question but what exactly is a blower? Again I am new to the HVAC game haha so you're saying pull new air in from an adjacent room? Would that still have the issue of eventually running out of new air in the grow room? Discharging and drawing from the same room would make my life SUPER easy if what you mean is indeed basically having the whole operation contained in one room. Do you mean that you basically pull new air from the outside room (again i built a room within a room) and exhausting the heat into an adjacent room?
Apparently its called a "slot air diffuser" Dont ask me where to get it lol if it was me i would simply buy some cheap sheat metal and diy the shit out of it lol
No problem man, the blower is the fan motor with a wheel cage that moves the air, i currently use a 8 inch vortex inline fan which is reduced down to a 6 inch. That fan(blower) is duct to a phreshline inline filter. (A inline filter as two connections much like a muffler on a car.) then another duct is ran from the filer to my enclosed hood ligjt. When that blower is on it pulls air threw my light then that air goes into the filter and then threw the blower and out the room. So with that blower you have taken care of heat from light and odor in room. Now the second fan(blower) is duct with 6 inch as well. One end is in whatever room you are drawing air from and is pumped out of blower into a duct and put in room somewhere low. U always want fresh air low and heat high. You can pull and discharge to same room if you want. I have many times and not had a problem. The light heat gets dissipated by wind speed from blower and traveling threw duct work.