Venting in an apartment?

[F0iL]

Depends on the strain if smell will be a problem. I just finished a grow in my apartment and vented into the same room. I'm venting into the same room on my current grow. Keep your entire apartment aired out well. Unless you have stinky strains, you'll be OK IMO. I also used those plug-in air freshener things. You MUST keep your apartment ventilated well to keep both smell and heat to accecptable levels when you vent grow into same space.

Check my current grow

Obli

Yeah I have my own central air control in my apartment so it keeps temps very low if I want it to, and also I will have some kind of air freshner in my apartment as well. I might try those odor blocker containers. Has anyone heard of anything good of them?

-Thanks

 

[Tyler Durden]

Others here have mentioned using those decorative table top water fountains and using pine-sol instead of water.

I had bought a 60 gph fountain pump but was inadequate to push water high enough for what I wanted. So I just threw that in a reservoir with like 10-15 parts water 1 part pine-sol, rigged it up so the tubing went high enough to make a waterfall effect, just basically keep the water circulating. My grow really isn't that aromatic but it covered what little smell there was.

 

[Guest]

Foil:

If you have central air, you'll be fine IMO. I would still scrub the air coming out of the grow though.

 

[Irie Islander]

I grow in an apartment, and heat is no problem.

I have a 4x4x7' box w/ an aircooled 1Kw. Only thing is its not aircooled at the moment . All hardware stores ran out of 6" ducting. So I put a 1.5' foot piece of ply on the bottom and top of the entrance. I velcroed 3mil thick Contractor trash bags to the middle section. It is lightproof. There is less than a foot clearance from the top of box to ceiling and it is about 2ft from a floor mounted window a/c venting outside. Its a small a/c, but efficient. I positioned the box so a pocket of cold air would always be just in front of it.

During lights on there is a stanley blower sitting just outside 3ft above the ground blowing directly at the light. Temps stay around 77F and by the the 12th hour is at 81.1. During night time I can get it down to 63.

The plants are around 3rd week flower and there is absolutely no smell outside the apartment. There is 14 plants and about 8 small clones. Sometimes you can catch a small whiff outside the room (still inside apartment). There is 0 odor control right now. The room smells awesome, but there is nothing around it. Granted the stinky strains would infiltrate the entire grounds, but w/ this blueberry/bubblegum cross (pollen chucked), no odor control is needed (yet).
In a week or so I will put up plugins and I figure that is all I need.

So, you can run 1kw+ in an apartment w/ minimal odor control. You just need a simple box and a good a/c (and some odorLESS strains).

When I get supplys I will finish the box right, but for now, its pretty much ghetto and works just fine.

Window a/cs are awesome as well as portable ones w/ the tube exhaust. You can grow any size, anywhere. Just need to build a box to your needs.

 

[HerbGlaze]

Ducting, out of a window would be obvious but putting a stealth thing that is not in use that people use in everyday life then putting vent through it?
OLD air conditioner put the ducting through it and seal it from the other side and there you have it.

 

[Albert Hofmann]

As long as the carbon filter is running you will be fine...you don't have to worry oror wise where it vents. Those scrubbers are just that; scrubbers. They were intended to just run in a room, they don't have to be vented outside to be effective.

 

[gunnaknow]

So how come everyone has been saying that smell will be a problem if using more than 600w in an apartment? I figured that a large enough scrubber would easily be able to deodorise 2 x 600w worth of buds. Perhaps they haven't ever tried growing that much in an apartment so don't actually know for sure? What about ozonators? How much is needed to kill smell completely? Is that level of ozone dangerous?

Why does heat have to be a problem in an apartment? Isn't leaving the window slightly open for the intake to suck into the tent and extracting the tent air into the rest of the apartment effective at removing the heat? Average temps get pretty cold between september and april in my region.

 

[Albert Hofmann]

I run an inline ozone generator for my exhaust...takes care of whatever the scrubber misses. I would never recommend putting an ozone gun in with the plants...run it inline or in the space that you are venting to. If your tent isn't air tight then you probably only need to worry about and exhaust fan...the negative pressure created by the exhaust will pull in plenty of fresh air. Intake fans are more neccessary in sealed rooms or rooms with alot of heat being produced.

 

[gunnaknow]

Ok thanks. Is the amount of ozone needed to deodorize 2 x 600w worth of buds dangerous for human health? I wonder where I could find this information out.

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Ok thanks. Is the amount of ozone needed to deodorize 2 x 600w worth of buds dangerous for human health? I wonder where I could find this information out.

Hard to say exactly how much O3 is needed to deodorize a 1.2KW grow because of differences of odor levels in strains. however here is an exposure guideline for 03.

http://www.ozoneapplications.com/info/ozone_msds.htm

Exposure Guidelines:
OSHA PEL: 0.10-ppm PEL/TLV (Permissible Exposure Limits)

I do believe the correct application for ozone is to treat exhaust air. In theory fresh air should be drawn in and used/treated air should be pushed out, and that should keep things smelling clean.

Now if direct venting to the outside is a problem I would use a carbon scrubber, its much safer for you and for your plants, and is highly effective.

 

[gunnaknow]

Okay, I think I'll tell my friend to avoid using ozone. Why is venting to outside a bad idea in an apartment? Because the window cleaner might be suspicious about the amount of air flow? What if you could find out when the window cleaners are scheduled to come, so that you can switch to internal extraction on that day? Have any of you inquired about when the window cleaners will next come, with a cover of saying that your windows are filthy? Any luck finding out the schedule? Would this make extraction to the outside ok or are there others reasons why you don't do it in a high rise apartment? Thanks.

 

[Irie Islander]

You normally build a "conventional" box and vent outside for two reason.

1. You are creating airflow, while air is being pushed out, cold air can be pulled in, cooling the box. (and aircooled light, since a stream of cold air is always going over the light)

2. Because you have one point of exhaust, you can attach any type of odor control and effectively elimate the stench.

Your typical run of the mill sensi from seedshops tend to be stinky plants, and would definately stink up the place w/ minimal or no odor control, but some strains dont stink that much and those are best for apartment grows (unless you have an effective scrubber or odor control in place)

In your case I would just do some funky type of open box design, vent inside the same room and just ocassionaly open up the window to bring fresh C02 into the room.
If you can spring for an optimum 4000, that way you dont really have to worry about ozone generators, carbon scrubbers and venting outside stealthly. (never had or seen an optimum, but from everybody else's opinion it would be effective enough to be the only odor control for a smallish grow (in sq feet, not wattage). Just put it on the roof the box, in the center, on a setting of 1-3.... right?

But if your carpentry skills are alright, then build a frame infront of the window, and place bamboo shades, or something similar that is tightly spaced, but still allows airflow. Then seal it up, and caulk it. Drill whatever you need to get extraction in their. The bamboo keeps people from seing in and kind of restricts airflow so it could not be too noticable. And there is good enough space in front of the bamboo to place a scrubber. (depending on how big of a box you built infront of the window)

I think it would be extremely windy up there as is, and the window cleaner is probally only thinking of getting the job done and back on the ground then to try and figure out where there is so much airflow coming out of a window. People often do strange and wierd, perfectly legal things.


*edit* Think you might be able to take a pic of the window? Open and closed?

 

[Vermonster]

I manage high rise apartments, look in the bathroom there should be an active vent that is connected to an exhaust on the roof run the air into there. It will simply look like a vent cover in the wall but is actually attached to a vent on the roof ( they are code for Bathrooms where I am at) make sure the air is clean first though especially if there is a roof deck because it vents onto the roof and probably runs through all of the bathrooms of the apartments above you in your line. Irishsoco has a good idea too, that is something I'am about to try myself, i will post pics if possible. However if you have incremental units that go through your wall it would look weird for you to have a window unit and it may be against regulations depending how high up you are....... You could also look for a hollow cavity behind one of your walls a pipe chase or something, behind a sink toilet or even stove ( if it is gas), after all they have to run allot of pipes through those walls. If you have any questions PM me i know the design of high rise buildings very well and may be able to help if you need it. good luck.

 

[BlindDate]

What are you going to do for a veg room?

If venting is that much of a problem run a sealed system with CO2.

You never said how big the room is.

What about existing centra air AC vents? Are you planning to block them off? Do you have them?

Tell us more about your room/apartment. Draw a floor plan.

 

[master shake]

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=61161

I haven't tried this but plan on doing it in my apt. I've got 5 plants under a 400. they've been on 12/12 for 2 days and 3 of them already have a stink that i can smell only in the closet.

 

[waydee]

Since I only run 140watts I just vent into the room the cabinet is in, but if I wanted to run more I can see where the bathroom vent fan ducting runs (right across my bedroom ceiling) so i'd just hook into that duct and vent outside.

 

[Guest]

dude for two 600's go into the DIY thread and look at Ticks Sog'n Box. It's perfect. You have your scrubbers on the outside so the air going out is cleaned. then get a vaportek for the rest of the house.. and keep your ac cool...

you can also look into using your bathroom extractor vent for something?

 

[Deeyou]

I need to get a Vaportek.. Everybody swears by these