Venting 12" from basement

[PonicalChillin]

Hello,

I have a friend who recently aquired a house and wants to flower with 9x600w = 5400w.

He wants to do it right and plans to vent using the manifold system with a 12" manifold. Reflectors would be Daystar ACs using 6" ducting between the 12" manifolds. A 12" MAX Can Fan pulling through the entire thing.

He also plans to run sealed using a Mr Slim mini-split AC unit. Most likely the 22k BTU M-series. I know the AC may be a bit oversized if using efficient aircooling like this, but I figure he's better off with some to spare. Any input?

We've ran into a problem however of where to duct the 12" Fan to - -
Our only options are into the Chimney or into the furnace's main plentum - sending the air to every above room in the house.

We'd like to do the chimney, but dont know how to bust a 12" hole into the thing. We dont want to crumble the thing as 12" has to be close to its entire width. Also if we go the chimney route - should we make the hole above or below the holes where the furnace and hot water tank vent into. Any problems with this? Would the draw from the 12" fan mess with any of the furnace or tank venting?

Going into the furnace's main plentum which then ducting 8" to every room would be the easier route - and since nobody will be living in the home heat shouldn't be a huge issue, but we dont want to run into the problem of ruining the home because we decided to vent 9 600s into the home.

Any input on any of this? Any help is appreciated.

Below is a pic of the venting method. There will be 3 rows of 3 lights each however.

 

[TGT]

Is it possible to route the hot air up into the water heaters vent to outside? If so you have to be careful to do it correctly as you want the fumes from the gas heater to go out 100%, but if done right it is very possible. That is assuming you have a gas water heater.

I too am doing a home and using 6 air cooled 1000 watt HPS. The grow is in the basement and I was lucky enough to have an old wood stove with venting to the roof that had been recently disconnected. I am going to use this vent to my advantage.

I was planning on pulling the air from the basement window to cool the lights and then out through the wood stove vent. The way I plan to do this is to have blinds on the window and leave the window open a few inches. Then build a box around the window to make it light tight and then hook up my vent to the lower part of the box to prevent the blinds from blowing all over the place from the suction of the fan.

I hope this works as well as I think it will. I wonder if you can do the same thing, but instead of sucking air from the window you could blow the hot air out? This might be a security risk depending where the window is located. You don't want hot air to be noticable to anyone. Just a thought, although I don't know how feasible it will be in your situation.

Another idea that I have done succesfully in the past was pump hot air into the basement drain. As long as it is just a rain sewer you should be fine and not have to worry about gases burping back up. I did this for two years straight with no problems. It really depends on your sewer. I would do this as a last resort as it can be problamatic. I think you would be better off punching a hole into the chimney than doing this idea, although I thought I would mention it anyways.

Will you be posting pictures of this grow? I would be very interested in seeing it as it sounds very close to what I am doing. I am going to start a thread soon as my room is half built and the plants are well on their way. I need to get a move on before the plants that are vegging become too big.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Edit: I forgot to mention the diagram you have looks good, but I seem to remember another thread that had a similar set up and a very experienced member that did this sort of thing for a living mentioned that the plenum should have different widths to create back pressure so that all lights recieve the same amount of cooling. I can't remember the thread, user or specifics, but it was very interesting and informative. May be if you search around or someone else remembers what I am talking about they can point you in the right direction. I'll take a look around too. Sorry I can't help further. My memory is shot and I have never set up a cooling system like this. Just thought I would mention it.

TGT

 

[Whatever]

Depending on how many floors...I designed and built a room with 8 x 600's. It was an open system though and cut a hole in the ceiling. The filter is in a closet, with the hole in the floor and the fan in the attic. The ducting starts at the top of the filter into the attic with the 12" Elicent in the attic and ducted to one of the attic louvers going outside.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

TGT do you REALLY think his HWH vent is more then 4" or 5" big? never mind 14" 12+2 for the hwh.
your right about getting it up though. id duct through an attic and pop it out the roof with a cap or out the attic vent.

 

[TGT]

My HWH vent if 8 inches, so I figured his could be the same, but I didn't notice he needed 14" - should have read it a little closer.

TGT

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

sorry tgt. just seamed a bit out of place. id like to sugest an inline scrubber but i dont know of any u might be ok if u have an ozinator on your exhaust...

 

[PonicalChillin]

Hey,

Yes - I think taking it up the chimney is our best bet. Couple of questions however.

The hot water tank vents into the chimney via 4" metal ducting and the furnace vents into it using 6" duct which is below where the hot water tank goes in.

Should I punch the 12" hole in the chimney above the spot or below the spot where the others are vented? Does it matter?

What is the best method for for creating the hole in the brick chimney? Mini sledge and a metal splitting wedge?

--

Also if he decides to go Mini Split AC is there a reason for not going with the biggest M-series which is rated at 22,200 BTU, or because he is going to have the 9 600w lights cooled using a nice 12" fan should be opt for a smaller AC unit?

Would the larger 22k BTU unit run less - resulting in lower power consumption?
How much juice does one draw. I see the specs list that both the outside unit and indoor unit requires 220/240v, but it doesnt list the wattage or what size breaker each part should be on.


Any more info regarding mini split ac or basement grows of this wattage 5400w-6000w (flowering) is extremely helpful.

peace

 

[eyes]

you can punch into the chimney witha hammer drill.drill small circular holes and then u se min sledge.YOu can cool a few lights with the 6 inch duct and let the ac do the rest.3000 btu per 1000 i think.id see what the ac can handle as far as cooling then vent the others out the chimney if the total light is too much.

 

[eyes]

either way vent during the day when less likely for ir detection

 

[green_tea]

remember, the people talking about the 3500BTU per 1000W light is with lights that are NOT air cooled.

air cooled lights need a lot less AC.

 

[PonicalChillin]

thanks for the replies.

Maybe he is better off just running non-aircooled reflectors for the sake of simplicity.

Can anyone speculate if there would be a noticable cost advantage of aircooling the lights to reduce the amount of load on the ac or if he should just run the lights non-aircooled and bring on the mini split for force.

efficiency is key - but to what extreme. Going non-aircooled with a large mini-split would be a heck of a lot easier then trying to aircool 9 lights.

 

[TGT]

If exhausting into the chimney, make sure to punch the hole a few feet above the other exhausts. If you place it before or under you could get gas backing into the house - not good.

I think you should air cool as you will have a lot of problems with heat if not. What you could do is use air cooled hoods but don't hook them up and see how it goes. If its too hot, then just run the ducting. That is what I have decided to do with my 5 - 1000 watt HPS. Actually I am going to air cool three of them and leave the others. Hopefully with my 12,000 BTU it will be fine. We will see.

TGT

 

[eyes]

if u are set up in the basement,basements stay about 55 degrees summer and colder in the winter.the heat from the lights will help warm it up during the colder months .id air cool some and try to get a happy medium depending on the season.use the heat from the lights to warm the house up during the winter.for summer air cool some if all of them are too much for the ac.i think that ac will handle all those lights.

 

[PonicalChillin]

Yes - it'll be in the basement which stays pretty cool.

Is it possible to just aircool the lights properly and get by without using any AC at all? Lights would be aircooled using the manifold and 12" MAX can. Room would be exhausted using like a 10" on a Can 100 or something. All exhaust air would be taken up and out of the house, but unfortunately all of the intake air (both for the room and lights) would have to be pulled from the reset of the basement. (flower room will be just drywalled room in center of basement.) Is this doable?

Anyone know an estimated CFM rating that would be required to do so?

I was talking to him and it sure would be a whole lot cheaper & easier to setup an exhausted room with properly aircooled lights rather then mess with sealed, ac, and co2 this time 'round. Add the mini-split and co2 later (sealed).

Anyone doing large grows or know of anyone doing somewhat large grows in the range of 5k-8k using no AC at all? Our average summertime temps here are 85-90F. House has no central air or anything.

Soaking up the knowledge here. Thanks!