Exhausting into crawl space?

Neto

Active Member
Just wanting some advice, I’m moving my tent to a different room & wondered if I could put the ducting up into an existing down light hole in the roof - taking the light out of course. I will need to make to hole slightly bigger but wondered if I can exhaust into the space between floors of my home. The house has small outside vents that exist for airflow & there is one pretty much parallel to where the space is. The space has insulation which can be moved, the actual space between roof & floor is about half a metre. Is this safe to do? I will need to put a mesh screen onto the end of the ducting so no particles dust get into the ducting but I’m wondering if it’s enough space.
 

Neto

Active Member
There’s a louvre window & I can take the top pane out but as it’s right by a walkway the air blowing out will be right there, even thought about putting it into a plumbing pipe on the side of the house but nah it would be too obvious
 

Metasynth

Well-Known Member
Its just the window it has to go into is right on a walkway I was looking at these but it would be able to be seen & would look out of place.
You could try a cheap window AC unit on Craigslist, put it in the window and vent through it. Just make sure the fan works, so it looks like the AC is running. All the time.

You might have to tear out most of the guts from the machine to fit the ducting, but that doesn’t matter since it doesn’t need to actually cool air.
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
If this crawl space can be accessed then run a dryer duct to the nearest vent. There are plates you can mount to the inside of the vent to put the duct in. That way no mold in your attic/crawl space and any backdraft will bring in fresh air and not dust, insulation, molds.
 

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
Just wanting some advice, I’m moving my tent to a different room & wondered if I could put the ducting up into an existing down light hole in the roof - taking the light out of course. I will need to make to hole slightly bigger but wondered if I can exhaust into the space between floors of my home. The house has small outside vents that exist for airflow & there is one pretty much parallel to where the space is. The space has insulation which can be moved, the actual space between roof & floor is about half a metre. Is this safe to do? I will need to put a mesh screen onto the end of the ducting so no particles dust get into the ducting but I’m wondering if it’s enough space.
When you say roof, do you mean roof or ceiling? I want to help but I'm getting confused.
 

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
It's always advised to not exhaust into an attic since the chances of mold dramatically increases. Considering how hot+humid attics are anyways, adding more heat and moisture to that is a cocktail for something you don't want brewing above you. My .02
For the most part, I agree with this as well. It depends on what you are venting (lights, room, lights and room) it also depends on where your intake is coming from (outside hot humid air, inside cool dry air)
I went with 3 solar 1720cfm attic fans. One in each turbine vent. But I'm not venting humidity, only heat. My room is on a closed loop.
Granted, I didn't do this for my grow, it was a coincidence. I had already put them up there to blow out the heat and cool off the top floor of my house.
I'll have to get a reading on my exhaust temps going into the attic. I'd guess they are in the 90'sF.
Before I put the solar fans in (not exhausting into the attic) on a hot day my attic temps would hit 150+. Now they are about 90-100.
In a case where no one were to do anything with their attic and vent only heat into it, it wouldn't be a problem as long as the attic was well ventilated meaning some place for the attic exhaust to go. The grow exhaust would actually help cool the attic on a hot day. If your exhaust is over 150F when it hits your attic, you have bigger problems.
Using your 18/6 or 12/12 schedule appropriately will also make a difference. Run at night if you can.
Of course all of this can be avoided completely if you can get it into the attic and then run ducting to a vent on the roof.
 
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Big Perm

Well-Known Member
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There’s a louvre window & I can take the top pane out but as it’s right by a walkway the air blowing out will be right there, even thought about putting it into a plumbing pipe on the side of the house but nah it would be too obvious
Where you live is Radon a thing? It's not at all unusual for me to see 5" pipe running up the side of someone's house. It's a Radon fan. That, or there are a lot of people growing weed in their basements.
My point is even I can't tell the difference between a 5" and 6" pipe from 20 feet, nor can I see what is connected to the other end of the pipe.
Even if you don't have radon in your area, people are stupid. That pipe could be for anything.
 

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
You could also install a dryer vent to an exterior wall. Put it low so it looks like an actual dryer vent. A 6" fan running through one sounds like a dryer running.
Not many people are going to stand there and try to visually blueprint out your house layout in their head as they are walking or driving by. If it looks like it should be there, remember people are stupid, people will think it belongs there.
 
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