help design a room 12x6 ventilation and heat issue

i am about to design my grow room which is 12x6 the questions i have are???

1/ The room is 12x6, with wall paper in it a window that will have to blocked off from light leaks and heat escaping, so may use a blanket or someone here can suggest what i can cover it with.

2/ All the walls are all papered will i need anything like c3 anti detection etc/ mylar or painting matt white?

3/ I will be using 2x600s or 2x1000s will there be any issues of the walls getting hot from the lights burning 18/6 and 12/12?

4/ What sort of ventilation would i need for a room like this also what else do i need for proper heat/odur extraction and air flow.

1) With the window, i suggest you put some net curtains up, then regular curtains over that but pin it tightly around the window. You want to make it look as perfectly normal as possible from the outside. Seeing a blocked off window could look suspect. You can get some seriously thick curtains from shops that sell home stuff, just explain to the sales person you work nights and you get disturbed by daylight coming into the room and ask her to recommend something suitable.

2) Depending on your bank roll, on a rool that size, you are looking at large costs for mylar, and even larger costs for C3 AD film. I would think that you could use the money better on a couple more lights to get coverage, or get better reflectors. Mylar is normally only used for boxes and closets, but an entire room, ouch. If you DO go down this route, i suggest you spend some money on some good sunglasses too
If it is a matter of anti detection (since you mentioned C3 AD film) this would be an extreme cost and depending on your grow size, you may want to think of the scale/cost/risk factor. C3 AD film, from what i can see, is for massive farms on a professional scale. If detection is a large risk, you may want to re-think the location. If it is just for light reflection, most grow rooms are just matt white. Certainly a cost effective option.

3) If its too hot for your walls, your plants are already dead lol. Keep your room at a consistent 23-25 degrees Celsius and humidity at about 40-60%. This is no different than having the heating on full in your house, so the walls will be fine. I would scrap the wall paper though, as that will probably peel from the humidity.

4) Ventilation would need to circulate the total volume of the room every few minutes (5 minutes max). So assuming you have a ceiling height of 8', you need a fan/filter kit that can deal with at least 120 square feet per minute, although i would suggest massively over sizing this and get at least 300 sqr ft/min. Last thing you want is to have to change your set up because your grow is more stinky than expected. Get the best filters you can afford. You will also want oscillating fans to keep the air flowing, and also to blow your plants around a bit (simulated wind makes them grow stronger). Best to set your room up, set your temp gauges up around the room (2 digital ones should be enough, one each end of the room) and do a dry run of the temps. Ignore the humidity as this will drastically increase with plants in the room. Try different things like with/without the fans, and see how it makes a difference. Leave running for an hour or more to let it heat up enough.
Ozone generators are also a good idea, fairly cheap for what they are.

Another thing you may want to take into consideration is splitting your room in two. 1/3 veg room, 2/3 flowering and curing (not half and half because flowering plants can double in size) unless you are expecting one crop every 3 months and not a cycle. If you cycle (having different plants vegging and flowering at the same time) then you want to create 2 rooms out of the one. The light from one should not spread into the other. This, of course, creates 2 more wall faces for you to paint/mylar, so extra cost.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

excellent info green troll it makes me feel confident after you pointed a few things, also the room is only 12 feet x 6 feet so not so big really and about 8 feet to ceiling, so the walls would not absorb heat to create hot spots i take it, and c3 roll was the reason to avoid hot spots and IR a roll is about £300 cheaper than buying a big tent.

1/ The room is 12x6, with wall paper in it a window that will have to blocked off from light leaks and heat escaping, so may use a blanket or someone here can suggest what i can cover it with.

use duct insulation wrap. you can buy rools that are 4' wide by 100' long. use this to cover the walls and the window. will help insulate the room, fight off any mold or mildew issues and is a great reflective material. something like this but home depot and lowes carry it as well. http://www.ecofoil.com/Applications/Residential-Insulation/R-8-HVAC-Duct-Wrap-Insulation

2/ All the walls are all papered will i need anything like c3 anti detection etc/ mylar or painting matt white?

not with the insulation wrap

3/ I will be using 2x600s or 2x1000s will there be any issues of the walls getting hot from the lights burning 18/6 and 12/12?

no matter what you do the walls will be fine. your lights will be facing the floow.

4/ What sort of ventilation would i need for a room like this also what else do i need for proper heat/odur extraction and air flow.

this depends on the climate where you live and the amount of cooling (a/c) you have in the room. the more heat from the lights, ballasts, etc... that you have outside of the room or that is removed from the room (air cooled hoods) then the less cooling you will need.

how do i combat the heat signature? or do i not worry at all as 2k is a bit of heat burning 18/6 and 12/12 the floor would get red hot and heat rises too, i would prefer to seal the room so nothing can come in or go out.

i wouldn't worry with only 2,000w

I would definitely go with 2 1000w systems for a 6'x12 room. You could use 600w's instead, but you'd want to get light movers to cover an area like that.

Are you using air-cooled reflectors? Even if your room is completely sealed you are going to want to exhaust the air from your reflectors out of the room and bring fresh air into the reflectors from an outside source. If that window isn't in an obvious place I would take advantage of it. My rooms are sealed but I bring air in from the outside to run through the reflectors and back outside. I turn them off for a half hour while when the co2 is running, but then they go back on.

Otherwise you're just wasting energy trying to cool the room with a/c. If you exhaust with outside air you don't even have to use a/c when for like 6 months out of the year depending on where you live of course.

I was thinking of using air cooled lights but also i was thinking of doing a stadium grow and hang the bulbs vertically.

The air from outside and heat from the reflectors can be exchanged but will it not raise issues in regards to heat going out,

But as it is my first grow i will be growing the normal way, also what about the heat facing the floor from the lights.

The idea behind exhausting the hot air inside the reflectors is that the lights won't really put out much heat towards the floor. With 400w lights just keep your plants 12" away from the glass, and with the 600w's keep them 12"-18" away from the glass. Your room can get up to 79 degrees with most strains before they start experiencing heat stress. You can also put a small a/c unit in the window and seal around it, or get a portable a/c unit and exhaust that out the window as well, that way you'll still have room with the window opening to exhaust the reflectors if you want to. If you don't use air-cooled reflectors you'll definitely need good a/c though.

If you aren't using co2, you'll want to actually bring fresh air into the room constantly for the plants. Which means you'd want to be bringing in fresh air into the room from either outside or another part of the house. The plants need plenty of fresh oxygen.

nasar said:

i am about to design my grow room which is 12x6 the questions i have are???

1/ The room is 12x6, with wall paper in it a window that will have to blocked off from light leaks and heat escaping, so may use a blanket or someone here can suggest what i can cover it with.

2/ All the walls are all papered will i need anything like c3 anti detection etc/ mylar or painting matt white?

3/ I will be using 2x600s or 2x1000s will there be any issues of the walls getting hot from the lights burning 18/6 and 12/12?

4/ What sort of ventilation would i need for a room like this also what else do i need for proper heat/odur extraction and air flow.

Click to expand...

I used mini blinds covering the aperance of the window than i took panda film and places it over the entire window behind the blindes with the black side out, duct taping securily around everything. Than put a blanket over that. The blinds will cover the just and people wont be able to see past them with the black panda film. they will only think its a room you never go into. And the blanket is for a little added protection incase the pands film ever was to fail. I also run a tent inside the room for cost efficiency and not having to deal with redoing the room if i ever do move. If budget gets to be to much look into large grow tents i run a 4x8 with two 600w lights and get plenty of bud.

2000w is the way to go. You could get creative with the window and run a sealed cooling system, bringing in air from the outside and exhausting the same way. You can get a controller to only turn your fans on when temps get to high and to throttle them back. It wouldnt work very well with a manual adjuster you would get sick of checking on them. I use hydrofarm radiant 6 hoods and i love the things. The footprint is great but might be a little small if you plan on using the full 12x6 area. They are sealed with a gasket and not to heavy.

Have you thought about light movers? I wish i wasnt in a tent there is so much cool shit i cant play with. Im not sure but look into them you might get a lot bigger yield running two 1000w lights on them in that area. you could have a 3x3 instead of a 6x6 footprint and still mantain full garden coverage. It also might help some with temps and keep your garden from developing hot spots.

Another thing if your really converned about hot spots with the sealed off venting you could look into a chiller system to treat the exhaust.

Green troll hit it on the money with a veg area. You are going to need to have a clone and veg area espetially with a garden that size. Yout efficiency is going to be way down having to veg plants with 1000w of light. You shouldnt need 2000w to veg enough plants to fill a 2000w room. I veg with a 250w T5 and have no problem filling a 1200w 4x8 area. I throw away clones and plants throughout flowering because i dont have enough space. Thats going to be atleast 5-8 weeks running that light and not doing much that couldnt be done with a much smaller light. It will extend your harvests by over a month.

I run 8 week strains and i bring down plants every 8 weeks to the day. If i want something that is not my normal crop i will leave it in that longer but the bulk of mine comes from 8 weeks plants like clockwork. Im assuming your growing for patients with 2000w of light because you will be getting multiple pounds every 8 - 10 weeks.

Can filters are the shit. Invest in the right one for the job. If you have the amps run sealed off ventilation and an aditional 8 inch system exausting out of the room with a can filter. a. it will creat sucktion and creat passive fresh air and b. it will cover your ass when it comes to smell. I would also invest in a smaller one for a harvesting/drying area because 2000w worth of bud is going to reak.

Also work a clone area into a veg area if posible. you are going to need lots of plants to fill that area. If you split off the room you would gain more than you would loose not having the full area full of flowering plants by cutting so much time out between flowerings. Every 16 months you would gain double what the veg area would of produced being a flowering area.

Yea, you definitely want a separate veg room, but to be honest, if you have another closet or small room in the house somewhere I would use that instead. 12x6 is a great footprint for a flowering room with 2000w.

The way I exhaust my reflectors is: 6"window opening>fan(200cfm)>duct>reflector>duct>reflector>duct>reflector>duct>fan(424cfm)>out window.


Here, this should help you with ventilation.


Type 1 - Inline Series (without CO2)

There are many variations of this type of setup. In this setup, the system used to air cool the lights is also used to ventilate and clean the air being exhausted from the grow room. This system effectively uses one fan to do the job of two fans. The fan will need to be sized larger than what is required to just ventilate the room. The fan will need to pull air through a carbon filter, through one or more lights and exhaust the hot air. This system is suited for small to medium growing areas without the use of CO2. The fan should be running continuously during the light period (which means it is possible to plug the fan into the same timer that is used to operate the lights [provided they both don't exceed the amperage rating of the timer]). Ideally, the fan should stay on a little longer, since it takes a while for the bulb, reflector, ducting, etc. to cool down completely (which means you would have to use a second timer).

Materials required:

• Air Cooled Reflectors
• Ducting to match reflector and fan - 4", 6", 8"
• Duct Clamps - 4", 6", 8"
• Centrifugal Fan
• Carbon Filter
• Timer for Fan
• Grow Yoyos

Type 2 - Inline Series (with CO2)

This type of cooling system pulls air (preferably from a cool air source) through the lights and exhausts it outside or into another area. The air passing through the light never comes in contact with CO2-rich air in the grow room. This allows the grower to control CO2, temperature, humidity and also groom ventilation. This also allows the grower to create a sealed environment. This type of setup is suited to small to medium sized areas. If 2 x 400w lights are being used in a grow room, then a 4" or 6" fan could be used to cool the lights. If the air that is being used to cool the lights is warm/hot, then a 6" fan should be used; if the air is cool then a 4" fan can be used. Use 6" ducting to connect the fan to the reflectors. With the addition of a 6" ZoneMaster Motorized Damper on the intake side, you will get the added benefit of keeping moisture and dust from entering the system at night, which could cause condensation and alter the temperature and humidity levels in the grow room as well. The Zone Control Damper should be plugged into the same timer as the fan. When the lights turn on and the fan is activated to cool the lights, the Zone Control Damper is also activated, thus allowing cooler intake air to cool the lighting system. Alternatively, you could install a 6" Suncourt inline booster fan on the intake side in place of the damper. When the lights turn on and the fan is activated to cool the lights the booster fan is also activated, creating positive pressure in the air cooling system and increasing the air flow and efficiency of the system. This is especially useful if you decide to add another light in the future or you find that the single fan system isn't moving enough air (which is a common problem when you use too much ducting or too many sharp bends in the duct run).


Materials required:

• Air Cooled Reflectors
• Ducting to match reflector and fan - 4", 6", 8"
• Duct Clamps - 4", 6", 8"
• Centrifugal Fan
• ZoneMaster Motorized Damper
• Suncourt Fan
• Timer for Fan
• Grow Yoyos

Type 3 - Parallel Series (Without CO2)

This type of system is similar to Type 1 above, however this configuration is more suitable for larger growing areas. This system utilizes only one fan to cool numerous lights. It is more efficient to cool lights this way instead of using one fan to pull air through numerous reflectors in one line. It's not efficient to pull hot air from one reflector into another (which is also producing heat) into another (even more heat) and into another (yet more heat). This will cause too much heat to radiate from the hot reflectors into the grow room. It also puts a tremendous strain on the fan when you go from a 10" or 12" fan into a long run of 4" or 6" ducting. This strain will shorten the life of the fan and use more energy. By using "Y" Adapters you can can go from a 10" or 12" fan into two 6" or 8" runs - a much more efficient solution to the problem. You can either leave the intake ends on the last two reflectors open, or (as illustrated below) you can add another "Y" Adapter, ducting and a carbon filter to clean the air before it comes in contact with the system. Not only does this prevent any odor from exiting the room, it also keeps dust from entering the lighting system, which could accumulate on the glass lens and reduce the amount of light available to the plants.

Materials required:

• Air Cooled Reflectors
• Ducting to match reflector and fan - 4", 6", 8"
• Y Adapters - various sizes
• Duct Clamps - 4", 6", 8"
• Centrifugal Fan
• Carbon Filter
• Timer for Fan
• Grow Yoyos

Type 4 - Parallel Series (With CO2)

This is by far the most popular setup for air cooled lights that are utilizing supplemental CO2 in the growing area. As with the Type 2 system above, air is pulled from another area to cool the lights. With the inclusion of a "Y" adapter the grower can air cool numerous lights with only one fan. If 4 x 1000w lights are being used in a grow room then an 8" or larger fan should be used to cool the lights. Use an 8" x 6" x 6" "Y" Adapter to run from the fan to the reflectors. BGH offers several different sizes of "Y" Adapters and Duct Reducers allowing you to use just about any size fan with any size ducting. The same setup can be used on the intake side with the addition of an 8" ZoneMaster Motorized Damper or 8" Suncourt Inline Booster Fan (as explained in Type 2, above). The Zone Control or Suncourt fan should be plugged in with the same timer as the fan. When the lights turn on and the fan is activated to cool the lights, the Zone Control or booster fan is also activated, thus allowing cooler intake air to cool the lighting system.

Materials required:

• Air Cooled Reflectors
• Ducting to match reflector and fan - 4", 6", 8"
• Y Adapters - various sizes
• Duct Clamps - 4", 6", 8"
• Fan
• Carbon Filter
• ZoneMaster Motorized Damper
• Timer for Fan
• Grow Yoyos

How is it running your exaust fan at the end of your lights? I run mine filter - fan - hood - hood - output.

lovemug said:

How is it running your exaust fan at the end of your lights? I run mine filter - fan - hood - hood - output.

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inline fans are more efficient at pulling air then they are at pushing it. plus, when you put it in the beginning of the run ou create positive pressure in your hoods and air is pushed back into the room through any seams in the hoods. not a good thing if you are drawing air from outside the room (spores, pathogens, bugs, mold, etc..) and very inefficient if you are pulling air from the room.

I dont draw from outside. I always did fan first to cut down heat going through it and also to push any smell back into the room instead of suck it out.

lovemug said:

I dont draw from outside. I always did fan first to cut down heat going through it and also to push any smell back into the room instead of suck it out.

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not saying it can't be done but it's less efficient on the fan. most people in your case just put a carbon filter on the end of the hood and pull through it. also, fans are rated for high temps. pulling through 2000w will not heat the air enough to cause any damage to a fan.

lovemug said:

How is it running your exaust fan at the end of your lights? I run mine filter - fan - hood - hood - output.

Click to expand...

There is a little bit of debate about which is better, but I've tried everything and I'm confident that the way I exhaust them now is the most efficient.

Think of it like this. If you put the fan at the beginning of of the series to push the air through the reflectors the air goes into the first hood and kinda bounces around in there a bit. Then some of it goes into the next duct and into the next reflector, where it again bounces around a bit. Then some of it goes through the output, and some of it continues to be bounced around inside the reflectors creating more hot air and blocking the new air from being pushed in at the rated cfm.

Now, a step up from that set-up would be to put the fan on the end of the series. When you turn the fan on it first pulls the air that is already in the closest reflector. Then after that the air from the next reflector will start to be pulled in. Then the air from the input. But the problem with this set-up is that while the fan is pulling the air through more efficiently than pushing it, there is still negative pressure because the fan has to work so hard to put the air through the reflectors when it's turned on.

That's why I use a low cfm fan at the beginning of the series in addition to the proper rated cfm fan at the end of the series. That way I know that no matter what I should be getting close to if not exactly the cfm rating of the higher cfm fan. The low cfm fan ensures that airflow keeps moving straight through instead of being bounced around so much.

I have a booster fan i currently do not use. Would it work running filter - booster - hood - hood - inline fan? How far from your last hood are you running your inline fan? Ive always been worried about stress on my inline fan as a falure would mean doom for myself, without smell contol i could be put in a position to wipe out a complete grow.

The booster fan will definitely do the job of helping create positive pressure in the series, but I can't tell you for sure if if will be enough to pull the air through the filter without knowing more about you set-up. You could set it up like that, but don't connect the filter right away. Turn both fans on and make sure you have positive pressure after a few minutes. Meaning you can hold a piece of paper to the side with a filter and it sticks right to the opening. Then put your hand up to the blower and get a feel for how much air it's pushing. Then you can hook up the filter as well. You'll obviously lose a little bit of cfm, but it should still be blowing pretty hard.

What cfm rating is your filter?

Are you bringing in outside air through the reflectors and then back outside, or air from the same room going through the reflectors and then outside?

I belive the booster is mayby 165cfm, my main inline fan is 424cfm but i use a manual control unit to throttle it back a bit. Air passes through the filter inside of my tent to creat a negative pressure with a passive intake on the oposit side of tent to keep air flowing from the bottom to the top, and brings it through my plants. My ducting is ran through a sealed off heat vent into another room than out of a window. I have a 4x8 tent in roughly a 6x10 room.

I think the way the cfm rating on booster fans is like..a 165 cfm booster fan is the right is the right fan to boost a 165 cfm inline fan. So if you're throttling back your 424 a bit anyways that will probably get it done for you. But like I said, no promises because of the carbon filter. But if the carbon filter cfm rating is less than the cfm you're creating with the inline fan I think you'd be ok. So if you're carbon filter is 200 something cfm, just don't throttle back the 424 inline fan at all and it might be just right. You lose quite a bit of cfm from the reflectors and the ducting no matter what you do anyways.