G
greenhornets
All pictures and text are do to my creative imagination and image software
G
greenhornets
no takers .
Thanks for the pics. Just a couple of things I notice from them.
Your cool tube allows for no air flow once the globe is installed, there is simply not enough room around the globe for sufficient air to pass. Also the end where the globe screws into has insufficient areas for air to be drawn into – whatever fan you use regardless of the globe restrictions will always be working hard to suck what little air it can through that.
Your 2 hoods with the 4” ducting, are they fully sealed with glass also?
It looks like the fan mounted to the ceiling (cooling the hoods perhaps) has several unnecessary bends in the ducting, the ducting should always be as straight as possible and only as long as is required.
It is still difficult to see what intakes and exhausts you currently have, so it can be understood and your problems rectified you really need to provide even a rough sketch of your rooms, the intakes and exhausts, ducting, equipment to be cooled etc… At the moment all I can gather is that you have one big room which may or may not have intakes with several internal rooms which may or may not be ducted to each other which do exhaust themselves. Even a rough MS paint drawing would allow us to see how your rooms are breathing otherwise we can only guess.
As an example, from what I can see, I have probably around 600-700watts more power usage than your current arrangement, I have a 24kbtu a/c installed in my area but due to the way I have ducted and exhausted everything I don't even need the a/c. Obviously the outside temperatures play a big part in this also but it does highlight the point that with careful placement you can reduce your power usage substantially. I have no doubt what you need is possible with the equipment you already have.
Your cool tube allows for no air flow once the globe is installed, there is simply not enough room around the globe for sufficient air to pass. Also the end where the globe screws into has insufficient areas for air to be drawn into – whatever fan you use regardless of the globe restrictions will always be working hard to suck what little air it can through that.
Your 2 hoods with the 4” ducting, are they fully sealed with glass also?
It looks like the fan mounted to the ceiling (cooling the hoods perhaps) has several unnecessary bends in the ducting, the ducting should always be as straight as possible and only as long as is required.
It is still difficult to see what intakes and exhausts you currently have, so it can be understood and your problems rectified you really need to provide even a rough sketch of your rooms, the intakes and exhausts, ducting, equipment to be cooled etc… At the moment all I can gather is that you have one big room which may or may not have intakes with several internal rooms which may or may not be ducted to each other which do exhaust themselves. Even a rough MS paint drawing would allow us to see how your rooms are breathing otherwise we can only guess.
As an example, from what I can see, I have probably around 600-700watts more power usage than your current arrangement, I have a 24kbtu a/c installed in my area but due to the way I have ducted and exhausted everything I don't even need the a/c. Obviously the outside temperatures play a big part in this also but it does highlight the point that with careful placement you can reduce your power usage substantially. I have no doubt what you need is possible with the equipment you already have.
G
greenhornets
shed drawing
shed drawing
shed drawing
shed drawing
shed drawing
G
greenhornets
sorry i dont know how to blow it up
Ok getting there slowly but this explains it.
Again I refer to the bottle theory…
Firstly, the flower room has no intake or exhaust to the outside, at the moment you are sucking air out of this room. You are not blowing air to the mother room efficiently. Instead the air that is blown into the mother room is drawn from cracks in the walls, flaws, unsealed door into the mother room and where ever it is able to suck from. You need to work out if you really need the 6” hole between the flower and mother rooms. If the mother room is ok for the moment I would temporarily seal up the hole and deal with the mother room first.
Secondly, your mother room has insufficient intake, there are 2 exhausts and 1 intake. No doubt your cool tube isn’t adding too much additional exhaust based on my previous post (cool tube intake insufficient + large MH globe taking up too much area in tube causing restricted air flow). Don’t count the a/c intake and exhaust here, unless you have smell issues assume it is sealed so makes no difference to the equation (much like the flower room window a/c). You need to do something different with the cool tube there, if you really want to use it then could you swap it for a hood in the flower room? That right there is a major factor of your heat issues. If you can swing it, buy a bigger 6-8” cool tube. You could replace the MH globe with a HPS as they have a smaller diameter allowing more air to pass over the globe. Personally I would just replace it, a new tube is much cheaper than a bigger a/c unit to fix the heat issues it is causing.
Additionally, your dedicated intake + exhaust are in the same area? If you seal them up, put an intake at one end of the room low & close to the plants (provided intake air isn’t high temperature) and the exhaust should be at the opposite end of the room, that will create air flow in the room. You could also add ducting to the holes and have the duct openings at opposite ends of the room (not the best way). Always mount your room exhaust points high, mount your room intake points low (hot air rises, better to exhaust the hotter air first, replacing it with cooler air).
Ok a bit of overhauling and testing is required.
Some Q’s:
What fans do you have on the intake and exhaust in the mother room? Is there a fan on both or is the intake passive?
The ducting in the attic, is it straight, limited joins/junctions? Can it be simplified/reduced/made more efficient? As an example, if I add an additional 15’ of straight ducting to my cool tubes exhaust this causes a temperature increase in my room of 4 deg c. Keep it short and straight, even the most minor of changes can decrease its efficiency.
Can you draw outside air in from down lower somewhere in the mother room?
What is the typical temperature of the intake air from the attic?
Are the rooms well sealed from each other and outside?
What is the typical temperature outside?
So to summarise…
Fix the issues with or replace the cool tube
Temporarily seal up the hole between the rooms
Move the intake and exhaust to opposite ends of the room (or at least duct it that way)
If possible, consider taking air into the mother room from a lower point
You are exhausting a total area of 25” (circumference of 4” + 4”) but your room intake is half of that, you need an additional 4” intake (at least) if you want to replace the air you exhaust.
Once you have done this and without the a/c going, monitor temps in the following areas:
Intake from attic
Air exhaust from the cool tube
Dedicated air exhaust (make sure what you are exhausting is hotter than your intake air).
Sorry I couldn't make this shorter - kinda needed to explain. Goodluck & let us know how you go!
Again I refer to the bottle theory…
Firstly, the flower room has no intake or exhaust to the outside, at the moment you are sucking air out of this room. You are not blowing air to the mother room efficiently. Instead the air that is blown into the mother room is drawn from cracks in the walls, flaws, unsealed door into the mother room and where ever it is able to suck from. You need to work out if you really need the 6” hole between the flower and mother rooms. If the mother room is ok for the moment I would temporarily seal up the hole and deal with the mother room first.
Secondly, your mother room has insufficient intake, there are 2 exhausts and 1 intake. No doubt your cool tube isn’t adding too much additional exhaust based on my previous post (cool tube intake insufficient + large MH globe taking up too much area in tube causing restricted air flow). Don’t count the a/c intake and exhaust here, unless you have smell issues assume it is sealed so makes no difference to the equation (much like the flower room window a/c). You need to do something different with the cool tube there, if you really want to use it then could you swap it for a hood in the flower room? That right there is a major factor of your heat issues. If you can swing it, buy a bigger 6-8” cool tube. You could replace the MH globe with a HPS as they have a smaller diameter allowing more air to pass over the globe. Personally I would just replace it, a new tube is much cheaper than a bigger a/c unit to fix the heat issues it is causing.
Additionally, your dedicated intake + exhaust are in the same area? If you seal them up, put an intake at one end of the room low & close to the plants (provided intake air isn’t high temperature) and the exhaust should be at the opposite end of the room, that will create air flow in the room. You could also add ducting to the holes and have the duct openings at opposite ends of the room (not the best way). Always mount your room exhaust points high, mount your room intake points low (hot air rises, better to exhaust the hotter air first, replacing it with cooler air).
Ok a bit of overhauling and testing is required.
Some Q’s:
What fans do you have on the intake and exhaust in the mother room? Is there a fan on both or is the intake passive?
The ducting in the attic, is it straight, limited joins/junctions? Can it be simplified/reduced/made more efficient? As an example, if I add an additional 15’ of straight ducting to my cool tubes exhaust this causes a temperature increase in my room of 4 deg c. Keep it short and straight, even the most minor of changes can decrease its efficiency.
Can you draw outside air in from down lower somewhere in the mother room?
What is the typical temperature of the intake air from the attic?
Are the rooms well sealed from each other and outside?
What is the typical temperature outside?
So to summarise…
Fix the issues with or replace the cool tube
Temporarily seal up the hole between the rooms
Move the intake and exhaust to opposite ends of the room (or at least duct it that way)
If possible, consider taking air into the mother room from a lower point
You are exhausting a total area of 25” (circumference of 4” + 4”) but your room intake is half of that, you need an additional 4” intake (at least) if you want to replace the air you exhaust.
Once you have done this and without the a/c going, monitor temps in the following areas:
Intake from attic
Air exhaust from the cool tube
Dedicated air exhaust (make sure what you are exhausting is hotter than your intake air).
Sorry I couldn't make this shorter - kinda needed to explain. Goodluck & let us know how you go!
G
greenhornets
Hey Sambiala, Thanks for the reply and the sugguestions.
I got rid of the diy cooltube and replaced it with a aircooled hood. It has 6in exhaust/intake vents on each end. I had to reduce to 4in because of my 4in exhaust fan. Which is 170cfm canfan that is mounted to the ceiling, which is exhausted to the attic attached to a scrubber.
Some Q’s:
What fans do you have on the intake and exhaust in the mother room?
170 cfm 4in canfan.
Is there a fan on both or is the intake passive?
Only one fan. Used as an exhaust and to cool off hood. Not really sure of what you mean.
The ducting in the attic, is it straight, limited joins/junctions?
In the attic there are two windows, one on left and one on the right side of shed. No ac for now. not sure how it will be done once unit is installed.
Can it be simplified/reduced/made more efficient?
No security reasons.
As an example, if I add an additional 15’ of straight ducting to my cool tubes exhaust this causes a temperature increase in my room of 4 deg c. Keep it short and straight, even the most minor of changes can decrease its efficiency.
Can you draw outside air in from down lower somewhere in the mother room?
No because the exterior walls are two brick walls thick and are covered in plaster, inside and out. I can only draw outside air from the attic windows, and the flower room with the 6in canfan 440cfm downlow on the floor in the flower room, pushing air into the mother room.
What is the typical temperature of the intake air from the attic?
Not drawing air from the attic, only exhausting the room air and hood air, into the attic, through the scrubber.
Are the rooms well sealed from each other and outside?
All rooms are completely sealed from the outside with doors and weather stripping. Also, the ac window unit in flower room is completely sealed.
What is the typical temperature outside?
As of now 85-90 with about 70-80% humidity
In addition to adding lower intake and higher exhaust into and out of the room, I only have the two windows up in the attic to use. I just purchased an inline fan, to put up in the attic, to boost the air flow. (I don't know which line, the window on the left has the shortest distance to the mother room, and the other window is over 8 feet long from the mother room)
As you said, I can add ducting to bring fresh air low on the floor next to the plants, using a 6in hose. I guess I should put in inline booster fan on the intake line for the mother room, and maybe get another booster fan for the exhaust for the other window, in the attic. These two intake and exhaust are what I was using for the portable ac.
Do you think the 6 inch 440 cfm canfan on the floor, sucking air from flower room to the mother room is a good idea? (light proof with blends and 90's)
I got rid of the diy cooltube and replaced it with a aircooled hood. It has 6in exhaust/intake vents on each end. I had to reduce to 4in because of my 4in exhaust fan. Which is 170cfm canfan that is mounted to the ceiling, which is exhausted to the attic attached to a scrubber.
Some Q’s:
What fans do you have on the intake and exhaust in the mother room?
170 cfm 4in canfan.
Is there a fan on both or is the intake passive?
Only one fan. Used as an exhaust and to cool off hood. Not really sure of what you mean.
The ducting in the attic, is it straight, limited joins/junctions?
In the attic there are two windows, one on left and one on the right side of shed. No ac for now. not sure how it will be done once unit is installed.
Can it be simplified/reduced/made more efficient?
No security reasons.
As an example, if I add an additional 15’ of straight ducting to my cool tubes exhaust this causes a temperature increase in my room of 4 deg c. Keep it short and straight, even the most minor of changes can decrease its efficiency.
Can you draw outside air in from down lower somewhere in the mother room?
No because the exterior walls are two brick walls thick and are covered in plaster, inside and out. I can only draw outside air from the attic windows, and the flower room with the 6in canfan 440cfm downlow on the floor in the flower room, pushing air into the mother room.
What is the typical temperature of the intake air from the attic?
Not drawing air from the attic, only exhausting the room air and hood air, into the attic, through the scrubber.
Are the rooms well sealed from each other and outside?
All rooms are completely sealed from the outside with doors and weather stripping. Also, the ac window unit in flower room is completely sealed.
What is the typical temperature outside?
As of now 85-90 with about 70-80% humidity
In addition to adding lower intake and higher exhaust into and out of the room, I only have the two windows up in the attic to use. I just purchased an inline fan, to put up in the attic, to boost the air flow. (I don't know which line, the window on the left has the shortest distance to the mother room, and the other window is over 8 feet long from the mother room)
As you said, I can add ducting to bring fresh air low on the floor next to the plants, using a 6in hose. I guess I should put in inline booster fan on the intake line for the mother room, and maybe get another booster fan for the exhaust for the other window, in the attic. These two intake and exhaust are what I was using for the portable ac.
Do you think the 6 inch 440 cfm canfan on the floor, sucking air from flower room to the mother room is a good idea? (light proof with blends and 90's)
Fraggle Rock
Member
I am going through a similar situation. Thanks for the input here!! I just dont have a way to ad an intake vent in my grow room, I have been stuck with passive ventilation.
Hey GH & FR. Been rather busy so just replying now.
Thought it be easier to edit your sketch. See attached pics for possible ways to configure your rooms. Im sure there are a hundred ways people could come up with so chime in anyone, Im ripped right now so keep you expectations low
Refer Config 1 –
Sealed I/O (intake, output/exhaust) for both light setups if you can do it - you would just be sucking in hot air into your room from outside anyway then better to seal with dedicated intake and exhausts for the light setups.
Added 6” Intake in flower room (try without fan first as the inter-room fan may be enough to suck air in). Added 6” exhaust beyond your grow area in mother room so air blows past plant from inter-room fan.
Again keep intakes low to the floor (ducting to the floor if needed) and exhausts high.
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from flower room intake – cooled in room from a/c – 6” inter-room vent – past plants – exhausted through mother room 6” exhaust – will require fan to exhaust through 6”.
Refer Config 2 –
Again, flower room light ducted & sealed.
Additional 6” Intake from flower room, additional 4” exhaust (requires fan) in mother room also using existing cool tube exhaust.
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from flower room intake – cooled in room from a/c – 6” inter-room vent – exhausted through mother room 4” exhaust & through cool tube.
Refer Config 3 –
Again, flower room & mother room lights ducted & sealed.
Additional 4” Intake from flower room, additional 4” exhaust (requires fan) in mother room. Additional 6” inter-room fan added blowing hot air back into the flower room (requires mounting up high).
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from flower room intake – cooled in room from a/c – 6” inter-room vent – exhausted through mother room 4” exhaust + some hot air will be recycled back into the flower room for cooling. You could use a 6” intake and exhausts however I don’t see the point if you already have a spare 4” fan.
Refer Config 4 –
Again, flower room & mother room lights ducted & sealed.
Additional 4” Intake in mother room, additional 4” exhaust (requires fan) in mother room. Additional 6” inter-room fan added blowing hot air back into the flower room (requires mounting up high).
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from mother room intake – past plants – partially exhausted out mother room 4” exhaust – hot air will be recycled back into the flower room for cooling then flow back into the mother room.
Refer Config 5 –
Setup as Config 4 with inter-room vents removed, CO2 added to flower room. I just added this one as it might be useful to configure as version 4 to later make minor change to areas for CO2 addition. You could add CO2 through to the mother room (via inter-room vent) also but IMO is a waste of CO2, mothers and clones don’t need it as the flower room does.
Hope this helps illustrate a few things. If confusing, walk the paths of airflow. Try all of the above first WITHOUT the mother room a/c so you can monitor temps and determine which configuration brings the temps down the most this will mean lower a/c loads ie: lower power bills. Monitor both mother and flower room temps – longer the better so you can get more accurate numbers, obviously if one config causes immediate higher temps then try the next config. Your flower room was stated as running perfectly, now with these changes the flower room will be affected also so you may find some configs work better for the mother room but increase temps in flower room – you will just need to find the happy medium with the temps for BOTH rooms, monitor and add room temp results together, divide by 2 giving the average for both rooms which ever method has the lower average temp is the one to stick with.
These are by no means perfect configurations but you do have several restrictions and have already started the setup. I am sure there are vent calcs on here somewhere which will give you duct diameters/areas and cfm ratings for exhaust & intake fans allowing full room air exchange every 1-3 mins however you need to account for your a/c also, sucking in and exhausting too much air although good for the plants means you’re a/c’s will do nothing but cost you a heap to run.
Personally I would do Config 1 or 4. Once you have set your rooms you can try tweaking things by monitoring temps around the plant canopies and moving exhaust ducting over head and other things suggested here as now you will be able to fine tune the ventilation.
Thought it be easier to edit your sketch. See attached pics for possible ways to configure your rooms. Im sure there are a hundred ways people could come up with so chime in anyone, Im ripped right now so keep you expectations low
Refer Config 1 –
Sealed I/O (intake, output/exhaust) for both light setups if you can do it - you would just be sucking in hot air into your room from outside anyway then better to seal with dedicated intake and exhausts for the light setups.
Added 6” Intake in flower room (try without fan first as the inter-room fan may be enough to suck air in). Added 6” exhaust beyond your grow area in mother room so air blows past plant from inter-room fan.
Again keep intakes low to the floor (ducting to the floor if needed) and exhausts high.
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from flower room intake – cooled in room from a/c – 6” inter-room vent – past plants – exhausted through mother room 6” exhaust – will require fan to exhaust through 6”.
Refer Config 2 –
Again, flower room light ducted & sealed.
Additional 6” Intake from flower room, additional 4” exhaust (requires fan) in mother room also using existing cool tube exhaust.
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from flower room intake – cooled in room from a/c – 6” inter-room vent – exhausted through mother room 4” exhaust & through cool tube.
Refer Config 3 –
Again, flower room & mother room lights ducted & sealed.
Additional 4” Intake from flower room, additional 4” exhaust (requires fan) in mother room. Additional 6” inter-room fan added blowing hot air back into the flower room (requires mounting up high).
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from flower room intake – cooled in room from a/c – 6” inter-room vent – exhausted through mother room 4” exhaust + some hot air will be recycled back into the flower room for cooling. You could use a 6” intake and exhausts however I don’t see the point if you already have a spare 4” fan.
Refer Config 4 –
Again, flower room & mother room lights ducted & sealed.
Additional 4” Intake in mother room, additional 4” exhaust (requires fan) in mother room. Additional 6” inter-room fan added blowing hot air back into the flower room (requires mounting up high).
Follow the basic path/flow of the air from mother room intake – past plants – partially exhausted out mother room 4” exhaust – hot air will be recycled back into the flower room for cooling then flow back into the mother room.
Refer Config 5 –
Setup as Config 4 with inter-room vents removed, CO2 added to flower room. I just added this one as it might be useful to configure as version 4 to later make minor change to areas for CO2 addition. You could add CO2 through to the mother room (via inter-room vent) also but IMO is a waste of CO2, mothers and clones don’t need it as the flower room does.
Hope this helps illustrate a few things. If confusing, walk the paths of airflow. Try all of the above first WITHOUT the mother room a/c so you can monitor temps and determine which configuration brings the temps down the most this will mean lower a/c loads ie: lower power bills. Monitor both mother and flower room temps – longer the better so you can get more accurate numbers, obviously if one config causes immediate higher temps then try the next config. Your flower room was stated as running perfectly, now with these changes the flower room will be affected also so you may find some configs work better for the mother room but increase temps in flower room – you will just need to find the happy medium with the temps for BOTH rooms, monitor and add room temp results together, divide by 2 giving the average for both rooms which ever method has the lower average temp is the one to stick with.
These are by no means perfect configurations but you do have several restrictions and have already started the setup. I am sure there are vent calcs on here somewhere which will give you duct diameters/areas and cfm ratings for exhaust & intake fans allowing full room air exchange every 1-3 mins however you need to account for your a/c also, sucking in and exhausting too much air although good for the plants means you’re a/c’s will do nothing but cost you a heap to run.
Personally I would do Config 1 or 4. Once you have set your rooms you can try tweaking things by monitoring temps around the plant canopies and moving exhaust ducting over head and other things suggested here as now you will be able to fine tune the ventilation.
Attachments
G
greenhornets
hey sambiala, i took your advice and got the air cooled hood for the mother room. i also got rid of the portable a/c . .im starting over before i put any more hole in the room ( its starting to look like swiss cheese) not really . i will get another portable a/c ,just not yet . i need to work on the ventalation . hey just so u know the 440 cfm can fans are 6 inch and i have 2 .one for the 2x lights in the mother room and one on the floor of the flower room to move air from the flower to the mother room . the 170 cfm is 4 inch and its hooked to the new hood . i had to put a 4x6 reducer on the hood . the holes on the hood are 6 inch . i guess i need to pick a design for now . witch design requires the least work . i think i like drawin
the flower room would be easy to do . for the 2x light it has 4 inch ducting , could i suck air through both lights(FROM THE ROOM) and through a 440 cfm can fan and into the attic hooked to a scrubber..for the 6 inch intake in the the flower ,could i just hook a 6 inch booster fan to a window in the attic to blow fresh air into the flower ??
i really need to work on the mother room.( im running out of windows . )
in the mother room could i take the air from the room and suck it through the light and into the attic ,hooked to a scrubber ? you say i need a 4 inch exhaust over the cloning area also .wont this exhaust need to be scrubbed ?? as the far as the a/c it has its own intake/exhaust lines run to the windows. so is that all i would need for config 2 is to add another exhaust and a scrubber over the cloning area??
the flower room would be easy to do . for the 2x light it has 4 inch ducting , could i suck air through both lights(FROM THE ROOM) and through a 440 cfm can fan and into the attic hooked to a scrubber..for the 6 inch intake in the the flower ,could i just hook a 6 inch booster fan to a window in the attic to blow fresh air into the flower ??
i really need to work on the mother room.( im running out of windows . )
in the mother room could i take the air from the room and suck it through the light and into the attic ,hooked to a scrubber ? you say i need a 4 inch exhaust over the cloning area also .wont this exhaust need to be scrubbed ?? as the far as the a/c it has its own intake/exhaust lines run to the windows. so is that all i would need for config 2 is to add another exhaust and a scrubber over the cloning area??
That’s good news about the mother room hood you will not regret it.
Definitely best to draw these things first, as they say measure twice cut once.
Make sure if you are not using the old ceiling holes any more that you seal them up or your air flow will be affected.
You can definitely suck air from your room through your hoods to exhaust provided you have adequate intake also however if you can seal the lights instead then you won’t need scrubbers besides on your room exhaust. See the drawings for what I mean. I first had mine set up exhausting air from within my room via a scrubber however my temps were edging up and unstable due to the temps outside supplying my intake. I sealed the lights and my room temp immediately dropped several deg c and became more stable as I was able to reduce the room exhaust fan speed. You can mount the fan where ever you want (before/after lights, blowing or sucking), you could mount it in the attic even but I have mine as per the drawings as sucking hot air through and exhausting it from within the room reduced the fan noise outside. Blowing through the lights seemed to slow the air flow which will increase temps somewhat.
I think the easiest/best config would be the first one. Config 2 is possible but only if you have no other choices or restrictions for exhausts. Config 1 is the most basic and would be good basis to get some initial temperature figures from. I would not bother with an intake fan in the flower room yet, you have a 6” sucking from the flower room already and will need another exhausting the mother room (with the scrubber) so you should have sufficient airflow for initial tests – you don’t want anything forcing air in yet as you won’t be able to see how well the rooms are sealed. Once you have it set up (without a flower room intake fan, 6” ducting and a hole in the ceiling will do) run all your fans up, close all the doors and if the rooms are well sealed you will feel the air being sucked in through the 6” ceiling intake which means your ventilation is working – you should feel similar flow as you do from the inter-room 6” blowing in the mother room. If the flow from the flower room intake is slow or you can’t feel it then your room needs more work sealing everything up (gaffa tape and expanda foam are your friends). If the airflow is good from the intake then turn on all your lights & flower room a/c and start taking temperatures in different areas and note them down in case you need to make improvements. If you haven’t got any good digital thermometers with minimum & maximum memories then get a couple they don’t cost much. It might take some time before temps stabilize so give it an hour before you take temps. Also note the weather conditions as your ultimately looking for the extremes so you have peace of mind on very hot days.
As far as intake and exhaust placement, your common point for both rooms is the inter-room fan. From this fan measure the furthest distance away on the opposite wall in the flower room. This will be the best spot for the intake as it will reduce standing air pockets and promote more total room air exchange.
Haven’t seen how your attic is set up yet but I get the idea. If you can get some pics of the ducting etc from up there it might be handy for any further improvement ideas.
I know duct reducers are handy when matched or high flows aren’t important however remember your exhausts and intakes are only as big as your smallest point. If you have reducers from 6” – 4” then this will always be a bottle neck. Try to avoid them where you can. I’m currently running a 400w HPS in a cool tube with a 4” 220cfm fan wired to the lowest tap and it’s temp is just ok – I wouldn’t want too hot a day.
You said in your last post that you have 2 x lights in the mother room with a 6” fan on it – I assume you meant your flower room? Just want to make sure I didn’t miss another 2 lights somewhere. For the lights in the flower room you said you have 4” ducting with a 6” fan. Are the duct holes on the hoods only 4” or you are using several reducers? You said it was already running ok at the moment so I didn’t consider it much but you will get it running much cooler with 6” ducting if you can, seems a waste to have a good 6” fan there and have its capability dramatically reduced. The fan may state 440 cfm but it won’t be with 4” ducting – that is a 66% reduction of duct area which might equate to reducing your fan to only 190 cfm. It could be even less if the fan doesn’t have a good useful pressure rating.
You don’t have problems with bugs mites insects in your area? Once you have your ventilation sorted you may need some kind of filter on the intake to prevent them getting in. Fly screen with woven window tint or some stockings will help with the bigger creatures.
Definitely best to draw these things first, as they say measure twice cut once.
Make sure if you are not using the old ceiling holes any more that you seal them up or your air flow will be affected.
You can definitely suck air from your room through your hoods to exhaust provided you have adequate intake also however if you can seal the lights instead then you won’t need scrubbers besides on your room exhaust. See the drawings for what I mean. I first had mine set up exhausting air from within my room via a scrubber however my temps were edging up and unstable due to the temps outside supplying my intake. I sealed the lights and my room temp immediately dropped several deg c and became more stable as I was able to reduce the room exhaust fan speed. You can mount the fan where ever you want (before/after lights, blowing or sucking), you could mount it in the attic even but I have mine as per the drawings as sucking hot air through and exhausting it from within the room reduced the fan noise outside. Blowing through the lights seemed to slow the air flow which will increase temps somewhat.
I think the easiest/best config would be the first one. Config 2 is possible but only if you have no other choices or restrictions for exhausts. Config 1 is the most basic and would be good basis to get some initial temperature figures from. I would not bother with an intake fan in the flower room yet, you have a 6” sucking from the flower room already and will need another exhausting the mother room (with the scrubber) so you should have sufficient airflow for initial tests – you don’t want anything forcing air in yet as you won’t be able to see how well the rooms are sealed. Once you have it set up (without a flower room intake fan, 6” ducting and a hole in the ceiling will do) run all your fans up, close all the doors and if the rooms are well sealed you will feel the air being sucked in through the 6” ceiling intake which means your ventilation is working – you should feel similar flow as you do from the inter-room 6” blowing in the mother room. If the flow from the flower room intake is slow or you can’t feel it then your room needs more work sealing everything up (gaffa tape and expanda foam are your friends). If the airflow is good from the intake then turn on all your lights & flower room a/c and start taking temperatures in different areas and note them down in case you need to make improvements. If you haven’t got any good digital thermometers with minimum & maximum memories then get a couple they don’t cost much. It might take some time before temps stabilize so give it an hour before you take temps. Also note the weather conditions as your ultimately looking for the extremes so you have peace of mind on very hot days.
As far as intake and exhaust placement, your common point for both rooms is the inter-room fan. From this fan measure the furthest distance away on the opposite wall in the flower room. This will be the best spot for the intake as it will reduce standing air pockets and promote more total room air exchange.
Haven’t seen how your attic is set up yet but I get the idea. If you can get some pics of the ducting etc from up there it might be handy for any further improvement ideas.
I know duct reducers are handy when matched or high flows aren’t important however remember your exhausts and intakes are only as big as your smallest point. If you have reducers from 6” – 4” then this will always be a bottle neck. Try to avoid them where you can. I’m currently running a 400w HPS in a cool tube with a 4” 220cfm fan wired to the lowest tap and it’s temp is just ok – I wouldn’t want too hot a day.
You said in your last post that you have 2 x lights in the mother room with a 6” fan on it – I assume you meant your flower room? Just want to make sure I didn’t miss another 2 lights somewhere. For the lights in the flower room you said you have 4” ducting with a 6” fan. Are the duct holes on the hoods only 4” or you are using several reducers? You said it was already running ok at the moment so I didn’t consider it much but you will get it running much cooler with 6” ducting if you can, seems a waste to have a good 6” fan there and have its capability dramatically reduced. The fan may state 440 cfm but it won’t be with 4” ducting – that is a 66% reduction of duct area which might equate to reducing your fan to only 190 cfm. It could be even less if the fan doesn’t have a good useful pressure rating.
You don’t have problems with bugs mites insects in your area? Once you have your ventilation sorted you may need some kind of filter on the intake to prevent them getting in. Fly screen with woven window tint or some stockings will help with the bigger creatures.
Attachments
G
greenhornets
so you think it would be best to run all lights intake/exhaust through the attic .if all else i could put a stocking . thanks .
ya im sorry i was talking about the flower room . the mother room hoods intake/exhaust are 6 inch , i had to put a 4x6 inch reducer on the hood .i dont have another 6 inch fan to use for the hood . i only have a small 170 cfm can fan .
in config 1 you have a 6 inch intake in the floweer room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room .would i be drawing air from the attic or where .... i can exhaust it to the attic . wont the intake need to draw fresh air from outside or does it matter.
............... thanks
ya im sorry i was talking about the flower room . the mother room hoods intake/exhaust are 6 inch , i had to put a 4x6 inch reducer on the hood .i dont have another 6 inch fan to use for the hood . i only have a small 170 cfm can fan .
in config 1 you have a 6 inch intake in the floweer room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room .would i be drawing air from the attic or where .... i can exhaust it to the attic . wont the intake need to draw fresh air from outside or does it matter.
............... thanks
G
greenhornets
for drawing 1 , the air intake in the flower room ,do i need a can fan ? what size cfm? what about a small inline fan ( 6 inch).
didnt you say that , if the ventalatiojn was working properly the air would flow with or without the a/c running .i would be able feel the air Flowing through the room .
i plan to run the intake/exhaust for all light to the attic .what would be better a can fan or a inline fan to draw fresh air into the flower room ??
so a 6 inch intake inthe flower room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room would clear my problems up ????
didnt you say that , if the ventalatiojn was working properly the air would flow with or without the a/c running .i would be able feel the air Flowing through the room .
i plan to run the intake/exhaust for all light to the attic .what would be better a can fan or a inline fan to draw fresh air into the flower room ??
so a 6 inch intake inthe flower room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room would clear my problems up ????
so you think it would be best to run all lights intake/exhaust through the attic . Definitely, best method is to have fresh/cooler air coming in to cool the lights and exhausting where the hot air can’t get back to the intake. If the exhaust and intake for the lights come from the same source the air will just keep getting hotter and hotter, it will increase room temps and require you to have your lights further away from plant canopy to avoid burning/wilting.
if all else i could put a stocking . thanks . Yes a stocking will work for the INTAKE of the room ventilation to keep out small particles only. If worried about smaller dust, microbes, spores etc then a hepa filter or similar will be required – I wouldn't worry too much about filtration just yet, get your temperature testing done first then secondary improvements can be made. If there is a lot of dust and debris coming through the sealed lights then consider filtering also or you will need to regularly clean the glass of the hoods to keep them efficient.
ya im sorry i was talking about the flower room . the mother room hoods intake/exhaust are 6 inch , i had to put a 4x6 inch reducer on the hood .i dont have another 6 inch fan to use for the hood . i only have a small 170 cfm can fan . This should be ok for initial tests. Remember you are trying to set up the rooms for proper ventilation only at this point. Once this is done you can start looking at improving certain parts where required. A larger fan & 6” ducting will improve temps but it may not be required if the temps are acceptable.
in config 1 you have a 6 inch intake in the floweer room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room .would i be drawing air from the attic or where .... i can exhaust it to the attic . wont the intake need to draw fresh air from outside or does it matter. Yes it is best to draw fresh outside air for ALL your intakes whether for the hoods or rooms. I haven’t seen how you attic is set up but as long as you have minimal straight ducting and draw intake air from a place where the exhaust won’t affect it then it will be correct.
for drawing 1 , the air intake in the flower room ,do i need a can fan ? what size cfm? what about a small inline fan ( 6 inch). You may need an intake fan but as yet I don’t know. It will make a marked improvement if you do have one as it will relieve the load on the inter-room 6”. Don’t bother with one initially though you want to first test to ensure your room is well sealed. If it is not well sealed then you will have difficulties with room pressures, you wont be able to control the air flow instead you may suck air in from cracks, flaws and small holes throughout the flower room which will cause room hot spots and not allow proper air exchange, alternatively, if there is positive room pressure by adding an intake fan without checking how well the room is sealed then you may blow air out of the cracks, flaws and small holes which would result in smells outside. Again, don’t worry about the intake fan in the flower room yet, test first only without it. After testing and determining how well the room is sealed then if you want to put one in then it should match the 6” 440 cfm inter-room fan – an in-line fan would be incorrectly applied to this intake, you need something with a decent usable pressure.
didnt you say that , if the ventalatiojn was working properly the air would flow with or without the a/c running .i would be able feel the air Flowing through the room . Yes you should, you may not feel air rushing fast through the room itself (you don’t want this or the a/c will be doing nothing to cool the air before it is exhausted) but you should feel the air being sucked in through the flower room intake if you put your hand over it. Note, when I say you will feel air flow I don’t mean air will blow around the room I mean the air will flow from the flower room intake, through the room then sucked out by the inter-room fan, blown into the mother room, through to the mother room exhaust and blown outside. You can test the theory fairly easily – get an smelly incense stick/burner and place it where the flower room intake draws air from, turn on your fans then smell the exhaust being blown out from the mother room if you can smell the incense from the exhausted air then it’s working, if you time how long it takes from when you turn the fans on till you can smell it then you can tell how quickly your room would normally exchange air – if it takes 20mins before you can smell it then something is wrong, you should smell it pretty quickly.
i plan to run the intake/exhaust for all light to the attic .what would be better a can fan or a inline fan to draw fresh air into the flower room ?? A can fan is best (centrifugal/vortex) if you need good pressure – cfm is not a unit of pressure it is the maximum amount air that can be moved only, it will not rate useful pressure of the fan. Use inline fans in conjunction with a can fan, use them to boost the airflow for ducting etc where longer duct lengths are required – hence ‘in-line’.
so a 6 inch intake inthe flower room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room would clear my problems up ???? Yes in combination with sealing & ducting the lights and proper placement of room exhaust/intake. Temperature control is a combination of small solutions rather than just one thing such as adding a huge ass a/c – this may work also but why bother it is expensive, inefficient and if it breaks down when you’re not around then your temps will sky rocket.
One immediate thing you can do to get some of the heat out is mount all the ballasts for all your lights up high and close to the exhaust in the mother room - most of the heat they product will get sucked straight out rather than increasing room temps. I know this could be difficult to run to the flower room, so if after all is done this could be one of the many tweaks you can do.
Last thing...now that you will be exhausting a more substantial amount of hot air, remember the heat signature will be much more visible to FLIR cams etc. Hopefully you dont have snooping po po's at night - drive by or from choppers, it will be an easy find for them.
if all else i could put a stocking . thanks . Yes a stocking will work for the INTAKE of the room ventilation to keep out small particles only. If worried about smaller dust, microbes, spores etc then a hepa filter or similar will be required – I wouldn't worry too much about filtration just yet, get your temperature testing done first then secondary improvements can be made. If there is a lot of dust and debris coming through the sealed lights then consider filtering also or you will need to regularly clean the glass of the hoods to keep them efficient.
ya im sorry i was talking about the flower room . the mother room hoods intake/exhaust are 6 inch , i had to put a 4x6 inch reducer on the hood .i dont have another 6 inch fan to use for the hood . i only have a small 170 cfm can fan . This should be ok for initial tests. Remember you are trying to set up the rooms for proper ventilation only at this point. Once this is done you can start looking at improving certain parts where required. A larger fan & 6” ducting will improve temps but it may not be required if the temps are acceptable.
in config 1 you have a 6 inch intake in the floweer room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room .would i be drawing air from the attic or where .... i can exhaust it to the attic . wont the intake need to draw fresh air from outside or does it matter. Yes it is best to draw fresh outside air for ALL your intakes whether for the hoods or rooms. I haven’t seen how you attic is set up but as long as you have minimal straight ducting and draw intake air from a place where the exhaust won’t affect it then it will be correct.
for drawing 1 , the air intake in the flower room ,do i need a can fan ? what size cfm? what about a small inline fan ( 6 inch). You may need an intake fan but as yet I don’t know. It will make a marked improvement if you do have one as it will relieve the load on the inter-room 6”. Don’t bother with one initially though you want to first test to ensure your room is well sealed. If it is not well sealed then you will have difficulties with room pressures, you wont be able to control the air flow instead you may suck air in from cracks, flaws and small holes throughout the flower room which will cause room hot spots and not allow proper air exchange, alternatively, if there is positive room pressure by adding an intake fan without checking how well the room is sealed then you may blow air out of the cracks, flaws and small holes which would result in smells outside. Again, don’t worry about the intake fan in the flower room yet, test first only without it. After testing and determining how well the room is sealed then if you want to put one in then it should match the 6” 440 cfm inter-room fan – an in-line fan would be incorrectly applied to this intake, you need something with a decent usable pressure.
didnt you say that , if the ventalatiojn was working properly the air would flow with or without the a/c running .i would be able feel the air Flowing through the room . Yes you should, you may not feel air rushing fast through the room itself (you don’t want this or the a/c will be doing nothing to cool the air before it is exhausted) but you should feel the air being sucked in through the flower room intake if you put your hand over it. Note, when I say you will feel air flow I don’t mean air will blow around the room I mean the air will flow from the flower room intake, through the room then sucked out by the inter-room fan, blown into the mother room, through to the mother room exhaust and blown outside. You can test the theory fairly easily – get an smelly incense stick/burner and place it where the flower room intake draws air from, turn on your fans then smell the exhaust being blown out from the mother room if you can smell the incense from the exhausted air then it’s working, if you time how long it takes from when you turn the fans on till you can smell it then you can tell how quickly your room would normally exchange air – if it takes 20mins before you can smell it then something is wrong, you should smell it pretty quickly.
i plan to run the intake/exhaust for all light to the attic .what would be better a can fan or a inline fan to draw fresh air into the flower room ?? A can fan is best (centrifugal/vortex) if you need good pressure – cfm is not a unit of pressure it is the maximum amount air that can be moved only, it will not rate useful pressure of the fan. Use inline fans in conjunction with a can fan, use them to boost the airflow for ducting etc where longer duct lengths are required – hence ‘in-line’.
so a 6 inch intake inthe flower room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room would clear my problems up ???? Yes in combination with sealing & ducting the lights and proper placement of room exhaust/intake. Temperature control is a combination of small solutions rather than just one thing such as adding a huge ass a/c – this may work also but why bother it is expensive, inefficient and if it breaks down when you’re not around then your temps will sky rocket.
One immediate thing you can do to get some of the heat out is mount all the ballasts for all your lights up high and close to the exhaust in the mother room - most of the heat they product will get sucked straight out rather than increasing room temps. I know this could be difficult to run to the flower room, so if after all is done this could be one of the many tweaks you can do.
Last thing...now that you will be exhausting a more substantial amount of hot air, remember the heat signature will be much more visible to FLIR cams etc. Hopefully you dont have snooping po po's at night - drive by or from choppers, it will be an easy find for them.
G
greenhornets
so you think it would be best to run all lights intake/exhaust through the attic .
Definitely, best method is to have fresh/cooler air coming in to cool the lights and exhausting where the hot air can’t get back to the intake. If the exhaust and intake for the lights come from the same source the air will just keep getting hotter and hotter, it will increase room temps and require you to have your lights further away from plant canopy to avoid burning/wilting.
The intake/exhaust for all the lights would be vented to the attic . the attic gets pretty hot around here, would that be a problem ? no fresh air , only attic(hot) air will be going through the lights . sorry reread and see that all intakes should use fresh air for hoods and rooms .
ya im sorry i was talking about the flower room . the mother room hoods intake/exhaust are 6 inch , i had to put a 4x6 inch reducer on the hood .i dont have another 6 inch fan to use for the hood . i only have a small 170 cfm can fan .
This should be ok for initial tests. Remember you are trying to set up the rooms for proper ventilation only at this point. Once this is done you can start looking at improving certain parts where required. A larger fan & 6” ducting will improve temps but it may not be required if the temps are acceptable.
sweet.
in config 1 you have a 6 inch intake in the floweer room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room .would i be drawing air from the attic or where .... i can exhaust it to the attic . wont the intake need to draw fresh air from outside or does it matter.
Yes it is best to draw fresh outside air for ALL your intakes whether for the hoods or rooms. I haven’t seen how you attic is set up but as long as you have minimal straight ducting and draw intake air from a place where the exhaust won’t affect it then it will be correct.
So exhausting all heat to attic is ok , and not out a window .i running out of windows (heat from hoods or maybe even a portable a/c unit) drawing cool room air through the hoods and exhausting it to the attic . is this ok to do .
for drawing 1 , the air intake in the flower room ,do i need a can fan ? what size cfm? what about a small inline fan ( 6 inch).
You may need an intake fan but as yet I don’t know. It will make a marked improvement if you do have one as it will relieve the load on the inter-room 6”. Don’t bother with one initially though you want to first test to ensure your room is well sealed. If it is not well sealed then you will have difficulties with room pressures, you wont be able to control the air flow instead you may suck air in from cracks, flaws and small holes throughout the flower room which will cause room hot spots and not allow proper air exchange, alternatively, if there is positive room pressure by adding an intake fan without checking how well the room is sealed then you may blow air out of the cracks, flaws and small holes which would result in smells outside. Again, don’t worry about the intake fan in the flower room yet, test first only without it. After testing and determining how well the room is sealed then if you want to put one in then it should match the 6” 440 cfm inter-room fan – an in-line fan would be incorrectly applied to this intake, you need something with a decent usable pressure.
so put the incense in the flower room . turn on the exhaust fan in the mother room . then start a timer.time how long it takes for the incense to get into mother room from flower room .( just did test with incense it took about 4 second for the smell from the flower room to travel to the mother room )
didnt you say that , if the ventalatiojn was working properly the air would flow with or without the a/c running .i would be able feel the air Flowing through the room .
Yes you should, you may not feel air rushing fast through the room itself (you don’t want this or the a/c will be doing nothing to cool the air before it is exhausted) but you should feel the air being sucked in through the flower room intake if you put your hand over it. Note, when I say you will feel air flow I don’t mean air will blow around the room I mean the air will flow from the flower room intake, through the room then sucked out by the inter-room fan, blown into the mother room, through to the mother room exhaust and blown outside. You can test the theory fairly easily – get an smelly incense stick/burner and place it where the flower room intake draws air from, turn on your fans then smell the exhaust being blown out from the mother room if you can smell the incense from the exhausted air then it’s working, if you time how long it takes from when you turn the fans on till you can smell it then you can tell how quickly your room would normally exchange air – if it takes 20mins before you can smell it then something is wrong, you should smell it pretty quickly.
it took about 4 second for smell to travel . . let me explain the lay out . the mother room has the new hood with 170 cfm can fan sucking air through the sealed hood( one end open ) up into the attic and hooked to scrubber . the can fan is mounted on the cieling in the mother room. the 6inch intake/exhaust 440 cfm can fan on the floor of the flower room was not turned on .the only fan on was the 170 cfm for hood and it draws air from the room .
i plan to run the intake/exhaust for all light to the attic .what would be better a can fan or a inline fan to draw fresh air into the flower room ?? A can fan is best (centrifugal/vortex) if you need good pressure – cfm is not a unit of pressure it is the maximum amount air that can be moved only, it will not rate useful pressure of the fan. Use inline fans in conjunction with a can fan, use them to boost the airflow for ducting etc where longer duct lengths are required – hence ‘in-line’.
ok sweet!!
so a 6 inch intake inthe flower room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room would clear my problems up ???? Yes in combination with sealing & ducting the lights and proper placement of room exhaust/intake. Temperature control is a combination of small solutions rather than just one thing such as adding a huge ass a/c – this may work also but why bother it is expensive, inefficient and if it breaks down when you’re not around then your temps will sky rocket.
ok, so fresh air for all intakes. now what about exhaust . can i just vent to the attic or do i need to run it out a window also ?
One immediate thing you can do to get some of the heat out is mount all the ballasts for all your lights up high and close to the exhaust in the mother room - most of the heat they product will get sucked straight out rather than increasing room temps. I know this could be difficult to run to the flower room, so if after all is done this could be one of the many tweaks you can do.
i have all ballast mounted up high on the wall or cieling .
Last thing...now that you will be exhausting a more substantial amount of hot air, remember the heat signature will be much more visible to FLIR cams etc. Hopefully you dont have snooping po po's at night - drive by or from choppers, it will be an easy find for them the shed it painted with a heat block 75 . it suppose to stop flir ,etc. but it wont block the heat coming from the attic windows. thanks again for all your help bro ..
Definitely, best method is to have fresh/cooler air coming in to cool the lights and exhausting where the hot air can’t get back to the intake. If the exhaust and intake for the lights come from the same source the air will just keep getting hotter and hotter, it will increase room temps and require you to have your lights further away from plant canopy to avoid burning/wilting.
The intake/exhaust for all the lights would be vented to the attic . the attic gets pretty hot around here, would that be a problem ? no fresh air , only attic(hot) air will be going through the lights . sorry reread and see that all intakes should use fresh air for hoods and rooms .
ya im sorry i was talking about the flower room . the mother room hoods intake/exhaust are 6 inch , i had to put a 4x6 inch reducer on the hood .i dont have another 6 inch fan to use for the hood . i only have a small 170 cfm can fan .
This should be ok for initial tests. Remember you are trying to set up the rooms for proper ventilation only at this point. Once this is done you can start looking at improving certain parts where required. A larger fan & 6” ducting will improve temps but it may not be required if the temps are acceptable.
sweet.
in config 1 you have a 6 inch intake in the floweer room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room .would i be drawing air from the attic or where .... i can exhaust it to the attic . wont the intake need to draw fresh air from outside or does it matter.
Yes it is best to draw fresh outside air for ALL your intakes whether for the hoods or rooms. I haven’t seen how you attic is set up but as long as you have minimal straight ducting and draw intake air from a place where the exhaust won’t affect it then it will be correct.
So exhausting all heat to attic is ok , and not out a window .i running out of windows (heat from hoods or maybe even a portable a/c unit) drawing cool room air through the hoods and exhausting it to the attic . is this ok to do .
for drawing 1 , the air intake in the flower room ,do i need a can fan ? what size cfm? what about a small inline fan ( 6 inch).
You may need an intake fan but as yet I don’t know. It will make a marked improvement if you do have one as it will relieve the load on the inter-room 6”. Don’t bother with one initially though you want to first test to ensure your room is well sealed. If it is not well sealed then you will have difficulties with room pressures, you wont be able to control the air flow instead you may suck air in from cracks, flaws and small holes throughout the flower room which will cause room hot spots and not allow proper air exchange, alternatively, if there is positive room pressure by adding an intake fan without checking how well the room is sealed then you may blow air out of the cracks, flaws and small holes which would result in smells outside. Again, don’t worry about the intake fan in the flower room yet, test first only without it. After testing and determining how well the room is sealed then if you want to put one in then it should match the 6” 440 cfm inter-room fan – an in-line fan would be incorrectly applied to this intake, you need something with a decent usable pressure.
so put the incense in the flower room . turn on the exhaust fan in the mother room . then start a timer.time how long it takes for the incense to get into mother room from flower room .( just did test with incense it took about 4 second for the smell from the flower room to travel to the mother room )
didnt you say that , if the ventalatiojn was working properly the air would flow with or without the a/c running .i would be able feel the air Flowing through the room .
Yes you should, you may not feel air rushing fast through the room itself (you don’t want this or the a/c will be doing nothing to cool the air before it is exhausted) but you should feel the air being sucked in through the flower room intake if you put your hand over it. Note, when I say you will feel air flow I don’t mean air will blow around the room I mean the air will flow from the flower room intake, through the room then sucked out by the inter-room fan, blown into the mother room, through to the mother room exhaust and blown outside. You can test the theory fairly easily – get an smelly incense stick/burner and place it where the flower room intake draws air from, turn on your fans then smell the exhaust being blown out from the mother room if you can smell the incense from the exhausted air then it’s working, if you time how long it takes from when you turn the fans on till you can smell it then you can tell how quickly your room would normally exchange air – if it takes 20mins before you can smell it then something is wrong, you should smell it pretty quickly.
it took about 4 second for smell to travel . . let me explain the lay out . the mother room has the new hood with 170 cfm can fan sucking air through the sealed hood( one end open ) up into the attic and hooked to scrubber . the can fan is mounted on the cieling in the mother room. the 6inch intake/exhaust 440 cfm can fan on the floor of the flower room was not turned on .the only fan on was the 170 cfm for hood and it draws air from the room .
i plan to run the intake/exhaust for all light to the attic .what would be better a can fan or a inline fan to draw fresh air into the flower room ?? A can fan is best (centrifugal/vortex) if you need good pressure – cfm is not a unit of pressure it is the maximum amount air that can be moved only, it will not rate useful pressure of the fan. Use inline fans in conjunction with a can fan, use them to boost the airflow for ducting etc where longer duct lengths are required – hence ‘in-line’.
ok sweet!!
so a 6 inch intake inthe flower room and a 6 inch exhaust in the mother room would clear my problems up ???? Yes in combination with sealing & ducting the lights and proper placement of room exhaust/intake. Temperature control is a combination of small solutions rather than just one thing such as adding a huge ass a/c – this may work also but why bother it is expensive, inefficient and if it breaks down when you’re not around then your temps will sky rocket.
ok, so fresh air for all intakes. now what about exhaust . can i just vent to the attic or do i need to run it out a window also ?
One immediate thing you can do to get some of the heat out is mount all the ballasts for all your lights up high and close to the exhaust in the mother room - most of the heat they product will get sucked straight out rather than increasing room temps. I know this could be difficult to run to the flower room, so if after all is done this could be one of the many tweaks you can do.
i have all ballast mounted up high on the wall or cieling .
Last thing...now that you will be exhausting a more substantial amount of hot air, remember the heat signature will be much more visible to FLIR cams etc. Hopefully you dont have snooping po po's at night - drive by or from choppers, it will be an easy find for them the shed it painted with a heat block 75 . it suppose to stop flir ,etc. but it wont block the heat coming from the attic windows. thanks again for all your help bro ..
G
greenhornets
i think im going to need help with the attic ventalation also . there a a total of 3 small window (12x14 windows ). the only thing i have vent sofar is the hood in the mother room and it just exhaust into the attic .
G
greenhornets
In the attic there are 3 windows . one to the left, in the attic of the mother room ,just about a foot behind the portable a/c intake/exhaust (just about middle of the mother room ).the 2nd window is straight across about 10 feet across and above the window a/c in the flower room in the attic .the 3rd window is front of the building straight above the door way to the building . this 3 window measure about 12W x 14 L.The windows are covered in screen and chicken wire.
the 2 windows left above mother room and right above the fllower room ALREADY HAVE 6 inch intake and exhaust . which i had planned on running for the portable a/c . the 6 inch takes up alot of the window space already .
so far as i can count , i need 2 or 3( 3 if the new portable a/c needs both intake and exhaust) fresh air intakes and 3 exhaust which also need to be vented outside.is this correct?? should i take the 6 inch line down for the portable a/c
what size intake and exhaust lines should i run 4 or 6 inch . if 6 inch , i can only use 3 line ,because of the size ( small windows ).i already have 2 (for portable a/c already made up ). i think i will take the 6 inch down and use 4 inch lines .what do you think ??
.
.
.. How would you run yourfresh air intake and exhaust lines in the attic ? ? ?
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the 2 windows left above mother room and right above the fllower room ALREADY HAVE 6 inch intake and exhaust . which i had planned on running for the portable a/c . the 6 inch takes up alot of the window space already .
so far as i can count , i need 2 or 3( 3 if the new portable a/c needs both intake and exhaust) fresh air intakes and 3 exhaust which also need to be vented outside.is this correct?? should i take the 6 inch line down for the portable a/c
what size intake and exhaust lines should i run 4 or 6 inch . if 6 inch , i can only use 3 line ,because of the size ( small windows ).i already have 2 (for portable a/c already made up ). i think i will take the 6 inch down and use 4 inch lines .what do you think ??
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.. How would you run yourfresh air intake and exhaust lines in the attic ? ? ?
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Sounds like you need to upgrade your attic also. Its hard to accommodate increasing changes during a grow – pain in the ass. You don’t want to have to make major changes after disaster happens either, you will make bad choices and band-aid fixes. If it were my attic I would remove all the ducting up there and replace it with 2 large ducts which feed the smaller ducts into the room much like a central heating system. Based on config #1 you will need ducting around 12 inches diameter. I know this sounds like overkill but its based on worst case scenario which is what you need to plan for - you don’t want to be in the same position if you add another light or 2 in the future. I would run the 12” ducting from one end of the attic to the other, 1 window supplying all your exhausts and the other your intakes – see attached pic. Plug the ends of the large ducting and join your existing room ducting into each attic duct according to exhaust or intake. Due to using common ducts you may need to set your fan timers up differently so when there is an off period in one room and the fans go off while the other room is still on (mother room) that the ducting doesn’t backfeed the heat and stale air back into the other room and/or the intake ducting – trial and error is required here, worst case if it temps are edging up you can leave all fans on all the time.
Alternatively, if it doesn’t get too hot from the sun in the attic you could run just 1 large duct for the exhaust out one window and pull fresh air in directly from the attic for your intakes. I probably would not do this as I know how hot it can get under a roof.
Do you know what your typical day time temps are in your attic? Particularly on a very hot sunny day?
Knock on affects from this large ducting could be that on windy days air will blow more freely though into your flower room intake, nothing to be too concerned about unless you have regular strong gusty weather – filters and louver covers will help with this.
Any chance of posting any attic pics? I’m only making suggestion on what you have said, if you can show me what you’re working with maybe there are other options.
Alternatively, if it doesn’t get too hot from the sun in the attic you could run just 1 large duct for the exhaust out one window and pull fresh air in directly from the attic for your intakes. I probably would not do this as I know how hot it can get under a roof.
Do you know what your typical day time temps are in your attic? Particularly on a very hot sunny day?
Knock on affects from this large ducting could be that on windy days air will blow more freely though into your flower room intake, nothing to be too concerned about unless you have regular strong gusty weather – filters and louver covers will help with this.
Any chance of posting any attic pics? I’m only making suggestion on what you have said, if you can show me what you’re working with maybe there are other options.
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greenhornets
shit ya i can get ya some attic pic and pics of windows , inside and out .
ya i was thinking maybe putting a Y on the light exhaust for all 3 lights ( 2x in flower and 1x in mother )and running it out the window. hell , what do you think of hooking another Y from the exhaust and exhaust the mother room also. could that work ?
ya i was thinking maybe putting a Y on the light exhaust for all 3 lights ( 2x in flower and 1x in mother )and running it out the window. hell , what do you think of hooking another Y from the exhaust and exhaust the mother room also. could that work ?
