intake air question??

I am in the process of setting up a small grow. 6 600w lights,8 inch airforce as my exhaust going out through the chimney stack and a 6 inch airforce as my intake. I am thinking of putting my my intake so it's drawing from the attic. Is this sound practice or would I be better trying to get air direct from outside. For stealth reasons the attic would be ideal,but don't want to do it if it's going to be detrimental to the wellbeing of my plants any advise would be great...

ray79 said:

I am in the process of setting up a small grow. 6 600w lights,8 inch airforce as my exhaust going out through the chimney stack and a 6 inch airforce as my intake. I am thinking of putting my my intake so it's drawing from the attic. Is this sound practice or would I be better trying to get air direct from outside. For stealth reasons the attic would be ideal,but don't want to do it if it's going to be detrimental to the wellbeing of my plants any advise would be great...

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you don't wanna draw from your attic in the spring and summer the air youll be pulling in will be super hot.. your attic is also quite dusty generally.

You want your air to be pulled from a reliable area. By this I mean -if the air in your attic will be swelteringly hot in the summer but freezing in the winter, then the air you pull from this area will be unconrolled and pulled into your room. Doesnt make much sense to exhaust hot air from your room just to pull in equally hot (if not hotter) air back into your grow room from a hot attic space. As for intake being pulled from directly outside, you will have to monitor this equally since weather and humidity change so frequently. If you dont have the room set up correctly, you will have condensation buildup from pulling winter air from outside into your temp controlled room. It would be ideal to pull air from a room that is already controlled by your homes thermostat like an adjoining room etc since the air and humidity is already controlled and you dont have to worry about smells on the intake side.

Thank you for the insight. Will pull it in adjoining room. Going to grow UK cheese and iced grapefruit.

You don't need an intake fan.

kiwipaulie said:

You don't need an intake fan.

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^^^^This exactly. Let your exhaust fan do the work, and your intake will naturally pull.

Depending on your layout, fresh air is always good... but there are a lot of different factors... your plants will tell you if you need to change the environment... light reading on space setup... http://www.just4growers.com/stream/indoor-garden-design-and-build/planning-your-indoor-garden.aspx

If it's cold outside it's actually better to bring fresh air from another room or another part of your house unless it's super hot air then that's not really good either but I believe the co2 is lower when you bring freezing cold air in vs room temperature air.

I have a 6' x 5' room with 2-600w....adding an intake fan greatly improved the health of my plants. I used a 12v fan out of an old computer...rigged a 12v wall wart for power. That extra air flow brought my room down from 85 to 78....I use a bathroom fan to exhaust and a 12v playstation cooling fan for circulation.