Hi all, I've just finished building a new grow room with 3 air cooled 1000W lights, cooled by a 6" inline fan. I also have a 6" charcoal filtered exhaust fan and a 6" filtered intake fan. When I was only running 2 lights in a larger home I vented the hot air from the lights into the rest of the house to heat my home, except in the summertime when I would switch to an outside intake and exhaust. Now with 3K of lights running in a smaller house I'm forced to vent the lights outside most of the time, except when it's cold outside, when I would prefer to use the heat from my lights instead of running extra heaters. So what I would like is to have some kind of thermostat controlled mixing box that will take air from outside to cool the lights and vent the heat outside when it's too hot, and take air from inside and vent it inside when it's cold. I'm sure such a thing exists out there somewhere but I have no idea where to find one, and I've already spent a lot more building this new room than I planned on. So if anyone has a cheap or DIY solution to this problem I'd really like to hear it. It feels wrong to waste heat in place like Alaska. Eventually I'll heat my outside work shed with the excess heat but for now I'd like to warm my home without overheating my grow room. Thanks
That's simple enough... You can do it (2) different ways. The first way uses (2) 6 inch inline electronic ducting dampers hooked into a 6 inch Y ducting connector, and those (2) dampers are then controlled by a single digital dual stage temperature controller, that will open or close each damper when the temperature at the controller matches what you have set. Cost $110.00 for everything. Or (1) Y ducting electronic damper controller, and a one way temperature controller. Cost $220.00. Y ducting electronic damper controllers are expensive, that's why its more than (2) singles.
Thanks for the ideas. I'm not sure if it's exactly what I'm needing but it's a big step in the right direction for sure. I never knew there were motorized during dampers but now that I do I want them! lol. So if I want to switch between outside intake/outside exhaust, and inside intake/inside exhaust then I'll need 2 Y connectors, one before the lights and one after, right? Wouldn't I need 4 motorized dampers or 2 either/or Y dampers? Also if you have a link to a good source for ventilation gear preferably on the west coast it would be much appreciated. Thanks again.