Ventilation Help; plz plz

I'm having a hard time of coming up with a 'perpetual' ventilation system which conserves maximum energy. Please just take a second to read over my setup.

I have a 3x5x8 closet to ventilate (=120Cubic Feet) & need a solution. I have a great grow cabinet that will get above 100 degrees F withOUT an AC unit in the closet with the closet door closed. I bought a 10,000BTU Portable AC unit as my solution. I'm putting both of these in my room closet and closing the closet door while on my lighting schedule.

For my intake: From inside the closet, I want to cut a 4" hole through the sheetrock outside the closet to draw air in from the already cooled HVAC air in my room. I'm putting a vent cover over it to be pretty. The AC unit will be situated in the middle of the closet space drawing air in from its back panel.

My portable AC unit has a thermostat and I would like it to be set to begin cooling when temp reaches 85 degrees.

For my exhaust: From inside the closet, I want to cut a 4" hole through the sheetrock outside the OTHER SIDE of the closet which goes into my attic, and run the 4" exhaust ducting from my portable AC unit's exhaust hose into the attic. Then I want to install a carbon scrubber and an inline booster fan to push the AC unit’s exhaust another 15-20 ft of 4" ducting to the one-way gas Y ducting adapter connected to the Dryer exhaust in my laundry room.

Considering my closet size (120Cubic Feet), and the size of my AC unit (10,000BTU’s 260CFM output, would this ventilation system have any conceivable problems? Too much air flow or something maybe?

I've given this lots of though, and think it'll work well, but Please give me any advice you can think of; it’s greatly appreciated and will get me underway sooner.

If your getting AC from another room it should be fine for 120ft^3 without another AC unit. If you keep your proposed exhaust CFMs (260) that would recycle the air in the room every 28 seconds. You could even get away with less. what kind of lights are you using? have you though of just cooling the light? I can't imagine your closet getting up to 100deg if your light was cooled, especialy with AC coming from another room.

otherwise sounds good, with the carbon filter i wouldn't even bother running a hose into your laundry room. Shouldn't smell enough to bother, you can vent it into your home.

I bought a really expensive grow cabinet (a freakin filing cabinet that's 36in x26 x50in) that will barely fit into the closet. It contains two 400w simultaneous ballasts/bulbs. The unit is immaculate; it has like 7 computer fans to keep good air circulation inside. I need to keep the door to my closet closed, and I need to keep the door to my room closed too. There's no AC unit register inside the closet. I prefer not to ventilate inside my home, my girlfriends grandparents have very sensitive noses; haha, and I need to keep it out of sight from the hallway visitors. And honestly, i'm unsure how to cool & ventilate anyway else. Thanks for your suggestions; I may end up doing away with the AC unit and just use exhause like you said; thanks bro

those lights seem a little strong to me so if your plan doesnt work it might help if you take one out.

DOPEYSstoned said:

those lights seem a little strong to me so if your plan doesnt work it might help if you take one out.

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Actually; I don't even think i'll have to be using them both at the same time very often; One third of the filing cabinet is a mother chamber, the other two thirds is the bloom chamber. They do have separate controllers, so I can leave one off in case it does get too hot with both of them on without the AC unit. thanks

Are the lights in cool tubes? if heat becomes in issue I would look into that. 7 fans should be more than OK for that file cabinet though.
And one 400w would light up that space nicely.

kno said:

Are the lights in cool tubes? if heat becomes in issue I would look into that. 7 fans should be more than OK for that file cabinet though.
And one 400w would light up that space nicely.

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im pretty sure ballast lights are in thoses "cool tubes" dude

Hey guys; I just wanted to let you guys know that I did a test tonight on the ventilation system that I imagined and it worked wonderfully. All I've done so far is put my grow box in the 120CF closet with the 10,000 BTU AC Unit. I cut a 4" diameter hole in the sheetrock between two studs that leads into my attic. The AC Unit was/is set to an auto turn on at 80 degrees outside the closet. It seemingly turned on and started cooling when the cabinet was at 85 internal degrees. (Perfect right?). It turns on for about 1-2 minutes and then stays off for about 5-6 minutes.

I noticed tonight that when I was in the closet (door closed) that when the AC unit turned on, it began pulling air ffrom my room from up underneath the door really fast. I'm concerned my AC unit might be having a hard time sucking the air in without an official intake in such a small closet that I need to install an intake soon.

I also need to determine whether or not I need a simple inline booster fan to assist the AC Unit's exhaust power the additional 25 ft of 4" ducting that i'm planning on running to my laundry room downstairs.

I just want to thank you guys for your advice and support. It really did give me confidence that my plan might actually work. But again; thank you guys for helping, and i'll keep you updated soon; here are some pictures of the setup.

sweet man i hope all runs smoothly for ya good luck

um, i would say ditch the cabinet and just use the closet space. just get a nice can fan filter combo and cooltube the light. done.

brucetree said:

um, i would say ditch the cabinet and just use the closet space. just get a nice can fan filter combo and cooltube the light. done.

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Cool; thanks. I'm actually sort of tired of dealing with the cabinet, and the closet situation. It's fine where it is, but I can't have visitors to my house, they'd want a tour of the house; closed closet with power running to it is a bad thing, it's loud and, so i'm building a secret room in my house that nobody will know about; even with tons of people over; air proof, light proof, sound proof; etc. Covert Op style with a 1000W AeroFlo 36 Site SOG. (400W to keep mothers).