Configuring the best ventilation for my grow area LOTS OF PICS! Come take a look!

mrfloaty said:

easy dude i had the same confussion when setting up my cool tube, light, and filter, the way i set it up was:

carben filter conected to the cooltube then the cooltube connected to the fan so the fan is sucking air from your grow room through your filter therefor reducing smell, but!! to make this work best you need an intake fan to bring cool fresh air into the grow room creating the full cycle of air exchainge, and have a powerfull enough fan to exchainge the air within the grow room many times an hour. doing this will decrease grow time increse yrild and resin production. if you can afford one get a controle for temp and hume so this controles everything for you

so first hing work out the area of the grow space, wxlxh then times that by 6 and you get you amount of air that needs to be exchainged an hour get a fan thats slightly more powerfull. hope this is what you where askin as quite stoned while typing this

peace .......................

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Ok as for the question about noise, it is somewhat noisy underneath the attic entrance (ladder) not quite a problem thogh for me.

So I notice some slits in the vent that was causing it to get hot.. so i patched it up and that helped out alot! In the midst of doing so, I found a better idea that help out in many ways.

First thing, I need to completly convert ducting and have insulated ducting. This well help out with noise, and heat coming from ducting. This help keep both areas within desired range. I am then going to get a Y splitter and where the exhaust ducting is connectec from portable ac to the cool tube, I will attached it there and then attach 2 feet of regular ducting to the Y adapater. This help cycle air our from the grow room. Creating enough negative pressure and having enough space for positive pressure ( i.e. door cracked open) will help circulate the air.

You see when my ac turns off the fan is on, but with the y divider this help so when ac is off the fan will pull air from the grow room.

After sealing the holes from the venting the temps are back in range.

I think I need to go with complete INSULATE Ducting, get the Y splitter, and see where that takes me. My temps never been too high, it was the fact that i was working in there causing holes in my ducting.

My temps during day range from 70-82 degrees with lights on and lights off 65-75 degrees. Humidty is 30-40 percent.

I also have a large air purifer for rooms 12 x 12 in a 5 x 5 area. wall fan, and one osicllating fan. I have plenty of air movement from the grow.

that does seem like it will work. when i converted to insulated it helped with noise didnt seem to change my temps though.

i wanted to know about the noise issue because when my fan is on its so loud outside the door so i wanted to minimize the noise. wondering if it was worth it to put it in the attic

Yes, unless you have some hot air being exhausted like my 400 hps and my portable ac temps wont drop.. However with me having 15 feet of uninsulated ducting with hot air from the ac and the hps light I will see a difference. So much heat radiates from the ducting without insulation that will help it, plus havin air being drawn from that room which help pull more air from the crack of the door on bottom.

pulling the air through your ac helps is run better. running hot air though your fan will shorten its life. the cooler the air cooling your light the cooler your light will be. the cooler the light the cooler the room the less the ac works. in my set up, every 10 degrees cooler the air cooling my light my light drops 7.. i converted my single hose ac to a duel hose. i put a small fan pushing air into ac and ac vents into attic. and i push air through my lights now and i gained cfm. if your not using a duel hose ac you need to convert to a duel for 2 main reasons,.. 1, your venting you smell outside for all to smell. 2, you creating negative pressure in your growroom and its causing your ac to run continuously and never getting to cool air and dehumidify air it allready cooled some. instead it always starting over.

I am not quite following your post, I guess I have to read it again... I will post a chart to show what I am going to do.

oh alright i forgot you had the ac venting also and that air gets hot.. i see how it will help

This is the way I think it should be. I understand what your saying how the heat and light. I have done well with keeping the temps at where it needs to be with my current setup, and to further more provide insulation to the ducting and a y divider I am sure that help out alot.

If for some reason I am still not getting any luck. Perhaps I can use my window, and install a window ac, as it takes the air from outside. This will cool the grow room.

Or I can cut another hole SOMEWHERE and hook up a can to exhaust air from grow area. I think that the y divider on the ducting though be good enough.

My best bet, if I understand window units correctly is to get one of those to help in addition to the portable.

I already have a DIY ona gel bucket for odor and a carbon filter which hasnt been used yet. My portable ac does shut off BTW it does not continous run 24.7 as desired temps get reached within grow area. Thanks for your input! Hope to provide more detail with the improvements.

ANY other suggestions be great!

there is no doubt in my mind that you got things under control. my point is your wasting electic. i would put that y through another hole in cieling or tie it into the ac register. if your ac shuts off now it because your not in a very hot surroundings. converting my single hose ac into a duel with duct tape and sheetmetal it runs half as much. you can do much better with what you have by just puting 1 more hose on your ac and venting everything into attic. if you get the air to cool your lights from your attic or a window and not from your grow room you wont need to worry about odors. if your ac keeps cooling the same air over and over again it will lower the humidity faster and lower. thats real important when you flower. your centrel air works that way. it does not take in outside air to cool and bring it into house. it recycles air, thats why it so effienct. any electric you save you add to lights. lights = weight. I DID EXACTLY WHAT YOUR DOING! my cetral air ran more because i was venting out the house by cooling lights and here in florida that not so bright. when your portable ac is on its the same as a 1000hps light running.

remember you are removing the air from your grow room and putting it in your attic. that air has to be replaced, its a vacuum. where is that air coming from? surounding rooms? if so the air in those rooms needs to be replaced. that air eventualy comes from outside the house. thats new air comming into your home as fast as you nice fan says it can plus a single hose ac vents out as well. all that new air has to be cooled by your central air. 3 ton unit is over 3000watts. thats alot of $$$. you have all you need to do a sealed grow. i dont think you will find anyone who would argue the benefits of a sealed grow.

1mikej said:

remember you are removing the air from your grow room and putting it in your attic. that air has to be replaced, its a vacuum. where is that air coming from? surounding rooms? if so the air in those rooms needs to be replaced. that air eventualy comes from outside the house. thats new air comming into your home as fast as you nice fan says it can plus a single hose ac vents out as well. all that new air has to be cooled by your central air. 3 ton unit is over 3000watts. thats alot of $$$. you have all you need to do a sealed grow. i dont think you will find anyone who would argue the benefits of a sealed grow.

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Im not arguing but what do u mean buy dual hoses? pics please?

Ok so perhaps I duct the ac into another hole... assuming that the air will push up through the ducting without a inline fan. Will it?

Another thing would I leave the end of the cool tube open so the air from light and grow area is being sucked out through fan in attic? If so, then that means I proabably have to attach that carbon filter to end of the fan.

When you say sealed grow room, I am trying to envision how that be possible where exhange of air would be needed for exhaust and intake. I would like a more effiecent grow room and I like hearing what you have to say... Please go on.. I am kinda slow at learning but I am going to learn what your trying to tell me.. pics help me out alot.

^^ I asked admin if i change my name to slowguy... but it was already taken apparently..

excuse the part about the light and open space. You answered my question when i read your first post.

Which I planned on doing only problem is that my plants in grow room have to be moved.. So I guess I will plan this next month where I have all the supplies I need and get started right away...

But please do go on...BTW ++ REP when I get it figured it out.

i will talk you through it

ok if it is like this below, in the pic, you were talking about the y adapter being attached to the a/c exhaust?

If so, why is this?

i dont have pics sorry but i got time . lets start with grow space. seal it up. insulate windows and doors and close the central air vent off completely. no air should be able to come or go without you doing it. put your fan in attic near a soffit or gable vent so it draws in the coolest air possible. push that air towards your light via ducting with no hard bends, only sweeping turns. that duct comes into your grow room through a hole in ceiling and connects to light. then connect ducting to other side of light and run back into attic as far away from grow area as you can. you dont want to many bends in ducting because its looses efficiency but you need atleast 1 goo bend before and after light to contain most of the light. a bend down out of attic and a bend into light will do the trick for one end. a bend out and up for other end. that will cool the light without touching the air in your grow room. now your ac. there are 2 intakes and two exhausts on all ac units. 1 pair is for the evaporator that cools the air in the room. the other pair is for the condenser the part that cools the ac. a single hose unit has 1 hose to carry the hot air from the condenser out the window. it gets that air from inside the room its in. the air it just cooled and dehumidified. a duel hose ac has the same hose the single hose has but heres the difference. the second hose brings air from outside to cool the condenser. never touching the air in your room. now heres the big plus. your ac cools air it just cooled so it gets a second run at pulling moister out. your room gets drier faster. you will no longer be pulling in warmer air from the surrounding area to cool so the ac wont need to run nearly as long if your in a warm climate or summer time. no smell leaves. no bugs or pollen gets in.lower humidity means no mold and bigger bud. i hope this helps if not i will role another and try again.

that pic i right if the black circle is the fan side. but that is not the best way its a better way. your still venting out house that way

to convert your ac to a duel hose you need to first figure out where the air vent for the condencer is. its usualy low and near the exhaust hose. if you think you got it cover it up and block it and make sure the ac still blows but not out exhaust hose. use sheet metal or cardboard and duct tape to create an adapter to connect a hose to the area you blocked. run that hose into attic. now you have a duel hose ac. a couple things to know, portable ac are greatly affected by bends in the exhoust hose, if your hose is more than warm it is restricted. i cut my factory hose as short as possible and conected 8in hose to it so i can run it as far away as possible without resticting it,

OK I do have my central air blocked off, window sealed and blocked off, and a light trap which helps block and seal room. Doors are closed in grow room. I heard the fan I had is better for sucking then pushing.

As for my ac, well It only has a exhaust, its suppose to be a new ac which only requires exhaust vent outside or attic. Its edgestar portable ac 12,000 btu.

Ok well I guess I have to cut 2 holes in my grow room, perhaps get sheet metal and vent flange to attach to celing to easily attach the ducting.

So this would work?

1mikej said:

to convert your ac to a duel hose you need to first figure out where the air vent for the condencer is. its usualy low and near the exhaust hose. if you think you got it cover it up and block it and make sure the ac still blows but not out exhaust hose. use sheet metal or cardboard and duct tape to create an adapter to connect a hose to the area you blocked. run that hose into attic. now you have a duel hose ac. a couple things to know, portable ac are greatly affected by bends in the exhoust hose, if your hose is more than warm it is restricted. i cut my factory hose as short as possible and conected 8in hose to it so i can run it as far away as possible without resticting it,

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Does this mean modifying my ac unit and taking it apart?

some fans do pull better but heat will shorten the fans life. google facts and comparisons on single and duel hose. the quality of your ac is not the question, i have 3 units 2 single that i converted after buying my duel and seeing the difference in performance and design. my converted ones give me equal performance

do not take apart your ac
read again. just mold a hose to the area the air is taken in from. just make sure thats the air for the condenser. the air for the evaporator has a filter.