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Grow Tent Ducting Ports: Where Do YOU Want Them?

Douglas.Curtis

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Does anyone else feel the standard ducting ports are located too low? Personally, I've had multiple times in the past when my incoming ducts were blocked by reservoirs or buckets. At this point I'd prefer the ducts be up higher.

What would be the optimum height for incoming duct ports on a grow tent for you? What would make this height 'work' for you in your tent?
 
Cvh

Cvh

Well-known member
Supermod
I was always under the impression that the air intake was located on the bottom for airflow.
Warm air raises. The warm air inside the tent gets pulled out of the top and fresh colder air gets drawn in from the bottom. This to avoid a buildup of stale air on the ground.

(Or do you mean something else with Ducting ports?)
 
Douglas.Curtis

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Cvh said:
I was always under the impression that the air intake was located on the bottom for airflow.
Warm air raises. The warm air inside the tent gets pulled out of the top and fresh colder air gets drawn in from the bottom. This to avoid a buildup of stale air on the ground.

(Or do you mean something else with Ducting ports?)
Click to expand...
Indeed, your grasp of physics is a good one. So you're saying in your tents you (personally) find the ducting at the bottom of the tent to be ideal for you?

What size ducting is your average intake using? What size are your tents?
 
GOT_BUD?

GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
When I built my room, I measured the height of my bucket and made the bottom of my intake the same.

The plant that sits in front of it gets beat to hell and wind burnt if I turn my exhaust fan up to 100% to keep the room from overheating when I turn my lights all the way up to full power.

To solve this issue, I keep my lights at no higher than 600 watts (900 watt LED fixtures), and keep the fan no higher than necessary to maintain 76-78 degrees with the lights on. It helps. But the plant that sits in front of the air intake has the strongest branches ever! And it grows super short. Every other plant is at least 8-10 inches taller. And they're already short due to the LEDs!

I should have put the intake lower.
 
Bobby Boucher

Bobby Boucher

Active member
The air coming directly off my concrete floors is significantly colder than the air 12-14 inches higher off the ground.

Ideally, my air comes from below the grow which is elevated an inch off the ground, through the center, so as to cool my containers.

I thought this new wardrobe I'm building would boil my dwc buckets at 100w per square foot, but the cold air from below is keeping my water within a couple degrees of the actual concrete floor temps around 67-69.

At .7 lbs per square foot, the 40 lbs of butyl mat I've got acting as thermal insulation between my light and my buckets deserves an honorable mention. I'm sure vent placement alone wouldn't cool my water like dat.
 
Douglas.Curtis

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
GOT_BUD? said:
When I built my room, I measured the height of my bucket and made the bottom of my intake the same.

The plant that sits in front of it gets beat to hell and wind burnt if I turn my exhaust fan up to 100% to keep the room from overheating when I turn my lights all the way up to full power.
Click to expand...
Thank you, this is part of what I'm looking for. :) You have a single passive intake for what size fan? What size intake? What size room? Would it be better if you had 2-4 intakes instead of one, though smaller in size?

Man sent to jail for 4 days on suspicion of plant battery. Turns out it was a fan. lol

Bobby Boucher said:
The air coming directly off my concrete floors is significantly colder than the air 12-14 inches higher off the ground.

Ideally, my air comes from below the grow which is elevated an inch off the ground, through the center, so as to cool my containers.
Click to expand...
I keep forgetting about passive intakes. Good point. I switched to positive pressure tents when I moved to a "who cares" location regarding smell.

Love the heat sink ability of a large slab of shaded concrete in the earth. :D My favorite surface to put a DWC tub on.

Bobby Boucher said:
I thought this new wardrobe I'm building would boil my dwc buckets at 100w per square foot, but the cold air from below is keeping my water within a couple degrees of the actual concrete floor temps around 67-69.

At .7 lbs per square foot, the 40 lbs of butyl mat I've got acting as thermal insulation between my light and my buckets deserves an honorable mention. I'm sure vent placement alone wouldn't cool my water like dat.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I've been using cold incoming air to help cool my dwc reservoirs for many years as well. Now I put my air pumps in the cold air stream of an a/c unit. Literally have to use an aquarium heater to keep things at 68F-69F :)

Soil?
All that cold air would not be good for soil or roots-out type hydro, no? They do better at around 75F+ for microbial and transpiration/evaporation reasons.

What do you not like about the height/size or placement of the intake ducts on your tent?
 
GOT_BUD?

GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Douglas.Curtis said:
Thank you, this is part of what I'm looking for. :) You have a single passive intake for what size fan? What size intake? What size room? Would it be better if you had 2-4 intakes instead of one, though smaller in size?

Man sent to jail for 4 days on suspicion of plant battery. Turns out it was a fan. lol
?
Click to expand...

I have a 8" fan pulling through a carbon filter for negative pressure. My intake is actually too small imo. I built a light trap for it within the cavity of the wall. IIRC, it's ~ 23" wide and 1 3/4, almost 2" deep. Runs up the wall and then back down and sucks air through a house furnace filter 16x25x1. I really should add a second one the same size one cavity over but;

A - I'm lazy :biggrin:

and

B - I can control the temps just fine as long as I don't go hog wild with the lights. Which, while it would be nice to use them to their full potential, is completely unnecessary because I can lower my lights. Which in turn means they should theoretically last even longer.

Room is 8'x8'x82"tall in my basement.

I may add a second one after this current grow is compete. And buy or build a diffuser for my current intake to try and alleviate some of the wind tunnel effect right in front of it.
 
Douglas.Curtis

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Yesterday I was hit by a truck or something... and when it left there was a brilliant idea in my head which wanted a lot of attention. Wow. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, I don't think this would have happened without you.

Wow... where's my sketchpad??!! (this may take a year to figure out, please be patient. lol)
:woohoo::tiphat:
 
Bobby Boucher

Bobby Boucher

Active member
Wasting good drawing paper!

Spend a half hour on youtube learning sketchup. 30 minutes of practice and you'll feel like a demigod of creation. I can draft anything in sketchup 100x faster than I could ever draw it.

Drafting on paper is so.. sloppy and archaic! Dirty and chaotic! Meshugga!

Plus, from one autistie to another, that shit is FUN! Like minecraft, except not a total waste of f'n time.
 
Douglas.Curtis

Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
Everyone has their skills. lol Thank you for the suggestion but I seem to have operational challenges with CAD. Seriously, I've tried working with all of them including sketchup. :( I'm headed to Denver at some point for some testing. I have spatial mapping issues and other weird wiring or something.

I assure you my sketching is quick and basic, only what is needed for an engineer to grasp the concept. ;)
 
Bobby Boucher

Bobby Boucher

Active member
Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!

Perhaps submerging yourself little by little into 3D space everyday might help with other cognitive functions!

The Lawnmower Man would concur. lol.

But, hey! Always more than one way to solve a problem.
 
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