This is my first attempt growing in an attic grow room. I figured that it wouldn't be too difficult except for getting the room down to temp. Which is exactly the problem. It is 8x5x5(at peak). I have 2 dual 7" window fans that I am using for the intake and exhaust always on hi setting. Room is made of drywall, then insulated with r-13 insulation and covered in emergency blankets on the inside. Right now I am lighting with 4 48" floro's (8 bulbs total). The room is usually within a degree of what the attic temp is at (temps as high as 95* during the day). I am using dryer ducts for the intake ducts and I am going to wrap them insulation to try and shield them from the heat of the attic over the distance the air has to travel. After that im going to build a box around the exhaust fan inside the room to make it pull the air directly from the peak of the room. Right now it is pulling from the ground because it was the best place to actually mount the fan. I also have plastic that I am going to completely wrap the room in. Other than that I can't think of any other ways to cool the room without the use of a portable ac unit. Here are a few horrible pictures of the room but you get the idea of what I am working with here. Sorry for the long read. Any help is much appreciated. P
I would up the intake size of the ducts to 6" from 4". What have you insulated the roof with? Looks like a nice room. If heat is a problem now, I wouldn't stick anymore electronics in there. There are water cooled lamp fixtures also. You could really drop the temp with an aircooled fixture (cooltube) but then your running a different lighting system. You could be creative and seal up the fixtures and force air cool the fluorescents.
I have r-13 on the roof as well. I also put styrofoam vent channels between the insulation and the roof so in the winter I wouldn't have a big melted spot on my roof where the room is at.. Do floro tubes really get that hot? That is one of the reasons I am using the floro's now. I wanted to see how hot the room was going to get with those before I bought a 600w hps like I had planned on doing from the beginning. I thought about sealing the fixtures and running running pc fans on the outside for an intake and exhaust. After these plants go to flowering I also plan on setting the room up with separate rooms for a continuous harvest. Thanks for the reply, now its got me thinking more about cooling the lamps. p
Well you have a 200 sq ft room with 8) 4ft bulbs. Assuming 40w bulbs that is still 320w in 200sq ft. Or the equivalent of a good room heater in a closet (a great room heater runs 1500 w). I think you need to think about cooling the fixtures or a different light setup if your not. Take some temps with the lights off.
I wrapped the intake tubes with insulation last night and reset my thermometer and the max temp the room was at today was 86*. The attic temp got up to 94*. So a step in the right direction. I also completely shut the exhaust fan down during this time. I am going to start 18/6 with the plants tomorrow with the 6 hours of darkness from 11-5 and see what happens. I was hoping to start flowering these in 7-10 days as they are already a foot tall.
Congrats on making progress. PC fans are crappy for pushing air down a pipe. I use vortex type inlines on speed controls. They move some serious air.
can you run your intake from one of the rooms below in the house, then exhaust out the roof..or if you can get a scrubber you can circulate the air from a room in the house. then you should be all set
Worse place to do a grow op. Attics are like saunas, they get soo damn hot.. Except theres little moisture... You want a cool dark place for you grow op.. Set up your lights and get your vents and odor controll running at full steam and keep your temps below 80F
I am pulling the intake air through my master bedroom closet below. I am building a carbon scrubber that that is going to be vented straight out of an old chimney that is no longer used. I think you guys might like my idea for my scrubber, when I go into flowering I will post some pics of it. Today I switched the plants to 18/6 with the darkness from 11am-5pm. Max room temp was 78 with no fans or lamps on. Attic got up to 91. Lots of progress today. Thanks everyone for the comments and help. A few more degree's and I will be happy.. Also winter is coming here in michigan so that is going to be another issue for another time lol.
If things were to get to bad, I would just turn the AC on in the house to help cool things. I don't think that it is going to get that bad.
i grow in an attic..have for quite some time... yes its perfect time of the year and it gives you a few months to workk out th eremaining degrees... Youll do it... where about in mich are you....what area code?
I believe that I have just thought of a way that I can vent quite a bit more of the heat coming from my lamps, but more on that tomorrow... I couldn't wait any longer so I had to throw a little bit of my scrubber setup together. Basically a rubbermaid container, 1 odor absorbing furnace filter and obviously activated carbon and quite a few cfm's of air. The screen still needs supports put in to support the carbon, but this will be the basic design. 1-8" duct coming from the grow room into the top of the scrubber..then through the screen which will have a layer of carbon on top of it. Then out another 8" duct on the bottom(I haven't made this part yet). Then out the roof via the chimney. The cardboard is temporary to see how it works and then I will make the transitions with some sheet metal. Hopefully the fan moves enough air for it to work well. I would like to hear opinions on this design.
lol it should work its big enough lol where do you plan to put the carbon?? im a lil confused sry.. where will the fan be? how big is it?
Try to make it so your fan is drawing air into the box rather then forcing air into it. Less chance of a stink leak.
I ran with my exhaust running outside for a long time..... This is why i changed it... During the summer months youll be dumping air conditioned air outside, during the winter months you will be dumping heated air outside, Not that big of deal right... well here's another issue.. when ever a door opened in the house a wicked breeze comes thru, because with that fan running dumping air outside and no intake on the house youve created neg pressure.. so in the winter you open the door and within seconds the whole house is frooze...under doors and such youll feel the breeze,,because that fan is running... In the summer while ur air conditioner is running it has to work much harder .. again because every gap in your house is sucking in hot air... I cant stress it enough..if your gonna use a carbon scrubber and pay for the carbon... run your exhaust back to the master bed room... shit put in a cieling vent..no one will be the wiser.... This solves the issue of all the neg pressure in the house and also makes temps in your grow area much more managable..the other issue youll notice is your master bedroom will be the coldest room in the house in the winter,,when ur grow room temp goes down because that room is the coldest you will be forced to turn the heat up, then the rest of the house is to hot.., maybe thats not a problem but if you can get around it I suggest you do... Once i adjusted and started exhausting back to the house my temps became much more stable, this summer was no issue at all, especially during the really hot days.. nice even temps... attic space reached 110 my grow 78...no worries...That was one of the hottest days this year... All these suggestions were formed from experience...Ive been there man... I would also recommened all your ventalation be run in 6".... youll need the air movement...your set up has huge potential man... .keep up the good work my friend...
Alright, you have made up my mind. I had concerns of the pressure differential with the vent running through the chimney and seeing my hard earned dollars being blown out the roof when the hvac is being used. I need to make sure that my scrubber works well enough to be vented into the bedroom without any scent present. What kind of fans are you using in your room Budslinger? I think you just added some more things that you and I need to talk about.
I agree man... I use a 6"can fan with a can filter,,, not where i started... I have a small box of all the fans that didnt quite do it... the can fans are designed to pull thru linear feet of ducting and have allot of power... keep in mind you wont need the scrubber right away, generally the smell comes a few weeks into flower depending on the strain of course...I almost built my own scrubber but saw many of those just didnt get all he smell out..and we all agree thats not the smell you want traveling thru the house...
Being the crafty (cheap) person that I am I went straight to harbor freight to look for something similar to what you mentioned and found this.. \tAir inlet/outlet: 8-7/8" diameter; 3300 RPM; 120 volts, 60 Hz., 1.4 amps, 165 watts; Air volume: 1589 CFM; Overall dimensions: 11-3/4" L x 8-7/8" W x 11-3/4" H At $80, if those numbers are true, this might be a great fix for my exhaust.