AC question

[hamstring]

Hello All

I am an outdoor grower who finally has a chance to start a grow room after ten years growing outdoors.

I have had a few make shift rooms but my wife always made me take them down. So I do have some experience in building a room.

My questions seemed too specialized to try a search so I thought I lay them out to see if anyone could shed some light.

I would like to split the room into two pieces. One side flower the other clone/veg/mother.

I plan on exhausting out the roof by using info gathered from here already. There is a small window in this room so I would have a place for AC in the summer. I will not use co2 and I want to exhaust 24/7 through a carbon filter.

As stated before I would exhaust through the roof and pull my fresh air via the attic (Not sure this is a good idea because of heat loss in the winter) May be pull fresh air from inside apartment.

I would assume you typically have the AC in the flower room because of heat issues and I will of course be exhausting from the flower room. I have not figured out how I make sure the veg/clone/mother room (Which will be separated by a wall) stays cool also.

I know I could use a fan but then I would be pushing cool air from the flower room into the veg and do want smell in the veg room because exhaust is in the flower room.

I could flip-flop the rooms, putting the veg/clone/mother room where the AC is and still exhaust from flower room therefore pulling cool air into the flower room(via a dark room vent in the veg room wall). This does not seem like the most efficient way.

How would you attack this problem?
Do I need AC in the veg room?
Do I need AC at all. (none in the apt. and it is on second story)
I live in the Midwest but it gets hot and muggy in the fall and I have had some previous issues before with heat and moisture.

 

[badmf]

Most likely by it being just separated by a tarp or similar.. it will stay reasonably cool and not need as much concern on cooling. You aren't using as many ot as powerful lights so temps should be in range. You don' need to vent 24/7 just during your bloom "on" time. You should get a ther/humistat to control it during off times and vent constant during on. You didn't say what your hottest summer temps are so this is a general answer for normal climes. Will your room have sufficient power supply for lights etc. Did you make entry/exit plans to prevent insect infestations. Are you in soil or hydro? This all takes some adjustments.

 

[hamstring]

Badmf
Hey man thanks a lot for reply. I can use any advise as I want to do this correctly it will be a one shot deal.

Hottest temps: We do get some 90-100 deg weather but it is 2 weeks long usually. Most of the mid summer days are probably in the low to mid eighties.

Separation of the two rooms: You mentioned something interesting to me. I would normally just put in a second door between the flower and veg rooms. Is it possible to use just a trap of some sort and not get any light mixing between rooms?

What type of growing medium: I will be using soil
Lamp wattage: I currently have a 400watt HPS lamp and hood but I would like to harvest around 8 oz every two months. Should I consider a 600 or 1000watt lamp my hood was designed to be able to handle up to 1000watts?

Enter and exit strategy: Interesting question. I never worried about it in the past. It will be a secret entrance of sorts. Really just a disguised door that opens inward this is what I have built in the past.

No need to exhaust 24/7: Can you explain your answer better. I have found that in the veg state at least the plants seem to give off more odors when the HPS lamp is shut off. Now granted this was my old system (Very old) and I would not be using HPS for the veg cycle anymore. I was going to go with probably T8 or T5 ( four-foot fixtures with two lamps each.) I am guessing two of these fixtures would be fine for my setup.
So if Iunderstand you correctly I can control odor by just exhausting in the flower room and only when the light is on?

 

[Orangelazaris]

YOu are right abot plants emitting a lot of odor just after lights out.

I believe he was refering to the fact that you wont need to cool the ligts 24/7.


Are you going to use air cooling on the hood?

 

[hamstring]

Orangelazaris
Thanks for the reply

I believe my hood can be converted into an air-cooled. It seems to have the venting for it. Are there advantages to air-cooled hood? If I remember correctly it allows you to get the light closer to the plants with out burning.

The reason I exhaust 24/7 is for odor control and it helps to keep humidity down also. I have never used a carbon filter but I would this time for sure.

I read here that your intake should be 3x your exhaust. Is this the correct ratio?
One of my concerns is where the intake should be located. It would be very discrete to put the intake to the attic but this does not seem the best choice during the winter. I am guessing I will need my intake to come from the inside of the apt.

Any ideas?