Run exhaust 24/7 or hook up to timer/climate controller?

[Yes4Prop215]

hey quick question, should i run my exhaust 24/7 or will that cause strain on the fan. or should i run attached to a climate controller and it only comes on when humidity is over 50?
i currently have it on a timer and it runs during lights on fof 12 hours and for a 2 hour period during lights off to remove humidity. but i should be ordering a sentinel chhc1 pretty soon!
thanks in advance...

 

[Neo 420]

I would run it 24/7 till you get the sentinel. I got a sentinel also and they work damn good!! I find my humidity like to rise when the lights are off specially when in flowering...Make sure you dial in your dead pan (which is the threshold when your gear turns on or off)..

 

[Yes4Prop215]

what is yours dialed to? i figured with the sentinel it would be easy, plug the fan in and set it to turn on once it creeps above 50 percent.

my friend who runs dual 5k rooms has a 12inch vortex in each he runs 24/7 for like 3 years now...he just changes filters. but i was wondering if some of yall did different.

 

[milehighmedical]

.

 

[Neo 420]

My sentinel is set to turn on the dehumidifier when the humidity reaches a certain value and the AC is turned on when a certain temp value is reached each independently.. My Fan runs 24/7 ( my room is sealed and the fan is basically for smell control) The good thing about the sentinel is it can be programmed to run those control together or independent. You can adapt it for a seal room or a vented room. Same with the CO2. It can turn off the CO2 when the fan is on and turn on the CO2 when the fans are off or just let the co2 run its course,. I will check my dead pan and report it tomorrow.





The sent is on the upper right hand side...

 

[grow nerd]

First of all, your fan is mechanically fine running 24 hours a day. You don't need to worry about that.

As for whether to run it all the time or not depends entirely on your temps/RH right now. If you have a digital therm that records high/low then you can see how things do during lights off. If it's getting too cold then use a timer till you get your controller. If everything's in perfect range with the fan on all the time, leave it on all the time. Won't matter for long if you're getting a controller.

That is pretty good advice.

My first instinct would be to run it 24/7 by default unless you have any reason not to. A higher rate of air exchanges is never a bad thing for more than just humidity.

 

[PhytoChrome]

I like to run two fans.
The Big One is thermostatically controlled
The Little One runs during the dark cycle to keep the smell and humidity down, but not move too much cold air through in the winter time.
Backdraft dampers help with direction of air movement.

 

[250wscrogger]

Get a grozone tv-1 day-night thermostat/fan speed control....they're like $110

It will slow the fan down at night to keep it above the set night temp and speed up the fan when the lights come on to keep the room under the set day temp.

Proper air exchange 24/7 is critical in non sealed rooms....that's how the plants get fresh air and c02...

Get a good dehuey for humidity...it won't need to run very often when the room is being exhausted 24/7 but it's good to KNOW that 40-50% RH is maintained at ALL times.

I will be running 2 10'' max fans 24/7 on grozone tv-1's dumped into a 14'' rigid duct for exhaust and a 100 pint santa fe dehuey in my 4k double stadium... it's overkill but I've always gone overkill on ventilation/odor control...makes life easier in my experience.

 

[PhytoChrome]

I will be running 2 10'' max fans 24/7 on grozone tv-1's

I heard that Max Fans are not engineered to be run on speed controllers and can burn out quicker. Any word on this?

 

[grow nerd]

Everything but the 8" (maybe it was 10") and 12" can be run on a Triac or Variac. (I tried the 12" on a Triac and failed miserably.)

All models can be run on a Variac, and CF Group sells a "Can-Trol" which is a Variac.

 

[250wscrogger]

aww so I should be using something other than the grozone tv-1's with the max fans???? Fuck.... what should I get for two 10'' max fans???

 

[303hydro]

I heard that Max Fans are not engineered to be run on speed controllers and can burn out quicker. Any word on this?

If you check the website it says yes, they are all capable of being speed controlled. They do however require their specific speed controller for the 12" Max Fan.

Here is a quote from a thread where a customer was asking grozone about this subject, the context is informative:

Also wanted to add this email that I got from the folks at GroZone. My question to them and their response:

To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:28 AM
Subject: TV1 CONTROLLER


Hello, I am interested in the TV1 fan speed controller. I have the Max Fan 8" as well as the 12" and was told that I need a "motor controller" to vary the speed on these fans. Can you confirm that the TV1 will work with the Max Fan line of fans?
Thank you, Adam.


Adam,
The TV1 works fine with the MAX FAN 8-in
but it is not recommended with the 12-in Max fan, since this fan has a special motor (the only one in the Series to have this special motor). MAx Fan recommends to use their own MANUAL controller
(see their product in the middle of this page http://www.canfilters.com/catalogue.html)

After test performed on MAXFAN 8 and 10 inch, we find that the 10-in is less likely to undergo thermal overload, so we would recommend the 10-in instead of the 8-in, 10-in is more rugged. However, the 8-in could stop working due to thermal overload if it is likely to run most of the time at low speed (low speed means higher current in the motor, generating more heat, causing thermal overload more "easily); when it shuts off due to thermal overload, the fan is still good, it will recover after a few hours cooling down. Using a manual dimmer would give the same result, nothing to do with the TV1 but with the motor spec of the 8-in Max Fan.


In short

• if the 8-in is OVERSIZED for your set-up, it is likely to meet thermal oveload. If it is properly sized, it should be ok.
• 10-in will work fine all the times
• 12-in needs a special manual control, as per Canfan website

Michel Sirois
Grozone
418-856-9930


Hope that helped.
​

 

[grow nerd]

Just get a good Variac. Plus it's infinitely better than a Triac, regardless of whether the fan can be run on it.

 

[250wscrogger]

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/7673

would this 2KVA variac be a good choice?

 

[grow nerd]

It's probably a bit over-sized, never a bad thing but it can be quite large physically. I think I had the exact same one in a previous room for a MAX 12" (which draws more power than any of their MAX lines up to/including 14"). I started out with a smaller one (I think 500VA?), and one day walking into the utility room to find that the Variac was fried and smelling some electrical components burnt. The brush had melted onto the coil/core. It's nice to over-size. Almost a disaster but I recovered since I found it not too late. (That Variac was tied to a SPDT relay circuit that would either give full voltage or partial dialed voltage depending on time.)

Here's the one that failed on me.



The replacement looked much the same, just larger. I think it was a 2kVA, maybe a 1kVA. I'm leaning towards 1kVA 'cuz I think it had a 10A fuse and only one outlet, not two that's pictured in the 2kVA. It did have 3 rows of holes like the ones pictured (not 2 like the one in my pic), but I just can't be 100% sure until I can find the new pic.

There's a story about a user here (I forget his name) that said something kinda funny like "I almost fried myself into a bucket of KFC" after zapping himself playing with a Variac that he took apart. Just in case yours goes bad, don't do it! (At least, don't mess around the capacitor.)

 

[250wscrogger]

Would you mind explaining what parts I would need and how I go about setting up a relay circuit for the variac... I would love to be able to slow the fans down only during lights off...full speed during lights on.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

thanks for the advice 250w...yea that sounds interesting..run it at less power during lights off i would love that. and yea i have a 100 pint santa fe in my future too..how much did you pay for yours?

 

[grow nerd]

I used to have pics of the whole setup (including internals) under another username but all those pics got deleted along with the user so text will have to do for now.

What you're looking for is a SPDT relay with 120vac coil (5 pins; 1 for LOAD, 2 for COIL, 1 for NO, 1 for NC), should cost you $10 - $20, maybe less (check Grainger if you don't know of another place). Wire LOAD to hot wire of fan, COIL to timer, NO to LINE (hot from breaker), NC to hot from Variac.

Does that make sense?

Those OMRON or Dayton HVAC relays from Grainger are handy for mounting inside of a metal box. I was cheap and used $2 4.x" square metal boxes from Home Depot, fit the relay + outlet in the same box w/ raised cover.

 

[grow nerd]

Found some pics but not what I was looking for. Ask if confused.

 

[250wscrogger]

thank you for explaining that....

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON-Power-Relay-5Z542?Pid=search

so I will be fine with one of these?