Indoor mmj in process

[McKush]

Ordered some ventilation gear yesterday, a silenced 10" Q max fan rated at ~1000 CFM and a 10x39 Phresh CF rated at 1400 CFM. My FR/VR has around 450-500 CuFt and the lung room has about 400 CuFt so factoring in some small losses for duct runs I should be able to just exceed 2x Min exchange between the lung and the FR/VR. Hopefully that is enough air exchange I really wanted to be able to greatly exceed that (for shits and giggles experimentation) but moving up to a 12" gets too far out of the sweet spot on the fan curve I think (12"+ fans tend to be load and I'm worried the amp draw is much less efficient even with a speed controller than the 10". Here's hoping that 10" hits the spot...

In the meantime I've got the divider wall to finish and some more thinking on resevoirs... I've not really thought too much about a container or if I want multiple resevoirs...

I've thought about building a square resevoir permenantly in the crawl with pond liner, this would give me the most control over how to best utilize that space. I'm considering going deeper so that I can sink in a good sized resevoir.

Any sage advice out there on resevoir approaches? I could have a clean and a mixed resevoir or just a single resevoir for mixed feed. Remember, I'm coco DTW.

Suggestions?

 

[PakaloloFromPNW]

Wow, sativa grow area with that head room. I'm getting excited for you. I've got a couple of clones from a friend but they are looking too sativa for me. I pushed them into my flower area and chopped the tops. Hopefully I will be able to finish them. I'm sure your room would accommodate them easily.

 

[who dat is]

You figure out the flange issue?

 

[McKush]

Wow, sativa grow area with that head room. I'm getting excited for you. I've got a couple of clones from a friend but they are looking too sativa for me. I pushed them into my flower area and chopped the tops. Hopefully I will be able to finish them. I'm sure your room would accommodate them easily.

Yah Pakalolo, you said it. I'm excited to get this project complete.. spent the entire day digging but it was to move the waste to a site in the yard where I decided to use it. Tired but still, every bit counts doesn't it. The dirt was not going to move itself now.. Its good to get my blood pumping too. Had to take a few rest breaks and noodle the 'ol gitfiddle for a while too which was fine by me.

have a Happy Easter Pakalobro!

 

[McKush]

You figure out the flange issue?

Hey Who Dat. Yah mon. I went to menards and found some 10" duct flanges for DIY plenums. bought some duct tools and some 10" elbows. Going to put in the exhaust first then will put in the inlet. Going to use 12" return air ducting for the most part. Very short runs so I may use some flex conduit. I could only find the R6.0 there so I had to pass on that.. kinda burns time parts shopping though... Bought my mteenth boxes of screws. Man I've burnt a couple hundred on triple coated screws I bet... I cant stand nails though. Like my screw well screwed.

So anyway I'm going to build some plenums and make my own boxes for the lung room return & send.

 

[who dat is]

Yeah big box stores only ever seem to carry R-6 but you can either order the R-8 or get it from an HVAC equipment distributor.

 

[McKush]

The gear showed up today. Busy at it all day long but got alot accomplished. Can't wait to get the installation done.

Its coming together

 

[McKush]

Happy 420 all!

 

[McKush]

This was the second location for the CF and the fan. My first install just did not sit close enough nor high enough for my tastes after I finished so I had to take it all down and redo it this time closer to the side wall and biased towards the small end of the FR:

I'm planning on changing out the installation hardware some and using some rubber isolators for the fan. The vibration is small and slight but I would like to remove as much as possible. the fan is not silent but it is very quiet, I've not run it yet with the ducting on the exhaust side yet. That part of the construction is coming up next..

This is in the FR looking at the door into the studio. At the base of that ladder on the partion wall I will put a 10" flange and port thru the wall, the expelled hot air from the FR will then immediately exit thru a floor grate oversized a bit.

If you look closely you will see a shadow of the plywood that I left off at. Otherwise that side partition wall is 1.5" thick comprised of 2 3/4 Ply glued together. The white caulk is where I seal the first layer then I'll do the same to the second layer... I'm buying Loctite brand Polymseal or some sort of all purpose caulk now. The money for reordering Accoustic sealant is out... thats a luxury now. no matter I think this general purpose caulk is just as good if not better than the more expensive acoustic sealant.

I went with the R6.0 flex ducting after all. I could not source the R8.0 easily and honestly, the 12" R6.0 Flex duct is already big enough. I see more digging ahead of me...

 

[who dat is]

R-6 Is definitely better than just a bare duct. You'll be really surprised how these measures will shut all that noise up over regular uninsulated ducting!

 

[McKush]

Bit more work today after yet another supply run... short one 10" flange and decided to get more serious about hanging the 10x39 Phresh CF and 10" Q Max I think.

Finished up the exhaust run from the fan thru to the floor vent in the lung room!!!! One run down and one 12" run from studio to the FR to go...

Next on after ventilation I have to build the interior door and install it. That will keep me humming for a bit.

 

[McKush]

hello folks. Bit more forward progress this past week.

Built and installed the FR door. Fricken thing weighs a ton, well I figure about 70 lbs or so... I bought some commercial hinges from home despot and they worked well. I was worried about the weight of the door being too much but so far so good. The door hasn't sagged on me. Hanging the door and making my own mortises for the hinges was a pain as expected. think I fitted it about four times before I finally installed it. I'm not 100% satisfied with the outcome since I was out a bit from square. Good enough for horse shoes though.

 

[McKush]

inside the FR, on the bottom below the doorway is where my cold air return will enter the FR from the lung.

Top left corner is the cold air return. My mini split will be located on the opposite wall from these vents. the rectangular hole with the silver reflectix was my original site for the cold air return until I tweaked the design and decided to change the FR exhaust location which was going to be in the spot where the cold air return ended up. I am going to seal up the unused port. I've already insulated and put in the reflectix thermal barrier.

looking down from the FR ceiling to the smaller end of the FR where the VR locker is located.

 

[McKush]

Installed the cold air return from lung room to FR. Finally, finally got some electricity run to the FR!!! this was joy joy day for me. Can now shut the door and feel the cold air return thru the inlet to the FR. The 10" Q Max can fan is working well for me. The volume of air at max RPM is more than adequate I think.

Looking down at the inlet in the FR. Its nice to stand in the return flow.

I'm powering my fan and led light at the moment. The other unused outlet is 240v for one of the epaps. My first few runs will probably use just a single light and I'll cordon off the smaller side of the room with Orca. speaking of Orca, that should arrive sometime this week....

 

[McKush]

I am converting an old, unused 30A service disconnect to be used to house my light controller. Its the grey box in the pic below, i'm test fitting it there.

I'll put my resevoir against the far wall where the 12" R6.0 Flex duct runs, to butt up against it.

My relays/contactors arrived. hence the desire to test fit the service disconnect box in the pics above..

So its time to assemble the light controller. I think I have an old outdoor mechanical timer to try first. I can add in a digital controller or other in the future. That is the beauty of diy after all. I plan on adding a temperature override/disconnect circuit in the future too.

 

[Mister_D]

Just fuck yes to all of that McKush . It's great to see a smaller grower put this much thought and effort into their room. Take notes people, this shit should be stickied IMO.

 

[McKush]

Heya Mr_D, thanks for dropping in and the kind words. That means a lot to me coming from you! I'm humbled. I hope Freds is stopping by to check in from time to time too. Here's to you both for the encouragement

Its been a labor of love but also a long hard slog... Its coming together quickly now that I've delayed my initial plans to tile the entire grow area. Its funny how the middle part of a build lasts for ever and then all of a sudden its finished... Well my room is no where finished yet. I've got the sump to do next and some more electrical. When my Orca shows up this week, the room will turn mostly white for a while.

I'm going to pop on a minisplit this week or next too so I'll need to run service to where the outside unit will sit and put in a quick disconnect junction box. will need to "youtube up" on installing mini's in the meantime.

I threw together a quick light controller today and tested it out. I temporarily hung my epap and am letting it run at 600W for a while tonight. Big thanks and shout out to Rives and The Gnomie for taking the time to answer my PMs on light controllers and help stimulate the old grey cells.

 

[McKush]

here is my newly wired light controller in the cellar. I have an analog intermatic outdoor timer I'm going to put on it first. I'll get fancy with other controls later, for now I want to get up and running.

A different view. The power in is a temporary wire job, I'll redo this with conduit and conduit clips later this week. You can see the 12" flex duct cold air return to the inlet of the FR to the right. It sorta blocks the other wall there which leads to my sump area where I've got my 1 1/2" drain line and provision for power and a internet drop.

Not surprisingly, the double wrapped reflectix walls do not help wireless tx/rx at all... my cell phone reception in the FR is noticeably poorer in this room. my bluetooth tends to be a bit scratchy to my wireless speaker in the studio too.

Ta da!!!!! Before you chime in, I'm pretty sure I've got the epap oriented in the wrong direction. This was just a quick test of my light controller. But it is also the first time I've fired the ePap also. Sweet.

I'm letting her run for a while to see the temp differential between the studio/lung and the FR. I'm just letting her purr for a while on 600W. Took her up to 1150W already for a while today too - of course... but then back down to 600W for a while.

This was my temp hang job for the ePap.

I'll get an outlet cover on that box soon too... I still giggle when I see that yellow 8' ladder in the FR!!! It may not look it because of the weird angles and dimensions but that is a pretty good sized ladder. It don't fit in most rooms standing up. Man that was some freaking digging going on.

I bet ThirdCoast doesn't even realize that it was after a PM to him that I had my epiphany.... I had said something about not being able to get any more height due to my rooms location and that there was no fucking way I was going to dig down and excavate... then it hit me, wait a minute, effin a buddy, why can't I go down... an idea was sparked and that's when my design changes started in earnest to figure out how to get a 10' room to not only run an ePap or Gavita but also to grow big plants in as good health as possible.

 

[who dat is]

You're going to go into build withdrawal when your room is "complete".

 

[McKush]

My family will at least get a strung out husband and father back then... ha.