hello. do you think this'll work? 1. Amazon.com: Hydrofarm ActiveAir Blower Fan 180 CFM: Patio, Lawn & Garden 2. Juliana 4-Tier Mini Greenhouse - Greenhouses at Just Greenhouses 3. Amazon.com: 125 Watt Compact Fluorescent Grow Light System: Health… the cabinet in which the greenhouse will be enclosed measures 24x34x66 which is about 31 cubic feet. ive read that you need to cycle the air once every 5 minutes, but ive also read that you need to cycle it 5 times PER minute. either way this fan should do the job, but i wonder which is accurate... im thinking two of those hydrofarm lights. there should be just enough room to hang them front to back as pictured, or if i did one light it would hang side to side i suppose. i must use cfl bc of fire safety and energy consumption concerns. i could even do additional lighting on the sides with tubes.. and of course i could have a small fan in there. btw it isnt labeled, but thats a carbon filter ducted down from that exhaust fan. havent looked into those yet. i dont know about the intake fan.. should it be more toward the ground, or is up high near the lights and exhause optimal? is it even necessary? or would a passive intake be adequate? if i do use a fan it would need to be something that just plugs right in bc i dont want to fuck with any wiring. also: the mini greenhouse shelf comes with a clear plastic cover that is basically airtight except the bottom. would that be worth using or would the space which encloses the shelf be enough? the space is going to be very clean and painted white anyway, i just wonder if the plastic cover would help or hurt. of course i would have to pipe the fans in if i did use it. i think it probably just trap more heat. anyway let me know what you think. this is purely in the planning stages.
passive intake is the way to go with a carbon scrubber on the exhaust. (no smell) also i would but it on the very bottom so the air goes up and passes over the plant leaves. and instead of an intake fan i would have an extra one inside to just blow on the plants to hearty up those stems. and im a little confused as to why you are buying a greenhouse thing when you already have a cabinet? cant you just hang the lights and stuff directly inside the cabinet? if its not airtight it doesn't really matter if your going with that exhaust fan. as for light proof use caulk.
that makes sense. absolutley well, its not actually a cabinet. its a closet. i'll need to get pics up eventually but im cameraless atm so for now heres some more of my art. the red lines are imaginary, the black are existing structure within the closet. the actual closet is about 6 feet wide, but im only using half. the doors slide on wheels. there are 2 doors, but i keep one on or sometimes none. the idea is to slide the glass door over to the left to conceal the room. not that i need to hide anything, im just growing vegetables probably. its just a fun idea. anyway as shown in the pic when the door is on the right side, the "closet within a closet" is exposed. when you slide the door to the left, it covers the front wall of the mini closet and you see the right side of the closet which is just my clothes. keep in mind this rendering is not to scale. of course, if you walk up and investigate then it'll be obvious, but im not worried about that. no one will ever enter this room anyway, i just want to be reasonably stealthy within the room. also the closet gives me an airtight and light proof space. which the greenhouse wont do. notice how the space inside the closet extends past the doorframe(black) to the left. the doorframe will be the boundary for my veg cabinet on top. this is how the closet looks now: so what i'll be doing is just extending that board that divides the closet and supports the upper shelf out one foot. same with the shelf. this will extend the space from one to two feet out from the back wall of the closet. then i'll add a front wall with a door. i dont necessarily need to buy that greenhouse, its just the perfect size and the shelves are adjustable. i can use any old wire shelf, the problem is finding one thats 200X50.... i would really like to have a shelf inside though bc it gives me a structure to work off of, hang things etc. i dont want to alter this closet in any way, other than screws the wood thats there must remain intact. the existing wood is 3/4" thick so i'll get more wood to extend the shelves and cut my exhaust holes in that. im planning on using a sheet of drywall as the front wall, but i dont know if i can make a door work in drywall... the top door for the 'veg' cabinet will open upward. whats left past the doorframe on the left side will be to vent the flower room out of the top. theres about 1 foot between the top of the doorframe and the ceiling, so its a good place to vent. heres one a little more to scale.
one thing i havent considered is how im going to vent the top compartment. im actually not even sure i can use it as a veg room...its only 12 inches high. but itd be nice if i could have a continual harvest, always something vegging up top on different lights than below obviously.. if i tap into my exhaust duct that may work, but i will have 247 light leaking down into the flower chamber. ive seen a few ideas on how to deal with that though. that would also increase my fans cubic footage by 5, but at 36 i should still be fine with that fan. that would actually put me right at 180cfm which is exactly 5 exchanges. unless having two seperate compartments is an issue. another option would be to just have small fan in there and a vent to allow air escape. i wonder if that would be good enough for a 12"x12"x24" space with a light inside.... top view if i didnt do the veg cabinet i wouldnt even need the exhaust chamber. id just have the blower on top and it'd all be one space. the shelf that would extend the bottom of the veg box from 1 to 2 feet wouldnt be there nor would the two pieces of wood that form the chamber around the duct. there wouldnt be a duct. but i want a duct. i want two seperate rooms and if i do that, i still need to vent my flower room out the top, which means i have to bypass the veg box. i guess. but actually now im thinking it would be good to have TWO of those exhaust blowers, one in the original location, and the other here then each chamber can have its own passive intake and i'll be set. and the veg chamber will be good for sure bc its alot of fan for that small space. or i could get a smaller exhaust fan for the veg. this is kinda the idea
cool! good luck man! if you have any specific questions let me know. oh yea and for the exhaust, i would just use one fan and hook it up to exhaust both chambers. just make sure it is light proof.
ive decided to scrap the original idea, mainly bc the compartment up top is too small to be of any use. so i think im going to split the space vertically instead.
actually, im not going to split the space at all. i would like to have a seperate veg area, but i can use the other side for that later on. for now i need to fucking get growing asap. for THIS side, im going to use the same basic design, but without the compartment on top. i took that shelf out, so now the space is 80 inches tall, which makes me feel better. im afraid that if i split it horizontally, even in two equal 3 ft parts, that i'll run out of room once the plant starts to grow. just my light is going to take up at least a foot of vertical space. ive decided to go hydro, and i'll be using a bubble bucket. maybe 2. but first i need to build this cabinet to keep the light and air in. i went and checked out some wood today, and it looks like it'll be super cheap to do. basically just two 3/4"x12"x80" boards, and a 35 inch board for the top with an exhaust hole. but before i can proceed with the cabinet, i need to deal with the FLOOR. ive already ripped the carpet out of this closet, so its just bare foundation now. my question is...do i need to paint it? i looked at floor paint today, and it only comes in gallons. the space id be painting is 2ft by 3 ft, so i dont need a gallon. plus you have to do all this prep and it sounds very messy. but i want to have a nice clean floor in there, preferably white. so at home depot i picked up some of those cheap vinyl flooring squares. basically they just stick to the floor. do you guys think thats a bad idea? my plan is to scrub the floor just to clean it up( i dont know what to scrub it with) then let it dry thoroughly, then stick these 1x1 vinyl squares in there and hope that some nasty shit doesnt form underneath. my concern is that if i put water on the floor its going to get under the 1/16" gap between the floor and baseboards and cause a bigger problem than i have. i mean the floor isnt really dirty. its just been under carpet for about 30 years. but theres no mold or anything which there prolly will be if i start fucking around in there with water. anyway, i lay these 'tiles' down, then on top of that im going to have some kind of plastic tray that the buckets sit in, just in case of a leak. bc i cant flood this closet. so right now my question is, should i stick these vinyl squares to the floor? or would i be better off with just the concrete? again, theres going to be a plastic tray down there anyway. and the plants are never gonna be on the floor. i just want to do this shit right to avoid problems later. maybe i could lay out a sheet of plastic and then stick the tiles to that, and itd be like theyre on the floor, except i could just pull the right up if i had to. im kind of afraid to stick these to the floor. also: the wood. i want to paint it white. the inside of the closet is already white, but im thinking i'll get some mold resistant paint and paint over the closet as well as my new boards. do you think thats necessary? also: lighting the light from hydrofarms looks cool, but would i be just as well off with some clamp lights and cfl bulbs from home depot? and if not, what is it about the hydrofarm light that's better? i could have a grow going by the end of this month if get this damn cabinet done. all i need is a fan, a bb, some lights, and of course seeds. i want a harvest by christmas.