Ventilation & Exhaust for New 3x7 Room

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Howl of Indignation

Member
Hey All! I'm currently building out a 3x7x7 grow room in a outside shed and I plan on going with an AC Infinity Cloudline T6 with the automatic features to help control temp and humidity. However, I'm not sure if that will move enough air, often enough and bring enough fresh air in.

The goal is a sealed and insulated space for total temp/humidity control and I understand fresh air will find it's way in. I have no idea how often the T6 will run so I was thinking that I might need another exhaust source to help move and replace the air as I should be replacing double the rooms capacity every minute. Since I'm building this I need to plan for all of the intake/exhaust ports etc. as I don't have the luxury of per-fabricated openings like you'd find on a tent.
  • Should I just stick with the T6 and it'll do just fine?
  • OR go with the T6 + another exhaust fan that constantly runs? With this being a build I can wire in a quiet 100cfm bathroom exhaust fan that could constantly run to draw air out.
  • OR should I consider a second duct fan or something else?
  • I'm hesitant to add a "intake" opening/inlet at the base as this is "outside" and I am wary of super cold air in the winter and other critters making it in
  • I plan on running oscillating fans in the room
  • What about adding co2 in with a tank?
I'm new, first time doing this so I'm open to any suggestions ;) Thanks!
 
H

Howl of Indignation

Member
hotrodharley said:
https://www.epicgardening.com/grow-room-ventilation-101/

From the manufacturer

https://www.acinfinity.com/pages/technical-guides/grow-tent-ventilation-guide.html
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Thanks, great articles and all makes sense and adding in an intake seems important.

The context of these articles are for tents residing in climate controlled room/house. That's not my case, so in the winter my room would be taking in cold dense air, summer would be hot and humid air. I'm wary of that and feel that might do more harm than good but if a fresh air intake is more imporant than I'll pursue.
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Howl of Indignation said:
Thanks, great articles and all makes sense and adding in an intake seems important.

The context of these articles are for tents residing in climate controlled room/house. That's not my case, so in the winter my room would be taking in cold dense air, summer would be hot and humid air. I'm wary of that and feel that might do more harm than good but if a fresh air intake is more imporant than I'll pursue.
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It’s the principle of air exchange and intake. I have another reference I can’t find regarding larger rooms or buildings.
 
JSB99

JSB99

Well-Known Member
Howl of Indignation said:
Alright, I think I'm going to add in 2 of these dark room vents in for passive air. https://www.amazon.com/Adorama-Darkroom-Light-Tight-Louvers/dp/B0000A5A8I

Any thoughts on filtering the passive air intake? For bugs, particles, etc.?

Just hoping that I'm not chasing temps and humidity as the intake air is almost pure outside air. I could pull more stable fresh air from the garage but that might be a little more difficult to pull off.
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What you can do is make 6" openings at the bottom (exhaust is at the top of the space where the warm air accumulates). Then take a short length of flexible duct, stretch nylon stockings/pantyhose over the end of the flexible duct. Makes a great filter. Use black. Rule of thumb is twice the opening per exhaust for passive intakes, and the same size port for an active intake. So, if you have a 6" exhaust at the top of your space, where your inline fan vacuums the air out, you would want 2 x 6" intake ports (again, at the bottom) for a passive intake.

Additional notes
Loop the flexible intake duct so you dont end up with light leaks

Use a fan speed controller. You dont want to be running your fan on full all the time. If you do need to run it like that, you'd want to get a more robust fan where you can run it slower

You'll have plenty of fresh air, dont worry about it
 
H

Howl of Indignation

Member
JSB99 said:
What you can do is make 6" openings at the bottom (exhaust is at the top of the space where the warm air accumulates). Then take a short length of flexible duct, stretch nylon stockings/pantyhose over the end of the flexible duct. Makes a great filter. Use black. Rule of thumb is twice the opening per exhaust for passive intakes, and the same size port for an active intake. So, if you have a 6" exhaust at the top of your space, where your inline fan vacuums the air out, you would want 2 x 6" intake ports (again, at the bottom) for a passive intake.

Additional notes
Loop the flexible intake duct so you dont end up with light leaks

Use a fan speed controller. You dont want to be running your fan on full all the time. If you do need to run it like that, you'd want to get a more robust fan where you can run it slower

You'll have plenty of fresh air, dont worry about it
Click to expand...
Excellent advice, thanks. How often should the exhaust fan run and how long should it run for? I'm going with the AC Infinity exhaust fan and will be using the humidity and temp settings to automatically have it kick on. My assumption/hope is that it will run often enough to replace the air.
 
TintEastwood

TintEastwood

Well-Known Member
Many pros and cons.

I run a 4x8x8 sealed room with Co2 tank and regulator. But it requires me to run a 6k wall banger AC and dehuey to manage the temp/rh of the environment.

I also have an exhaust fan and intakes for when I want to vent.

Un-sealed. You must vent to pull in fresh air, to maintain Co2 levels....and temps.

My garage (lung room) gets up to 120f in the summer. Mild winters.
 
JSB99

JSB99

Well-Known Member
Howl of Indignation said:
Excellent advice, thanks. How often should the exhaust fan run and how long should it run for? I'm going with the AC Infinity exhaust fan and will be using the humidity and temp settings to automatically have it kick on. My assumption/hope is that it will run often enough to replace the air.
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I'm not sure you'd benefit from investing in any kind of environmental controllers. Run your fan all day, and control the speed based on the inside temps. When you first start out, you want to get hands-on practice controlling your equipment, then down the line, once your system is tuned and you know your op inside and out, then think about automated controllers, which you might not even worry about once you've tuned your system.

Start off simple.
 
B

Bookush34

Well-Known Member
JSB99 said:
I'm not sure you'd benefit from investing in any kind of environmental controllers. Run your fan all day, and control the speed based on the inside temps. When you first start out, you want to get hands-on practice controlling your equipment, then down the line, once your system is tuned and you know your op inside and out, then think about automated controllers, which you might not even worry about once you've tuned your system.

Start off simple.
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I disagree.
Get a temp controller for the fan to cycle on.

Just playing with the speed I
Gives wild swings in temp and needs constant attention. Gets really old.
 
H

Howl of Indignation

Member
TintEastwood said:
Many pros and cons.

I run a 4x8x8 sealed room with Co2 tank and regulator. But it requires me to run a 6k wall banger AC and dehuey to manage the temp/rh of the environment.

I also have an exhaust fan and intakes for when I want to vent.

Un-sealed. You must vent to pull in fresh air, to maintain Co2 levels....and temps.

My garage (lung room) gets up to 120f in the summer. Mild winters.
Click to expand...
Good feedback, thanks. I like the idea of a lung room. Where I'm placing my intake in the build I'm planning for a "lung box" just in case I need to heat the intake air during the winter as I don't think pulling in 30* air into a 75* room is a good idea. The idea is to pre-heat the air before it enters the room. Even then, I might need a heater in the room during the winter but that's months away. We'll see how the summer goes and hopefully can manage without AC and the passive intake and exhaust fan will regulate temp and humidity.
 
H

Howl of Indignation

Member
Canabisius said:
You might want to look at their FC series of lights, as I just bought the TSW2000 and after 2 weeks the drivers failed and Amazon is sending me a replacement. Don't get me wrong I love the light but I should have shelled out another $60 for the FC-3000.
Just a heads up.....
https://growdiaries.com/diaries/97084-grow-journal-by-canabisius
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Thanks for the heads up... hopefully mine are able to hold up but the price jump isn't too drastic for those FC-3000's
 
H

Howl of Indignation

Member
Alright, I'm going to add 2 dark room vents in that are 8in x 8in for passive intake into the build - any thoughts on stacking the intakes or doing them side by side?
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