My house is getting to smelly!

I have two girls almost in their third week of flower. I have a proper size carbon filter for exhaust going outside. My real problem is inside. My set up is in the basement and well the whole house is starting to reek. I have them in a grow tent which is inside a vapour barrier room i built in the basement. It's just the door I built to get into the room isnt as tight as I like it. I have weather stripping around it to help.

My real issue is that I have a bigger fan pulling air into my grow tent. If I turn it off my humidity goes up to 60%. With it on it sits around 30-35%. The larger fan pulling air in faster than my carbon filter can remove it, is pushing any air that can get out, up stairs and into my home.

I've looked into those OZone plug in things and they are friggin pricey. The closest hydro shop (40 min drive) has one that fits my cfm for $300 and change.

Is there any tricks that you do to help this? or did I just answer all my own questions? lol thanks guys

With using the largest vortex on my filter, I can get I still have to make sure my door is closed or it will creep upstairs. You have to keep that constant strong air going out or it will travel into the house. Maybe you need a larger fan taking it outside.

Sounds like u need a bigger fan filter combo. U can try using a speed controller on the intake. Turn it down just enough to maintain humidity without adverse effects to static pressure. It may work but a bigger fan filter combo is likely in ur near future

Yea, definitely need to get negative pressure on the tent, less in than going out.

A simple solution may be a fan speed adjuster for the intake fan.

That way you don't have to completely turn it off.

Daaaamn, one minute before me! Great minds think alike haha

Yea swap the fans you need negative pressure or else that smell is going to be sitting right at your front door. That's the only option here, a bigger fan/filter for exhaust. You should have never set it up with more intake then exhaust.

I know some people are going to disagree with me, but I am using Ona Gel only and it's working fine for me with 6 females 4 weeks into flowering. Inside the room smells like Ona Gel, outside the room there is no smell at all. They are mixed indica and sativa types...all bagseed so I can't tell you the strains, but if I put my nose on the flowers it's a very intense fragrance.

I have had total stoners who have growing experience standing right outside the door and they never detected a thing.

you need to create negative pressue in your grow area so the only air leaving is through your fan filter combo. get rid of the big ass intake fan you have and let the exaust fan pull the air in the tent via negative pressure.

^^^^^^^^^
What he said. Your fan to filter ratio seems out of balance...Oooo another acronym FTFR??

Im going to start with a way better exhaust fan. My carbon filter is a rated for 75cfm and my tent is 63 cfm. Im limited to what fan I can purchase because of this.I dont want to get a fan that will pull air too fast through the filter. I will also get a dimmer on the intake fan.

While we are on topic...
What if i put my filter fan exhaust combo on the outside of tent but within the vapour barrier room? Take my old exhaust fan and put it on the tent for air in the tent to be circulated still? Mind you my temps are already on the high side with the exhaust directly in there. Im thinking about all this because the filter cannot be hung in the tent simply because the tent isnt strong enough.

Thanks for all the help!

You need a larger filter or more filters. My buddy that is helping with my grows has 24 plants in a small apartment in week 5 of flower and there is no smell at all only when you get right into the plants. He is running 3 large filters.

Well i have a shitty inline fan combo'd with my filter so thats my main issue. Im basing everything off cfm of my room. never heard of going off plants to determine how many filters

new egg has some nice pc fans im gonna make my exhaust using one of them 20$ 150cfm and only like 22dba so its quite

I calculate the room size and multiply by2.5... this number would be the minimum cfm I'd use in my room. I.e. (IMO.. for the record..) ur cfm- rating should be at least 2.5x the area ur trying to ventilate's c.f.. I've always done 4x then a speed controller personally.. it allows more fine tuning... but there's some overhead involved getting started.

wow thanks! i just looked up what i actually bought and the cfm is 195. i think im going to get the 4" typhoon fan which does 176 cfm. my venting is all 4" so it will be easy enough. too bad all the hydro shops around are closed on sundays!

sensisensia, what do you mean 4x speed contoller? 4 settings on it or it has an amp in it to make the fan run 4x faster? can i not just get a dimmer from home depot?

A dial that can adjust the speed of the fan. I use one because you don't always need it full blast.

crailtapper said:

wow thanks! i just looked up what i actually bought and the cfm is 195. i think im going to get the 4" typhoon fan which does 176 cfm. my venting is all 4" so it will be easy enough. too bad all the hydro shops around are closed on sundays!

sensisensia, what do you mean 4x speed contoller? 4 settings on it or it has an amp in it to make the fan run 4x faster? can i not just get a dimmer from home depot?

Click to expand...

Sorry man. I meant I buy a fan capable of moving 4x the air necessary then use a controller to slow it down where it needs to be. Gives me flexibility our summers are generally mild so the extra juice I have most years eliminates he need for an air conditioner.

No worries, kinda figured thats what you meant. Ive kinda limited myself I think from i originally built my set up by only running 4" vent. I think everything will straighten out once i get a better exhaust fan and put a dimmer on each of my intake and exhaust fans.

Does anyone have a secret jardin grow tent? are they strong enough to hold me 20-30 lb carbon filter? while holding my 20 lb lights? (two 150w sun systems) it eats up a lot of space on my grow room floor.

That's nothing a trip to HD couldn't fix. I was running 4 inch forever so my exhaust port in the ceiling was already 4 inch. So I shoved the 4" side of a 6"-4" reducer (15 bucks at HD.) Into the exhaust port.. it took I little wiggling to get it in there but the bevel makes it hold very tight to the sheetrock. Then I ran all my 6" up to the reducer. Not the prettiest setup but i can pick my temp from (this time of year) 52 (unnecessary lol)- 93 while still exchanging air.

Straight runs of ducting and elbows at any significant turn will help to maintain efficiency but as far as I know Max fan and can fan are the only brands (and this may have changed its been years since I last heard it) that load rate their fans. In otherwords the cfm rating on their boxes is what it pulls under a typical load. (Through a filter and 12ft of ducting I assume). And every curve cuts efficiency

only problem i have with that is my fairly new carbon filter, which was like $220, is 4". my vent cover on the outside is for 4" as well. i also have about 16 feet of venting before it reaches outside. so i think im going to get the best 4" fan money can buy and then take one of my 4" inline duct fans and place it down the vent where it will be most efficient. at this point, being in my first grow and havent even harvested yet, its far too much work to replace all my vents.

Thanks sensisensai, chiceh and everyone else for your help!