Scrubbing air from my 2'x2'x5' tent with PC fan?

[juuri]

Howdy folks!

So i have decided to go with Secret Jardin Darkstreet60 tent and i was wondering about scrubbing the air.
I found a CAN carbon filter 100mm 150m3. So would it be possible to pull air through the filter with PC fan?

Main thing is that it has to be quiet... And have a lot of static pressure.
And this is my best find so far.


Noctua NF-A9 PWM 92mm
Airflow-78,9 m³/h


Acoustical Noise-22,8 dB


Static Pressure-2,28 mm H₂O

So if there's anyone who knows how to calculate minimum static pressure needed to make it work?
I could use 2 fans and mount them together, but i don't know if it makes any difference...

Or if you have any other ideas for silent air scrubber for my tiny tent please let me know.

 

[Blazeee]

What kind of light do you have in there, HPS, LED, T5?

If you have a HPS in there i would get a 4 inch fan or maybe a 5 inch fan, and a fan controller / variac to slow the fan down and maybe some acoustic ducting to reduce the amount of noise coming from your setup, you can also make your own acoustic box and place the fan inside that with a hole at each end for the ducting, that should help reduce the noise your fan is making.

If your using a led / t5 maybe you could get away with a pc fan, although it may struggle with the filter

 

[juuri]

What kind of light do you have in there, HPS, LED, T5?

If you have a HPS in there i would get a 4 inch fan or maybe a 5 inch fan, and a fan controller / variac to slow the fan down and maybe some acoustic ducting to reduce the amount of noise coming from your setup, you can also make your own acoustic box and place the fan inside that with a hole at each end for the ducting, that should help reduce the noise your fan is making.

If your using a led / t5 maybe you could get away with a pc fan, although it may struggle with the filter

It's a DIY COB led light with 4 x cree cxa3590 and with dimmable driver up to 1400mA.

So max around 200w.

 

[Easy7]

A pc fan is not going to push or pull air strong enough for a filter. They move very small amounts of air.

Best get a vortex 4 or 5 inch. Can always dial it down as needed.

 

[TNTBudSticker]

I've done a 400 hps 2x2x6 and it needed at least 300 cfm to mask the smell and remove the heat.It had 520cfm in filters.
So I got a fan that did 175 cfm,270 cfm,350 cfm 3 speed fan.

cfm= cubic feet per minute.

One needs 120 cfm to remove heat from an HPS.The rest is smell.Since you're using a different light,not sure of the numbers reguarding the heat factor.

 

[juuri]

But going with a inline fan and controller, what kind of controller to use? If I wanna run it really slow and I don't want it to start humming...
Any ideas?

 

[Easy7]

I believe humming is more on the fan than the dimmer. Go with a vortex.

 

[St. Phatty]

There are PC fans, and there are PC fans.

The kind of fan that works is one that consumes a lot of watts because it moves a lot of air.

One of the side products being, they are often very loud.

IOW - your neighbors might hear it. We're talking about a loud server room type sound.

I used 3 80 mm PC fans on the inlet air, to augment the building fan (which is about 2 feet diameter but pushes air into a lot of ducts).

Originally, the outlet had a centrifugal fan, moving air into a 4 inch duct outlet.

That one died, so I wired a 120 mm high-capacity server fan on the entrance to the outlet.

You can sort of feel the power of the air. If it fills up a 4 inch duct and you can feel the air moving through it - that's a good sign.

When all the fans are on it's sort of a diabolical symphony.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Best fan speed controller:

Variac, about 50 bucks online

 

[ChenBenTz]

I can answer this one.

I tried using a variety of fans with a 240 M3/H carbon filter.

First I tried a regular 120mm (25mm) 125 M3/H fan. It was absolutely useless.

Then I tried two more powerful 120mm (32mm) 200 M3/H fans on either side. Again, nothing.

Then I tried a Delta fan. I don't know if you know what those are, but they are insane. 120mm (38mm) 450 M3/H and some serious pull. This actually worked, but the dBA was >60!

Then I scrapped the PC fan idea and went for an inline fan (240 M3/H). This obviously worked. I found out that it's not the M3/H rating that matter but the size of the fan and its design. Inline fans have incredible suction power which is what we're looking for with carbon filters.

This fan was still pretty noisy (45 dBA), so lastly I went with the TD-SILENT 250 M3/H. Was about 30-35 dBA; wasn't even the loudest thing in the room.

Now I run a 1000 M/3H carbon filter with a TD-SILENT 800 M3/H and the dBA is around 40. It's still the loudest thing in the room but for a 12M2 room, it's just awesome.

Not cheap but it should last for years. Definitely cost less than the carbon filters you'll hook up to it.

Anyway, hope this helps.

 

[juuri]

Yeah i was looking into those S&P silent fans.
They had good reviews on most part. But i'm still worried about having too much airflow... Since my tent is 0.54m3 or 20 cf. and smallest S&P fan i found was rated at 140m3/h or 180m3/h (it has two speeds)
I know adding a filter will bring it down maybe 30% ? ( that's just what i heard, that its good to calulate with 30% loss) But i might be wrong :O

And with variac transformer i have heard that running fans under 50% is a bad thing, again i might be wrong. Or maybe ppl have just shitty fans or controllers..

Anyways just let me know what do you think aout this S&P silent 4'' fan with variac transformer.

 

[juuri]

I found out that it's not the M3/H rating that matter but the size of the fan and its design. Inline fans have incredible suction power which is what we're looking for with carbon filters.

Yep, thats static pressure.

Now i have scrapped PC fan idea, people tell me it might work but with poor results.
I'll rather have bigger fan and filter and use controller. But would it work.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Yep, thats static pressure.

Now i have scrapped PC fan idea, people tell me it might work but with poor results.
I'll rather have bigger fan and filter and use controller. But would it work.

PC fans can do for a PC box or other mini micro box,
but if you run a 12 cubic foot box, like 2' x 2' x 3', then
a proper 4" centrifugal fan is indicated.

I run my Variac Speed controller at 65-70% with a Vortec,
no hum, no worries.

Good thread