Odor control for leaky basement grow?

Hey there. I'm growing 40 autoflowers under 1,400 watts of HPS. Problem is, the plants are not in a sealed environment, so the smell drifts down my street. I've become very paranoid.

I have mylar hanging from the basement ceiling to keep the light in. Unfortunately there is plenty of ways for odor to waft out.

I am willing to pay up to $200, but would obviously like to pay less, for something to control the odor.

Since the grow room isn't sealed, a charcoal filter wouldn't be that useful, would it? How about ozone?

I just need to stop the odor from reaching the outside. Otherwise I can use deodorizers for the rest of the house.

Thanks in advance!

flow00 said:

Hey there. I'm growing 40 autoflowers under 1,400 watts of HPS. Problem is, the plants are not in a sealed environment, so the smell drifts down my street. I've become very paranoid.

I have mylar hanging from the basement ceiling to keep the light in. Unfortunately there is plenty of ways for odor to waft out.

I am willing to pay up to $200, but would obviously like to pay less, for something to control the odor.

Since the grow room isn't sealed, a charcoal filter wouldn't be that useful, would it? How about ozone?

I just need to stop the odor from reaching the outside. Otherwise I can use deodorizers for the rest of the house.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

you could get a charcoal filter in by the plants which would be used as an outtake and it cleans the molicules in the air making it fresh

i would for sure get some carbon scrubbers/filters in there. sadly your $200 budget wont cut it for your area ( you may be able to get 1 scrubber and 1 fan for that price tho which is better than nothing). think of it this way, would you sooner spend more than you want to now to be safe, or spend the next year or so in prison? do not skimp on odor control.. please.. it will cost you a ton in the long run.. so how far in the grow are you? depending on the stage, you are just at the start of the stink. it will keep getting worse as the girls progress..

mr.smileyface said:

you could get a charcoal filter in by the plants which would be used as an outtake and it cleans the molicules in the air making it fresh

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. When you say it would be used as an outtake, do you mean I would blow out the air somewhere through the mylar with tubing coming from my light?

For some reason I was under the impression that the grow room should be sealed for it to work effectively. Maybe I'm wrong.

tokinman said:

i would for sure get some carbon scrubbers/filters in there. sadly your $200 budget wont cut it for your area ( you may be able to get 1 scrubber and 1 fan for that price tho which is better than nothing). think of it this way, would you sooner spend more than you want to now to be safe, or spend the next year or so in prison? do not skimp on odor control.. please.. it will cost you a ton in the long run.. so how far in the grow are you? depending on the stage, you are just at the start of the stink. it will keep getting worse as the girls progress..

Click to expand...

You're right about not skimping on the odor. I'll have to go over budget. It's not a big deal if it keeps me and my ladies safe.

I'll have to get the filter soon because my babies are four-weeks old and starting to stink. The autoflowers don't take their time.

Thanks a lot!

flow00 said:

Thanks for the help. When you say it would be used as an outtake, do you mean I would blow out the air somewhere through the mylar with tubing coming from my light?

For some reason I was under the impression that the grow room should be sealed for it to work effectively. Maybe I'm wrong.

Click to expand...

Yes your grow room should be sealed to prevent light leaks and oder leaks. Its also sealed so you can get more air pressure on your fans. I mean outtake as is the fan that removes moist hot and stale air out of your grow room. you could pump the filtered air out of your house through a dryer vent. That is the best way to get the odour out of your house... Maybe have an ozone before it goes outside. Those fans on your lights take away the heat from your light.. not the moist air in the room. go get a charcoal filter and an inline fan and ducting and pump that air either outside or in another room where odor is seldom.

Make sure if you get a carbon filter and fan, try to get it somewhere near the center of your plants or right next to them but thats only if you cant get a filter big enough to take care of the entire room. If you can get a big enough fan and filter, keep it somewhere else but as close to the plants as possible. Just be sure to utilize every inch of your lights footprint by making sure it's hitting foliage instead of wasting 10-30% of it shining on a filter, but you still want it as close to your girls as possible.

Also, be sure to set it up in the scrubber configuration. A carbon filter setup in open air without connecting it to duct work is considered a scrubber. A filter connected to a duct of some sort is considered a filter configuration. Carbon filters setup as scrubbers handle 3-400% of the cubic footage that they would as a filter.

Say your filter and fan is rated @ 450 CFM as a filter, it would probably do close to 2,000 cubic feet when configured as a scrubber.

Calculate the cubic footage of the room you're trying to deodorize like this:

Width x Length x Height = Total cubic footage of the room.

Just make sure you get a fan that can handle a 3rd of the amount of CFM it's rated for. You want to exchange the entire cubic footage of the room at least once every 3 minutes to be certain odors are neutralized.

If you have a room that's 1500 cubic feet, you need a filter and fan that is rated @ least 500 CFM.

You might be surprised at how big of a space a carbon filter will take care of when you have proper air circulation throughout the room.

For that big I would suggest a 10 inch cf and fan combo 1000cfm I believe tjat should help maybe even a 12 inch but ur.looking at like 400$....400$ is better then jail buddy dont be a cheap bastard

Crap! Just realized I dug up a 3 year old thread. Sorry guys.