Ventilation and filtering

RichiRich

RichiRich

Active Member
So how does this whole concept work?

Is the system to cool the lights the same as the one that circulates the general air in the room?

Do I need 2 separate systems? Does there need to be a fan blowing air in, at the first end of the duct, and one sucking the air, at the other end of the duct?

Thanks
 
Little Tommy

Little Tommy

Well-Known Member
I use a 500 cfm fan to pull warm air from near the top of my room, through my light and then exhaust it out of my room. I have a 70 cfm bathroom extraction fan that brings fresh air into my space. I hope that helps some. I have 2 stand alone carbon filters that scrub the air in each of my rooms. The nice thing about the stand alone carbon filters is I just have to change the activated carbon in them once a year. I bought a 50# a box a couple years ago for $50.00 and have replaced the carbon twice so far. I should have enough for I more replacement before I need to buy more.
 
Little Tommy

Little Tommy

Well-Known Member
My stand alone carbon filters are made with a ventilated steel mesh with a diameter of about 5". It is about 2' long and is filled with activated carbon. It has a built in fan (like a large PC fan) and is wrapped on the outside with a pre-filter. The fan pulls the air in the room through the filter and constantly scrubs odors from the room. To replace the carbon I simply remove the pre-filter and unscrew the cap in the back, dump out the old carbon and refill it with virgin carbon.
 
Snickelfrits

Snickelfrits

Active Member
Little Tommy said:
My stand alone carbon filters are made with a ventilated steel mesh with a diameter of about 5". It is about 2' long and is filled with activated carbon. It has a built in fan (like a large PC fan) and is wrapped on the outside with a pre-filter. The fan pulls the air in the room through the filter and constantly scrubs odors from the room. To replace the carbon I simply remove the pre-filter and unscrew the cap in the back, dump out the old carbon and refill it with virgin carbon.
Click to expand...
thats awesome...did u build it urself? im gonna have to look into that further...and i got a question...has antone ever tried 2 use that ionic breeze to help w/ grodor ha ha i just made that up...i know it works on the smoke as back in the day we used to blow our hits through one and it worked awesome...just a thought
 
sparkabowl

sparkabowl

Active Member
That stand alone filter sounds cool. I have a 6" filter inline with my light exhaust, but I could still smell my plants from in front of my house - gonna need to try something different.
 
RichiRich

RichiRich

Active Member
I'm still not getting the big picture...

So basically, you have fan that SUCKS air from OUTSIDE the grow room, to give the plants new/fresh air - and another fan that SUCKS air from the grow room and blows it OUT of the grow room, to get rid of the old/smelly air.

Are these 2 fans connected to each other with a duct? Or is this simply just 1 duct with a fan at the end sucking out the old air....? In this case, how would you give the grow room fresh air?

Also, the lights - do you cool them with a similar duct system? One fan on each end?
 
ScrogThis

ScrogThis

Active Member
So how does this whole concept work?

Is the system to cool the lights the same as the one that circulates the general air in the room?

Do I need 2 separate systems? Does there need to be a fan blowing air in, at the first end of the duct, and one sucking the air, at the other end of the duct?
Click to expand...
Depends a lot on your setup, tent, cabinet, closet, etc. I prefer to keep my light cooling separate from room ventilation for a little redundancy and flexibility. If one fan goes out it's not the end of the world, allows me to shut off the room ventilation w/o shutting off the cooltube fan while I pump in CO2 and such but again, it depends on your setup and needs. I do use forced air intake but that fan is the smallest of the lot and I try to keep a slightly negative pressure in the room to keep odors contained and minimize leaks at the door seal. Hope that helps.
 
RichiRich

RichiRich

Active Member
ScrogThis said:
Depends a lot on your setup, tent, cabinet, closet, etc. I prefer to keep my light cooling separate from room ventilation for a little redundancy and flexibility. If one fan goes out it's not the end of the world, allows me to shut off the room ventilation w/o shutting off the cooltube fan while I pump in CO2 and such but again, it depends on your setup and needs. I do use forced air intake but that fan is the smallest of the lot and I try to keep a slightly negative pressure in the room to keep odors contained and minimize leaks at the door seal. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Thanks - Well, I will be having a real "farm" grow (30+ plants). I would like to have the air circulation, seperate from the light cooling if possible - so I'll be sure that my plants will get all the right air coming to them.

The guys at the grow shop told me the whole set up would cost about 400€ euros, for an intake and outtake fan + the duct tubes and an active coal filter.

Do you think the price sounds right? And will it suffice for such a large set up?

Thanks
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
how much growing area?


that way we can work out your CFM or m3/h for each fan and the correct filter rating to.

if you air going air cooled lights then how many and what size lights? 400w 600w ???


J
 
Little Tommy

Little Tommy

Well-Known Member
Snickelfrits said:
thats awesome...did u build it urself? im gonna have to look into that further...and i got a question...has antone ever tried 2 use that ionic breeze to help w/ grodor ha ha i just made that up...i know it works on the smoke as back in the day we used to blow our hits through one and it worked awesome...just a thought
Click to expand...
I bought them on Ebay a few years ago. They were about $70.00 each.
 
Little Tommy

Little Tommy

Well-Known Member
sparkabowl said:
That stand alone filter sounds cool. I have a 6" filter inline with my light exhaust, but I could still smell my plants from in front of my house - gonna need to try something different.
Click to expand...
The only time you can smell the grow is if I leave the door open all day. I gotta say, it is not a horrible smell for me to come home from work to. I have been super happy with them.
 
Serapis

Serapis

Well-Known Member
My 4' x 4' tent has two seperate venting systems. The first is vent > duct > hood > duct > 160 cfm inline > vent This keeps my light cool enough to place it about 16" above the plant canopy. The second is simply this scrubber > duct > 450 cfm vortex on variable switch > duct > vent. The scrubber is hanging from the ceiling of the tent and draws warm air in, scrubs and exhausts out of tent. I'm able to keep my tent at 80 this way in a room with an ambient of about 76.

To control any odor from when the tent is open, or for trimming, etc. I bought a desk top ozone generator that literally wipes out ANY odors. Have you ever been in a public location inside and smelled fresh air? Most likely, if it is an airport or hospital or mall, they use ozone generators. I was using ONA, but have since capped and put that away as once you got used to it, the smell of weed mingles in with it. With the ozone generator, there is zero smell of weed and it generates co2.
 
RichiRich

RichiRich

Active Member
jondamon said:
how much growing area?


that way we can work out your CFM or m3/h for each fan and the correct filter rating to.

if you air going air cooled lights then how many and what size lights? 400w 600w ???


J
Click to expand...
Sorry - I forgot to mention that. It's between 215-270 square feet.

I'm really not sure what to do.. I don't want to blow all this money on the wrong stuff and find out it isn't enough or was too much... I need to do this right.

If anyone could please explain how I would ventilate the room, step by step- that would be grande.

Thank you
 
Little Tommy

Little Tommy

Well-Known Member
You need to figure out your cubic feet (LxWxH) and then see how many cfm you will need to exchange the air 2-3 times every five minutes. Add a little extra as the carbon filter will pull your cfms down a little pulling through the filter.
 
ScrogThis

ScrogThis

Active Member
Based on your questions it sounds like you may need:
1) Cooling
2) Fresh air (replenish CO2)
3) Odor management

Depending on your setup you can have separate systems or manage it with one. I use a cooltube with a DIY bat wing reflector in a small cabinet so I keep that system isolated. I use supplemental CO2 so my fresh air needs are reduced and I use a DIY carbon filter on the output for odor control. I have read numerous posts that advocate exchanging the entire grow area air volume 1-3 times per minute, if you are using one system for all your needs that may be required however if it's just "fresh air" you don't need anything nearly that big, the plants will not deplete the CO2 that quickly. I like to use a very small fan on the intake and a larger fan on the exhaust to maintain a very slight negative pressure in the grow area, I turn the air over in the grow area about 6 times/hour. You will need to do a bit of math (once you have your design worked out) to figure out the size of the fans (cfm). Don't forget to allow for losses from the length of your ducting as well as any bends and your carbon filter. There are a number of threads here and elsewhere that deal with the calculations, I'm happy to help if you have questions. Good luck!
 
RichiRich

RichiRich

Active Member
ScrogThis said:
Based on your questions it sounds like you may need:
1) Cooling
2) Fresh air (replenish CO2)
3) Odor management

Depending on your setup you can have separate systems or manage it with one. I use a cooltube with a DIY bat wing reflector in a small cabinet so I keep that system isolated. I use supplemental CO2 so my fresh air needs are reduced and I use a DIY carbon filter on the output for odor control. I have read numerous posts that advocate exchanging the entire grow area air volume 1-3 times per minute, if you area using one system for all your needs that may be required however if it's just "fresh air" you don't need anything nearly that big, the plants will not deplete the CO2 that quickly. I like to use a very small fan on the intake and a larger fan on the exhaust to maintain a very slight negative pressure in the grow area, I turn the air over in the grow area about 6 times/hour. You will need to do a bit of math (once you have your design worked out) to figure out the size of the fans (cfm). Don't forget to allow for losses from the length of your ducting as well as any bends and your carbon filter. There are a number of threads here and elsewhere that deal with the calculations, I'm happy to help if you have questions. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Ok, so I think I'll have a duct system to cool the lamps, as well as a separate duct set up (with a carbon filter) to circulate the overall air in the grow room.

With that said, I don't know the exact measurements of the grow room yet - me and my buddy are looking to rent out a weekend house somewhere outside the city to have our grow op in.

Thanks
 
jondamon

jondamon

Well-Known Member
without dimensions DO NOT PURCHASE VENTILATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wait until you know for sure.

if you plan on using 2x1000w air cooled lights you will probably need at least 500CFM INLINE FAN to keep them cool.


When you know dimensions of room make sure they are in ft if you need CFM's or metres if you need m3/h

calculations


LxWxH = total volume
example
6ftx6ftx8ft=288cu ft --- this is your CFM minimum fan to be able to exchange air once a minute. If using a carbon filter you have to allow for the deminishing effect of your fan when filter is attached usually 25%
So
288x1.25 = 360CFM fan and filter combo.

if you use metres
LxWxH = total volume
2x2x2.5 = 10 m3 we now have to multiply this by 60minutes to get hourly rate
10x60= 600m3/h fan rating now multiply this by 1.25 for the filter
600x1.25= 750m3/h fan and filter combo


Tried to explain this as best i can.



J
 
diamonddave

diamonddave

Active Member
Little Tommy said:
I use a 500 cfm fan to pull warm air from near the top of my room, through my light and then exhaust it out of my room. I have a 70 cfm bathroom extraction fan that brings fresh air into my space. I hope that helps some. I have 2 stand alone carbon filters that scrub the air in each of my rooms. The nice thing about the stand alone carbon filters is I just have to change the activated carbon in them once a year. I bought a 50# a box a couple years ago for $50.00 and have replaced the carbon twice so far. I should have enough for I more replacement before I need to buy more.
Click to expand...
hey little tommy, do u have the stand alone filters running 24/7 in flower? i hve 1 of them also...
 
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