Extracting into the house

[Piff Rhys Jones]

Hi all

I have a quick question regarding extraction, specifically whether it is possible to extract hot air from a grow room/tent into another room within the house without damp and mould becoming a problem.

Obviously the number of plants and lights would affect whether this method of extraction is viable or not.

Does anyone have experince of extracting this way using tents or small rooms with no more than say 1000W of lighting? Are dehumidifers necessary or would an open window/natural house ventilation suffice?

Thanks for your help.

Peace

 

[farmari]

It all depends. There are many variables, like: Where is the intake air coming from? What is the house's typical temp/RH? What is the typical outdoor temp/RH? Etc...
Use hygrometers...
Keep in mind that when air is cooled, its relative humidity rises. Last winter my grow room had low RH with lights on but the rest of the house was at high risk of mold until a dehumidifier barely kept it in check. But this was with 4kw of lighting... if your veg+flowering lighting is 1KW or less in total then it shouldn't be too difficult to deal with.
You could get elevated CO2 levels 'for free' if you have gas appliances in the house. My home regularly gets above 1000ppm CO2 just from cooking with a gas stove.

 

[qupee]

I live in the upper midwest US, 4 seasons - snow, hot & sometimes humid summers. Average house humidity is 35%(winter)-50%.

We're 2000 sq ft including the finished basement. 1kw with couple hundred watts veg was fine, the house absorbed it. By the time we hit about 3500 total watts (2800w flower), it was too much in the fall and spring. In summer the central ac coped.

I think generally if your under 1w/sq ft of house you'll have better luck, over that plan on dehumidifiers.

 

[Mate Dave]

This is the norm Piff, many of the old heads I grew up with won't change there ways as there tried and tested.

I'd ask my buddy J to put an extractor on his grow room and he will tell you before me that that's where the smell gets out. Nobody used fans back in the day unless you run multiple lights and found that you were needing ventilation running to disperse that heat.

Being a pioneer in indoor growing was like that.

Back in the day people didn't expect it so smell was not the issue heat was.

The answer to your question depends on room size, time of year and location of the house upon many other factors you need to elaborate on.

You won't get damp or mold if you can water correctly. And by that I mean watering sensibly not wasting water and feed.

When the lamps go out the humidity rises in every room. With an attic-grow this don't matter, humidity is no problem if the room is breathing.

It is best to keep media on the dry side of things so soil is a good option.

Plant numbers don't dictate humidity levels as much as a badly managed over watered garden with excess fan-leaves doing damage to yield and house.

I have run 3 600 with no extractor with good success. I never been busted.

I have a mate running 2 600's in a bedroom with a bit of viz-queen up running 2 NFT tanks growing 80z's + with no fans because they're noisy and use too much electricity 24/7.

Last year I ran 7 tents in a living room all venting up the chimney all filtered.

Week 6 came all the smell had beaten the carbon and the neighbours were looking at me funny.

I unhooked the spigots from the chimney opened all the ground floor interior doors got 7 more filters and sat it out.

"Filters just don't work when your not playing around".

Its better to vent into a lung room and deal with the smell from there, if it needs to be vented from the house treat it first and be careful.

The trick with making money is not to spend it if you don't need to.