?Hooking up Fan and Filter?

Discussion in 'Grow Lights, Tents & Equipment' started by thisbigjoint, Nov 15, 2006.

  1. I just bought a Carbon Filter ( 30lbs 6" ) and a Squirrel fan ( not sure of CFM rating, 6" ). I have never used a filter before and unclear on some details.

    I grow in a large attic, with a 8x8ft grow area. I have 2 400w HPS and 1 600w HPS.

    Where should Filter Be mounted at?

    Where should fan be placed?

    Does Distance between fan and filter make a difference?
     
  2. thanks for all the feed back. my house now smells ganja.:confused:
     
  3. you should have gotten an in-line fan. it's easier to work with than a squirrel. all you have to do is set the in-line on top of the filter and attach the ducting. you'll need an adaptor now.
     
  4. Hey, man, come on, it's the weekend. We can't all jump on the forums to help you with your problems!!!

    Ah, I'm just messin with you. Filter should be placed over the intake of the fan...The flat side. You can kinda skip the adapter if you get weather stripping and zap-straps. Put a ring of stripping on the filter where the fan will lay against it, so you get a good seal. Then secure a ring around the filter and use zap straps to lace over the top of the fan and pull them snug...

    I now realize that is a crap description...but I can't do any better at the moment.

    Distance between fan and filter makes a difference. For every foot of certain-size ducting, you lose a bunch of CFM power (those are technical specs). In effect, the more ducting, the weaker the air flow, and this is made worse by the filter. Hopefully, you kinda matched your fan and filter.
     
  5. Ya, an inline would have fit right on the filter. Ideally you want to set up the fan so that it sucks stinky air through the filter and exhausts back into the room. In his way your air gets scrubbed multiple times. That means you will have a separate extraction fan.

    Now I realize that most people will use one extraction fan hooked up to the filter, but then your air gets scrubbed only once. In most cases this is sufficient, since the air is exhausted somewhere smell won't matter much. But if you want to get all the stinkiness out of the air then you should scrub continuously and extract separately.

    If you are doing extraction and scrubbing with one fan then set it up so that the scrubber is hanging horizontaly from the highest spot in the room, and the fan is sucking through it then out.
     

  6. Nah!

    If you have your scrubber exhausting inside the chamber, and a separate exhaust fan, the exhaust fan is going to exhaust air that is a mix of scrubbed/non-scrubbed air, and that will smell, because smell is continously created by the plants, and you can't control which molecules have been scrubbed or not scrubbed. It's totally hit-or-miss.

    A single scrubber->fan->exhaust setup will clean the air totally, so long as the carbon isn't exhausted (say 6 months old). If you have the correct size of carbon filter (scrubber) to match your fan, once is plenty.

    KISS!

    For added protection outside the grow chamber (for stray smells from opening the grow chamber door, etc) you could always add an ozone generator or nutradol gel dodourizer.

    -mu
     

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