Questions about a sealed room.

[AOD2012]

ok i am making the move from the closet to a small room in a basement. i am using aircooled hoods for my 600 watt light. i am going to run a second 600 watt after i get some extra money to replace old appliances in the house that suck power. my question is i have an 8 inch fan to cool both lights, ill probably use a 6 inch for the single. i want to run c02, so my question is if my room is completely sealed, can the fan exhausting the heat from the lights all the exhaust i need? or do i need another exhaust pulling out of the room? i have a small fan and carbon filter that i can do this with. i was also thinking if i can leave the room the way it is, i can just have the filter running in the room to clean the air. is this plausible?

 

[Hovz]

ok i am making the move from the closet to a small room in a basement. i am using aircooled hoods for my 600 watt light. i am going to run a second 600 watt after i get some extra money to replace old appliances in the house that suck power. my question is i have an 8 inch fan to cool both lights, ill probably use a 6 inch for the single. i want to run c02, so my question is if my room is completely sealed, can the fan exhausting the heat from the lights all the exhaust i need? or do i need another exhaust pulling out of the room? i have a small fan and carbon filter that i can do this with. i was also thinking if i can leave the room the way it is, i can just have the filter running in the room to clean the air. is this plausible?

Hey, i've seen people with grows were they just set a can fan ontop of a filter in a sealed room to scrub the air.

 

[Dr Dog]

you need to seal your room to use C02 effectively

The C02 will just go right out the exhaust

 

[PharmaCan]

Your concept of sealed rooms is all wrong. A sealed room is just that, sealed. No air gets in or out.

The intake air for your light is sucked from outside the room, through the lights, then exhausted to outside the room.

Inside the room you can put a fan on top of a charcoal filter and suck air through it. This recirculates the air inside the room and gets rid of some or most of the smell - depends on the size of your room, fan and filter.

With a sealed room you need CO2 supplementation because the plants will use up the available CO2 and, since you aren't putting any fresh air into the room, you have to replace it artificially.

If this explanation isn't clear, do a search for sealed rooms. There are plenty of threads with plenty of drawings that will help you understand it better.

PC

 

[Buzzsmirk!]

this guy "gets it" , he said it as simple as anyone can.
u must visualize the setup and u too will "get it"

peace!
Buzz!

 

[AOD2012]

thank you pharma, appreciate it. you put it very simply. i should have mentioned i have a 20lb c02 tank and i was planning on supplementing. so this means that i do not need an intake either? the c02 will be all the fresh air it needs, correct? thanks a lot for the response

 

[KnuckleHedd]

Even a sealed room should have an exhaust fan and room controller to kick it on when the temp or humidity exceed the peset level. My room is sealed, I use CO2 and I have an exhaust fan and fresh air intake fan that are kicked on at appropriate times. In warm weather I use bottled gas and in the fall I turn on the CO2 generator until spring. Without exhausting the air condensed moisture will run down your walls. Things will get moldy to say the least.

 

[smokinshogun]

-

 

[medicine_man_bc]

air cool the lights by running a duct from a intake window(or whtever), thru the space, thru the lights, then out another window(or vent whatever). this will give you the benefit of air cooled and sealed room. i just seal a room, add a co2 for fresh air, dehu for hum, and a/c for temp. these are the most productive gardens. some dont even use air scrubbers because the room contains the smell. all growing, trimming and drying is done in the space for this reason;-)

 

[alphaguru]

A/C and Dehumidifier?
Then you don't waste your CO2.
Your room is not sealed...

exactly

 

[AOD2012]

i have an extra dehumidifier to throw in, but this is located in a basement, what should i use, a portable ac? will venting the lights be enough to cool this space? it stays relatively cool down there, and i will most likely only be running during the cooler months to save on electricity until i have all appliances switched to energy efficient ones. i am still a little confused as to whether i should have an intake. so no intake at all not even a passive one?

 

[BigForest]

yeah totaly sealed no in or out co2/ac/de-hum just get a big enough ac

 

[medicine_man_bc]

no in no out, only for ducts for lights. you will still need an a/c, but you'll save power (maybve 1/3 of your a/c)and increase light to the canopy (dropping lights closer)air cooling lights in a sealed room. just a/c though will save air cooling duct work and material, headaches and suspicious noises to outsiders.

 

[AOD2012]

ok now the portable ac needs to be vented to the outside correct? can i just add that to the exhaust on the lights? that would make things a lot easier for me if that is possible.

 

[sparkjumper]

Man you do not want to use a portable AC when using co2 enricment,even the dual hose portables will rob you of your co2.Your best bet is a window AC and a dehumidifier.I've run sealed floweroom going on 9 years now and after too many trials and tribulations,I have it correct.First and foremost,if you are using co2 on a timer like a "cyclestat" based on calculations from room size you may as well forget seeing any visable yield differences.Only a true co2 controller that keeps a high co2 level for 12 hours straight without a more than 200 PPM fluctuation in co2 levels with bring about the results that are obvious.I'm talking about a 30% increase in weight from when I started with a cyclestat timer and ended with a cap PPM-3 co2 controller.The difference is night and day.For one thing,using a timer and room size calculations dont take into account number of plants in room and degree of their development.This is of utmost importance because you wont get a steady high co2 PPM without fluctuation unless you use a controller.I set my controller for 1500PPM.When it drops to 1450 PPM the generator kicks in and burns until it reaches 1500PPM then the burner cuts off.During the next few minutes the co2 level will rise to around 1700PPM although the burner already went out at 1500.Then it slowly drops to 1450PPM and when it hits that level it again kicks in the generator until 1500PPM.Its great man only a few hundred PPM max fluctuation and its very very slow fluctuation.The plants need time to adapt to the higher co2 concentrations and jumping around from 800PPM to 1500PPM back to 1000PPM and round and round does no good interms of co2 enrichment.They will grow normally with heavily fluctuating high co2 levels.You are spinning your wheels without a co2 controller

 

[AOD2012]

can i use the cap ppm-3 with the regulator i have already. i believe it is a hydrofarm one

 

[KnuckleHedd]

I have no room for a dehumidifier which raises the temp a bit, too. From around 1 December until sometime in March the exhaust fan rarely comes on. I believe the amount of CO2 wasted is well worth the the overall results. My room is 11' by 12.5' by 7' with 4 1000 watt air cooled lights. they're cooled by an 8 inch Fantech and the air is drwn in from outside. In cold weather the reflectors stay almost cold to the touch and never more than slightly warm at any time. I only use bottled CO2 in the warm months and get 10-11 days from 20 lbs. I prefer the CO2 generator, which is used from sometime in Nov untl the end of March. Even with the BTUs from the generator the temp seldom reaches the preset level. I get 20 -21 days from a 20 lb bottle of propane. there are 32-34 plants in 5 gallon pots at a height of 3-3 1/2 feet. My grow season begins on 1 Aug and ends on 1 June or there abouts. I grow 3 crops. The first one entirely from seed and the others mostly from cuttings. I begin CO2 enrichment on 15 Sept when I switch to 12/12. I always grow a number of Rez Apollo 11 the first crop so I can harvest some and have it ready for Thanksgiving weekend. Great bud at around 50 days. I've had that strain since 2003 and it's still a crowd pleaser. This time around the other strains are Serious Ak47, Serious Bubblegum, Mods Godbud x Dreamweaver, Flying Dutchmens Edelweiss and I have only 2 of Sags Yumbolt. I set my Co2 controller at 1200 ppm because I haven't seen a significant difference with 1500.

 

[KnuckleHedd]

Yes the CAP 3 will work fine with your Hydrofarm regulator. I had a Hydrofarm reg first, but when it died I replaced it with a CAP reg. I use a CAP 3, CAP reg. CAP room controller and a Green Air relay. You don't wanna buy cheap stuff and have it go out on you.

 

[AOD2012]

this might be a dumb question but do you think that aircooling the lights will be enough to keep temps down, or is it necessary for the ac? i just dont know if i will have the room.

edit* since the room is in the basement, how am i going to use a regular air conditioner and not a portable ? building an ac box or something?

 

[KnuckleHedd]

Air cooling the lights is going to help tremendously. But you still have radiated heat from the lights. The heat you feel when you hold your hand under the light. It's enough that it warms my floor a bit even when the lights are up high. Whether you can keep it in the right temp range or not I can't say. In my case I would have to use an ac to do exactly what you have in mind. I'dhave to cut a hole in the sheet rock wall and mount it there, with the "outside" part in the next room. I know a guy that did it this way. The ac heated up the basement, but he countered that with central air. Ac would pull out a lot of water vapor too, so you might not need a dehumifier.