What would you do with this room?

[hush]

So the more I think about it, it's becoming very obvious that, in terms of taking the easy way out, a tent inside of the room would be the best option. I'm thinking maybe a 1000w in a DR120 (4'x4'). 9 plants on a flood and drain table. Does that sound about right? Or should I go with a larger tent?

My ultimate goal, in the end, is to be able to produce about 3 pounds a year. That's the amount that my wife and I consume each year. So I either need to be able to do one harvest of 3 lbs, or 3 harvests of a lb each. I figure, since I like gardening, I don't mind gardening all year round... but the way I've been doing it for so long now, with small grow cabs, is kind of like the cannabis equivalent of living paycheck to paycheck. It gets a little nerve-racking sometimes. I would like the peace of mind of having a little excess.

Thank you to all who chime in here.

 

[5th]

Okay, so all the modifications I'm seeing have nothing to do with sealing the odor off... they are just ways of using window bangers as portable AC units, right?

No. Your definately missing something.

The reason for the mod's is two-fold...odour and air flow control.

 

[hush]

I sure have my work cut out for me then. Does anyone know if there are any known models of air conditioner that come from the factory being sealed up from the outside world? Or would they all need modifications?


That might be another reason to just run a tent inside of the room. I could just slap a window unit right in the window and plug it in and turn it on. Done. Then, I would have a "regular" setup in the tent, with a carbon filter in the exhaust. The more I think about it the more it seems like this should work just fine? I know it will cost more money to have to buy a tent, but doing a bunch of modifications isn't all that appealing to me, only because I barely have a lot of spare time as it is.

 

[5th]

Provided you scrub the air coming out of the tent (like you mentioned you would) I also think your setup using a tent within the room is the best option.

I have no doubt that with a 1000w you wouldn't reach your goal.

Good luck

 

[anon0988]

Beyond that, creating slight negative pressure with a small speed controlled exhaust fan thru a dryer vent & charcoal filter would be good. Whatever air leaks in gets scrubbed before going out. It's easy enough to knock a hole in the block, mortar in a dryer vent. You really want very low flow if you're using an A/C unit.

As someone who is final chopping his first crop (2'x4' box with 3 plants) tonight I can tell you that if odor control is important you need to plan in advance. A simple fan with carbon filter exausted through a dryer vent to outside will still smell outside during flower. With my 3 plants and the fan controlled to low speed pulling straight from a carbon filter and pushing out a dryer vent you could smell it sometimes up to like 20 feet away from the vent. Luckily this was a location that was secure enough that it wasn't an issue, but in future grows I'm going to focus on odor control based on this experience. So in summary: if odor control is a must, don't vent outside through a dryer vent if you're only running a single carbon filter.

 

[Jhhnn]

As someone who is final chopping his first crop (2'x4' box with 3 plants) tonight I can tell you that if odor control is important you need to plan in advance. A simple fan with carbon filter exausted through a dryer vent to outside will still smell outside during flower. With my 3 plants and the fan controlled to low speed pulling straight from a carbon filter and pushing out a dryer vent you could smell it sometimes up to like 20 feet away from the vent. Luckily this was a location that was secure enough that it wasn't an issue, but in future grows I'm going to focus on odor control based on this experience. So in summary: if odor control is a must, don't vent outside through a dryer vent if you're only running a single carbon filter.

I'd suggest that you re-examine your fan/filter combo. I use a Soler & Palau TD 125 & a Phat 4X20 filter for exhaust odor undetectable to humans. That's with some rather odoriferous varieties. The restrictions in the light & ducting bring the cfm down under 175, which is the filter's recommended limit.

http://phatfilter.com/what-size-phat-filter-do-i-need/

http://www.amazon.com/Soler-Palau-TD-125-In-line-Exhaust/dp/B0027E3Q6M

For hush's purposes, he doesn't need anywhere near that airflow to maintain negative pressure in the room with a window A/C. He needs very low flow just to insure that whatever air exits has been scrubbed. It's not for cooling, at all. Low flow means greater contact time in the carbon filter which means better odor control.

Capische?

 

[anon0988]

So you're saying that's possible to completely eliminate odor with just a single Phat filter? I'm wondering if maybe the carbon filter I bought was just junk? Here is a link to the exact filter I bought. Also, how is that style of fan for volume?

 

[hush]

Okay. So after serious consideration, I've decided what I will do is hook up a window unit, right into the window, and use a tent inside of this room. I think it would make sense, actually, for my air conditioner to exchange with the outside air, because it seems to me that would make sure the inside of this air conditioned room has a constant supply of fresh co2. Can anyone confirm this for me? Or will I still have to inject co2 in there?

My next question is this... Knowing that I can fit a 5' x 5' tent in this room, should I do an open-bulb vertical 1000w grow in one of those? Or should I just do a horizontal 1000w grow in a 4x4? I have never had the luxury of growing in a 65 degree room before, so I don't know if that will allow me to use an open, suspended bulb type of setup? Or will I still need to use air cooled reflector? I feel silly asking, but that's how noobish I am with larger indoor grows.

The plan is to have the window unit keep the temperature around 65 degrees or so, then have a tent in there with a passive intake and active exhaust, pulling the air through a 6" carbon filter on its way out. In my experience, on smaller tents and closets, properly matched carbon filters are 99.9% effective at removing odors and maintaining stealth, so I wouldn't mind any air exchange between the room and the outside. I think?

How does that sound?

 

[PrivateAero]

My 2 cents.
Ditch the tent idea, build a mud room or foyer that can double as a lung room if necessary. If your going to sink serious money into this just get a mini split. If not get a window banger and open it up and use packaging tape and caulk etc. to seal the styrofoam. The water that leaks out is going to smell, and new ac try to evaporate as much as possible, block off the path running back outside and tilt ac forward and drain in a bucket inside room. F the hoods and inline fans, just get 5k btu per thousand Watter. I'd run 3 thousands in that space, maybe 2. If you're going to put the money into controlling the environment you might as well capitalize on all available space, and sell a little to pay electric. Plus having extra to cure a couple months is always nice. My 2 cents and it'll cost a lot but once its done you'll have a proper grow room. Btw run a scrubber bolted to the ceiling for odor, if anyone smells a faint odor they just thinksomeone is smoking down.

Privateaero

 

[hush]

That's a lot of good info there, thank you. So, what I'm thinking, though, is that using a tent would actually serve the purpose of this light tight foyer, only I won't have to build or fabricate anything. Isn't this an accurate assessment? I know I have to spend money on a tent this way, but I think it's a better investment than spending my time and sub-par construction skills on building a foyer.

But I feel like the end result is the same when using a tent, right? I would open up the outside door, walk into my dimly lit "laundry room" and then close the door behind me... Then, I would open the tent and do my thing.

I'm not very handy when it comes to construction. It's a sad truth i've had to accept in my adult life. I'm badass with electricity, and electronics, circuitry, that kind of thing... But when it comes to construction... Let's just say I measure twelve times and still get the cut wrong!

Also, I don't think I want to take the chance of having more than 1 x 1000w in terms of overloading circuits. I might upgrade to such a stage later on down the road, but I need this to involve the least amount of construction and home upgrades as possible. I just redid the floors throughout the entire house and that was expensive, and that was with me doing all the labor. So I have to keep this growing upgrade as minimal as possible.

So, I'm thinking a 5 x 5 tent (I think that's the DR150?) with an open bulb 1000w suspended in there. Six to eight plants in a donut growing up around it. Soil or hempy buckets. Any thoughts?

I really appreciate all that good info, privateaero. I also like the idea of tilting the window unit forward so the water drains into the room... I wasn't aware that the condensation water would smell of terpenes? Is that true? I could always put a dryer sheet over the air conditioner so that it smelled like a laundry room...

 

[Jhhnn]

I have no experience with vertical grows, but it seems to me that they usually involve larger scale w/ multiple bulbs. No experience w/ CO2, either. A 5x5 tent w/ 1000w horizontal vent hood, a window A/C & the usual odor control will get you up & running quickly w/ good results. It's a reasonable straight up off the shelf deal.

As you develop a stash you can consider other possibilities. Considering usual pot prices, just using the tent once & throwing it away justifies the expense. The A/C condensate won't smell like much of anything if you use odor control in the tent.

 

[Stress_test]

6'X8' ?

Easy... Since you already have the AC covered...

2Kw, a stadium, a DuoStat temp/humidity fan controller.

Cover the window w/ plywood... Cut 2 4" holes for ducting on each end of the board. The only issue I see is that the intake and discharge are pretty close together and might cause recirculation of hot/humid air. Louvered covers outside may help prevent that.

Then build an active carbon filter, kinda like the one in this thread https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=63624

 

[hush]

The more I research, the less I know, it seems...

Am I understanding this correctly?... Window air conditioners don't exchange air with the outside, right? So, doesn't that mean the only proper way to use them is to seal the grow and supplement with CO2?

Well, I've decided I don't want to bother with CO2 yet. So that means, I have to have air exchange with the outside world. But if I use a window unit, I would have to also install intakes and exhaust for an additional fan that would have to run, just in order to keep fresh air in there. And the whole point of going with a window unit was so that I could do minimal construction, and avoid knocking through the concrete block for exhaust.

So, I have been reading up on air exchange in the home, and after everything I've read it seems that a single-hose portable A/C would actually (surprisingly) be just what I'm looking for... which is essentially one single unit that will air condition this 240 cubic foot space, while simultaneously replenishing fresh air.

Does any of this make any sense? I feel like such an idiot right now, I just can't seem to wrap my head around cooling AND air exchange together.

Thanks for everyone's help here. You guys are the best.

 

[hush]

I'm beginning to wonder if you can't use air conditioning unless you go the co2 in a sealed room method? How do you supply fresh air for plants in a air conditioned room? I'm so confused...

Maybe I'm not meant to upgrade yet.

 

[5th]

Nah man you got it this... 1000w vert, 5x5 tent.

Your over thinking this CO2 thing...

Of course using CO2 (properly timed/ppm/etc) would be a good thing but its far from a deal breaker.
You said you didn't wanna break the bank building your room....so don't. Obviously you'd spend your money on a quality tent, bulb, ballast set up...
See how the new spot works for you for a bit....if it ends up being a great spot and you feel like pumping out the herb you can always upgrade the place...have a bangin' set up like Stress up there.

 

[hush]

I do overthink things a lot.

Thank you for your help. I just don't like wasting money. I'm not broke, but I'd like to keep it that way, lol. Thanks agian!

 

[PrivateAero]

Just wondering howeverything is going.

Privateaero

 

[hush]

Hey thanks for bumping this thread. I forgot about it, lol. I made so many new threads around the same time as this one... So, yeah, I got it all set up, and you can click on the 1000w link in my sig to follow along. Cheers!

 

[sneaky_g]

I'm confused as well.. i dont run c02 in a 4k watt flower , and i use 2 6" exhaust fans running through my hoods.. The only intake I have with the door closed I believe is from my AC unit .. am I doing something wrong? Do i need to add a small 4" intake fan from teh rest of the house?

 

[sneaky_g]

andre nickatina - killa whale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxBC3pv2VQ