battling indoor heat, on a budget. What will help most in my UDWC setup

[EclipseFour20]

If feasible, consider drawing outside (I draw mine through under the roof eave up into the attic...the outside has a "attic vent grill"). Since I run my 12/12 flower from 9PM to 9AM, the outside air can get soo cold the venting will have condensation. So....be sure to run insulated ducting.

I draw outside air both into the room AND through the light hoods. Results, I live in So Cal and run 1600watt veg that has ZERO air conditioner with temps in the 77-79 range, with an occasional spike to 81.

I do the same for my flower (have 12k btu window AC for 3200 watts) and that damn thing hardly ever turns on...temps range 74 to 79. BTW, my monthly electric bill dropped 2-3 benjamins as well.

Cheers!

 

[babelfish]

could someone explain to me what udwc IS?

 

[LyryC]

If feasible, consider drawing outside (I draw mine through under the roof eave up into the attic...the outside has a "attic vent grill"). Since I run my 12/12 flower from 9PM to 9AM, the outside air can get soo cold the venting will have condensation. So....be sure to run insulated ducting.

I draw outside air both into the room AND through the light hoods. Results, I live in So Cal and run 1600watt veg that has ZERO air conditioner with temps in the 77-79 range, with an occasional spike to 81.

I do the same for my flower (have 12k btu window AC for 3200 watts) and that damn thing hardly ever turns on...temps range 74 to 79. BTW, my monthly electric bill dropped 2-3 benjamins as well.

Cheers!

Dude please point me in the direction of your build thread!!!!

I live in socal and right now my A/C is on to cool the flower room :/

I think I have a similar set up regarding attic/room location - well atleast I wouldn't need a lot of ducting.

I'm going to PM you for more info

 

[VertNwb]

As soon as you can, switch to drip through *anything*.

Drastically reduce your chances and severity of issues.

 

[EclipseFour20]

LC....here is the basic concept:

1. Draw outside air. Under the roof eaves, there 20" attic vent screens spaced around my house and HomeDepot has "stack boots" with 10 x 3 1/4 inch opening that can easiloy connect 6" round rigid ducting. In the attic is where most of the work is--two boots connected together fit nicely in the 20 inch attic vent space. Unfortunately, I need more air in few locations, so new holes made and covered with new white "attic grill covers"--from the outside it looks normal.

2. Filter outside air. The ducting is connected to a filter a box I made from 4'x8' x 1 1/2" thick styrofoam board--configured and glued together to accommodate a standard $4 air filter 12"x12"x1". I used two filter boxes: 1 for the lights and 1 for fresh air.

Let me pull out my notes and make a drawing of the pattern I used, and take a few pics of the boxes in use. I will post them shortly.

3. Run ducting. For efficiency and less drag where possible use rigid ducting, elbows and collars (pieces cut from rigid duct about 9-12" long).

How many holes in the ceiling?
1-fresh air intake for lamp
1-fresh air intake for room
1-exhaust air for lamp
1-exhaust air for room

Drill 6" hole and insert rigid collar for each hole in the ceiling. Esthetically, I positioned all ceiling holes as if recessed lights were being installed--so when the room is returned back to normal usage, the half dozen 6" ceiling holes would not become an issue.

4. Fresh Air-Lamps. Inside the room, attach "insulated flex ducting" from the "fresh air collar" in the ceiling to the light fixture; instead of bending the flex ducting--use rigid elbows to reduce air drag. If you do not use insulated ducting, condensation will occur and a goodly amount of water will drip on the plants.

You can daisy chain several lamps together (fresh air -> lamp1 -> lamp2 -> exhaust from room) but stick to max of 2 lamps...3 lamps daisy chained together was no bueno for me.

5. Exhaust Air-Lamps. Attach normal "uninsulated flex ducting" (no condensation with exhausting warm air--it only occurs when the incoming air is cool) from the lamps to the "exhaust collar" in the ceiling. To reduce vibration and fan noise, fans are placed in the attic on stryofoam board pieces, with flex duct attaching the fan to the rigid ducting system.

6. Exhaust Air-Room. In the Veg, I decided to run this 24/7 so inside the room, exactly in the middle of the ceiling is a 6" air diffuser that pulls all the air out via medium sized fan in the attic. Remember--hot air rises. In the Flower I have a closed system, so no air exhausts when lights are on...but when lights are off, exhaust occurs at timed intervals.

7. Fresh Air-Room. This fan runs only during lights on and off when lights are off. Experimenting with placement, I found 2 sweetspots: First spot is directly behind the oscillating fan (so the fan blows cool air drawn directly from outside). The second spot is a few feet below the "exhaust" air diffuser--pointing downward. I ran rigid ducting from the "fresh air" collar to the middle of the room and positioned the elbow to point down--air blows downwards towards the plants and is dispersed by the oscillating fans (on the walls). In the Veg--fresh air delivered below exhaust diffuser...while in the Flower--individual fans push fresh air to blow just behind oscillating fans.

Lessons learned:
1. Use fans that have factory speed controls (low-medium-high) AND buy it with a greater CFM than you anticipate. Rather than drive a Prius with a capacity of 80 mph--and push it constantly at 65...I prefer cruising at 65 in my truck...knowing anytime, it can easily exceed 120 mph when I want it to.
2. Use aluminum tape...not the cloth duct tape.
3. Add more than a few inches for slack when cutting insulated flex duct (pricey shit).
4. Cooling the environment and lights with outside air will reduce the ambient room temperature by 5-10 degrees easily...and outside air is free.
5. Drawing outside air into the growing environment increases available C02...which means less supplemental gas to buy.

Hope this helps...are at least, you get an idea of what I did.

Cheers!