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Tutorial Ventilation 101

Cheesegez

Well-known member
Probably the absolute best way to design a room, (at least for cooling purposes) (though not always achievable), is to seal your air cooled hoods and cool them with passing intake air and exhausted without ever coming in contact with the grow room air. This in itself will lower the ambient temp at least by 10 degrees. But as I said, not always achievable, especially if you're running multiple lights or banks thereof.

But hey...what do I know...

I've tried this before to be fair I found it's near than impossible to do it successfully with air cooled hoods it always created a vacuum which means it was always pulling air out the room ... Probably do able with a lot of patence

Peace
 
O

OG Tree Grower

I've tried this before to be fair I found it's near than impossible to do it successfully with air cooled hoods it always created a vacuum which means it was always pulling air out the room ... Probably do able with a lot of patence

Peace

Push the air through the air cooled lights. I have heated the whole grow house during winter mts with a 12k air cooled system , but who wants those light killing high maintenance whores anyways.
 
O

OG Tree Grower

That picticular room was sealed yes, I've ran dozens of sealed and semi sealed rooms. Just recently did I switch one of my grows to fresh air exchange. Yields have been pretty close to full sealed with all the bells and whistles and at a fraction of the power consumption fully sealed rooms use , a noticeable 100 bucks less on a 5kw hydro grow
 

Cheesegez

Well-known member
That picticular room was sealed yes, I've ran dozens of sealed and semi sealed rooms. Just recently did I switch one of my grows to fresh air exchange. Yields have been pretty close to full sealed with all the bells and whistles and at a fraction of the power consumption fully sealed rooms use , a noticeable 100 bucks less on a 5kw hydro grow

I'm amazed considering an Air conditioner power consumption trumps that of most appliances. The power consumption of air conditioners averages 318 watts (for a 24,000 BTU unit) That 318-watt average adds up to 228 kWh per month. Cant see how fans can be more efficient when your running ac anyhow ....

Peace
 

Mr. Miyagi

Member
I've tried this before to be fair I found it's near than impossible to do it successfully with air cooled hoods it always created a vacuum which means it was always pulling air out the room ... Probably do able with a lot of patence

Peace

If you're creating a vacuum, then your using internal grow room air.

The lights in my above reference are being cooled with outside air (out of the grow room) and the hot air from the lights are exiting the grow room through ducting. The incoming and exiting air in this scenario doesn't actually come in contact with the air INSIDE the grow room, all from external air.:tiphat:
 

GoneP

Member
Hey all, im in the final stage of my grow room build and would like advice or suggestions on where to place my passive intake vent. Room size is under 320 cubic feet and is exhausted through 6 in ducting to the outside. There is currently no intake apart from a 1 1/2 inch by 32 inch gap at the bottom of the door - which i will put a door sweep on tonight.

When i run the exhaust fan at full speed the negative pressure is a bit much (force needed to open door), so the gap on the door is too small. I went out and got one of these for the fresh air intake

Its a gable type vent which is around 12" x 10". Its surface area is larger than the gap under the door, so pressure will drop with the big vent, however i still want to maintain a fairly strong negative pressure going so if its gonna drop it too much id rather go another route. the room is about 5 foot wide by 7.8 foot long by 8 foot high, exhausted up and out the room to the outdoors by a 6 inch 440cfm fan.

My question is would one of these installed be sufficient? And where is the best spot in the room to put it? somewhere on the bottom of the leftside wall (behind where the flood tray is in the pic) or further down closer to the door? Heres a pic of the room (not sure why pic is sideways)
 
O

OG Tree Grower

Put the vents on the bottom of the door so it draws the coolest possible air and then it will also be on the other side of the room from your exhaust insuring complete room exchanges with fresh air, it will always have good negitive pressure if your intake is passive.
 

Snook

Still Learning
I agree w OGT, bottom of the door, whats on the other side of the right or left hand walls? or make that 32"x 1.5", 32"x2" or 2.5" and that should about do it.. a piece of panda tacked to the inside of the door, dragging along the floor with a coupla paper clips for bottom weighting, will open enough with fan on and block light with fan off.. I would think that the panel you want to use might be too big, the 6" fan will be running full bore and negative pressure will be at a minimum if any at all but yes, I will work and if too big, blocking off a piece of its opening will get you where you want to be.. GL..:tiphat:
 

GoneP

Member
I agree w OGT, bottom of the door, whats on the other side of the right or left hand walls? or make that 32"x 1.5", 32"x2" or 2.5" and that should about do it.. a piece of panda tacked to the inside of the door, dragging along the floor with a coupla paper clips for bottom weighting, will open enough with fan on and block light with fan off.. I would think that the panel you want to use might be too big, the 6" fan will be running full bore and negative pressure will be at a minimum if any at all but yes, I will work and if too big, blocking off a piece of its opening will get you where you want to be.. GL..:tiphat:

thanks for the responses, guys. left hand side is this

picture.php


right hand is another wall for another room (office).

picture.php


and this is whats behind the room (im limited in space due to garage door rails)

thanks

would placing the vent at the bottom of door still be the best place? or would putting it on one of the sides be better?
 

Snook

Still Learning
funny... "limited space" .. limited space is the brothers and sisters that are growing in computer cases...:laughing: Jus yuckin:biggrin:.. nice looking build... it looks like either side or the door would work but what are the temps in the garage gonnab?>If not air-conditioned, then the air from the office (right wall?) would be better (not sure where you live and ambient temps) but remember when you take air from the common living area, it will take away (exhaust) cool air in summer and warm air in the winter. This will make your AC (if you have one) run and run and run in the summer and the heat to crank in the winter.. additionally, light leaks are always an issue at bloom time.:tiphat:
 

GoneP

Member
Lol yeah im not that limited. Temps in garage is a constant 65 to 70 and will get cooler as winter approaches, it was 63 degrees in there this morning. im in inland socal, im gonna use the cool air from the garge during fall/winter and switch to AC once the hot weather gets here.

Would putting the air vent on the left side right next to the flood tray or would that impede air flow since most the vent will be below the tray?
 

Snook

Still Learning
wherever you put the in/out takes keep light leaks in focus..
if not too close, yes. another idea would be to move the flood table away some and enclose the top, paint the inside black (I use black felt) to deal with light leaks. do not depend on your remembering to not turn on the light in the garage when in bloom. personally, I'd work with the door.. earlier I said 2" to 2.5"x 32" but that is 60+sqin. you need/want 18sqin... 1.5 x 32 opening you have is somewhat larger than you need. pretty sure you said 6" fan..
 

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