Does this diagram look like it will prevent odor at all?

you're inflow air should be passive and your fan with carbon filter used to suck out the heat and odor....however, because your grow area (the box) is inside another enclosed area (your room) you odor is just going to go into your room. i would suggest since you're growing a plant (or two) to use ona's block or gel. you can pick it up online easily and if you have access to a lab (ie: chemistry class) you probably can snag one their as its used in labs to dissipate chemical odors.

 

GREAT DIAGRAM! Simple but effective.

 

@redempting ... I don't think the OP needs a passthrough for the light as I can't imagine the OP with a single plant (or two) will have a) HID light system or b) a high wattage grow in which heat from the light would be a problem. I'm just remembering back to my first grow and the whole connecting the a tube and a tube to the light with another tube connect to the light running outside of my grow area .... just seemed to confound me, so I would hate to make it beyond difficult for the OP.


@OP another solution which I have done for smaller grows (grows=< threes plants) is growing (placing) lavender plants in the grow area which masks the smell.

 

im not sure an aircooled light is that confounding but this would be the diagram mod for omitting pass thru light cooling ....

 

i feel you jakeMader ....my first grow the odor thing seemed way to complicated for my skill level (LOL) despite everyone's belief they were dumbing it down for me. you have a very small grow and if you are living alone your main concern is that your neighbors don't get a whiff of ganja on their way to work in the morning in the hallway. the odor can be controlled fairly straightforward.

if you think that you might want to do a bigger grow, say a half a dozen plants, then you should invest in a proper kit for taking care of order.

as you can see from redemptings doodle the equation is fairly straight forward:

a source for moving air inside the grow area (passive air intake) + a filter for cleaning the air (carbon scrubber) attached to a source to pull out the odorous air (a fan - centrifugal or squirrel variety) and of course an exit for the 'scrubbed' air (exhaust exit).

this setup is what most growers use....there are few derivatives of this setup you will find but all work with this basic premise of how to clean the odorous air.

my original suggestion was since you are only growing a plant to use an ona block (or gel) which is something like a 'super' air freshener except that instead of covering the air it 're-configures' the air in the similar manner of fabreeze. it works it's relatively inexpensive and requires a low tech understanding to work. another alternative is to grow lavender in the grow area...this is a cheap alternative ($4 for one of those starter lavender plants from the local lowes/home depot grow center) and is fairly effective (i've used this with a small -- 3 plant -- grow along with an ona block).

there are several great DIY air scrubbers threads here in GC that will help you decide how you want to proceed and how to do it in a cost effective way....just do a general search and you should see several pop up.

 

Hi Jake-

Let's take two steps back before taking the next step forward and bring everything back to the fundamentals.

We're really dealing with two subjects here and masking everything under the topic of "odor control". What you really need to learn about first is ventilation.

You're going to be growing this plant in a "small", enclosed space, correct? The issue with this is, once the plant is somewhat mature, it will quickly use up all the carbon dioxide in a small space. This air is then stale, depleted, and not useful for the plant. Without carbon dioxide, photosynthesis comes to a halt and the plant dies. This much you probably know already.

The unintuitive leap we must next make is this: In order to supply fresh air to the plant, the trick is to force the depleted air out of enclosure, not push fresh air into the enclosure.

Without getting too deeply into the physics of the situation: attempting to push fresh air in does not work well because the space is already filled with air that cannot easily escape; it only has a small exit so a large backpressure is created. You're just creating a bunch of turbulence, there is very little actual fresh air flowing in.
Conversely, blowing the air out a small exit is very effective at removing it, and then by air always seeking to balance pressure, fresh air will want to find its way into the enclosure though small passive intake (just a hole) or even via whatever leak paths it can find.

So in conclusion, yes, you need to connect a fan to the exhaust exit. That's what makes it an exhaust.

Once you understand these ventilation fundamentals it only then becomes possible to consider using the infrastructure of your exhaust and ventilation system to address odor. In fact, it is very easy. The idea being to place a carbon filter on the intake of this very exhaust fan. At this point you have setup the exact diagram in post#6. So then the air flow path/cycle is:

-air enters passively via an intake hole
-co2 of air is consumed by plant
-depleted air pulled through filter, by fan
-during the above step, odor molecules are trapped in the carbon
-depleted air pulled through fan, by fan
-depleted air pushed out exhaust exit, by fan

all of these things are really happening concurrently to form a continuously refreshed environment.

Extracting air rather than pushing it in is not only more efficient for ventilation but is also the only direction that allows proper odor control. The reasoning is a little subtle and tricky. If you are blowing air in, even though the air does not exit efficiently - it pressurizes and is always trying to find SOME way out. This means that some amount of air will be exiting where you don't intend it, and though a pathway that is not odor protected. If you extract rather than blow in, the pathway through the carbon filter is the PREFERRED pathway, thus exactly ALL your air is filtered.

With certain particularly pungent specimens, it don't take a big leak to make a big stink!

Hope this helps. All this info is already out there, it really is a matter of just taking the time to do the reading and research until it make sense.
There is nothing hard about growing a plant inside discretely, but there are a lot more inefficient ways of doing things than efficient ones - so research is key.
.

 

You got it, that's exactly it!

The path out via the exhaust is lower pressure than the path out via the hole, so all air (a full, true 100%) follows that direction. Another way to look at it: This system quickly reaches a "steady state" (equilibrium) when turned on such that air can only be flowing one direction thru the hole. Exhausting air out causes a balance of new air to flow "in" which thus itself prevents leakage "out".

It's such a standard setup that many folk may not reflect on the cleverness and simple beauty of the physics involved. All quite elegant.

 

Air will not escape the passive intake as long as you have enough ventilation drawing air in.

 

Redempting, Thank you so much for your post above.
My current setup is filter, duct, hood, duct, fan and I am still fighting odor with a new Phresh filter. I obviously have leaks in the hood / ducting. This will solve my problem which is the wife has told me she will chop my grow as soon as she smells it. Thank you again and you are the fkn boss. I am off to reconfigure my setup.

 

Mission accomplished. You can never have too much duct tape.