Can any1 help me figure out my room situation?

widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
Using my garage. I have disconnected a central a/c duct from one of the registers in my house, and ran it into my garage to add cool air. Next to where the central a/c duct comes into the grow room, I cut a larger hole that leads to under the house for a passive air intake. placed a 10 x 20 inch filter over that hole to filter incoming air from outside. I also have the exhaust vent fan hooked up to a carbon filter which blows through the ceiling into the attic.

Here are the issues i'm having, the central ac duct blows a/c in whenever the thermostat (which is inside the house) kicks it on. When this happens and the exhaust fan isn't on, it creates positive pressure in the room thus leaking the smell outside my garage.

On the flip side when the exhaust kicks on to cool the room, usually the ac is on also, and the cold air coming through the central gets sucked rite out through the exhaust.

Does anybody have an idea as to how to use my houses central ac and a exhaust fan together?
 
M

mississippi

Active Member
ozone generator for the garage.... and a small fan in the room blowing the cool around so it doesent get sucked straight out
 
dudeface

dudeface

Active Member
maybe a carbon filter as an active scrubber all the time? You may be able to seal the lights in ducting to separate their heat from the garage to change the scale of your heat problem.
 
widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
the smell isn't reallly what concerns me. The real issue i was worried about was co2 leaking out of the room when the a/c turns on. But now that i think about it, a/c probably wont be turning on at night which is when the lights/co2 are on. Maybe i CAN get away with how its setup rite now. I like the ozone gen idea tho to cover up smell when ac turns on and leaks the air outside. thanks for the replys
 
CaptainCAVEMAN

CaptainCAVEMAN

Well-Known Member
Ozone is not good for your plants. I'd recommend a carbon filter in the room with a fan attatched so it is scrubbing the air.
 
S

shizz

Well-Known Member
i recommend you put your house back together. and put in a air unit in your garage. window unit or cut a hole and put one in. also seal it. grow tents or just a big box made out of cardboard. or something. seal it up more. and put in yur vents.
 
WeeGogs

WeeGogs

Active Member
widowman64 said:
Using my garage. I have disconnected a central a/c duct from one of the registers in my house, and ran it into my garage to add cool air. Next to where the central a/c duct comes into the grow room, I cut a larger hole that leads to under the house for a passive air intake. placed a 10 x 20 inch filter over that hole to filter incoming air from outside. I also have the exhaust vent fan hooked up to a carbon filter which blows through the ceiling into the attic.

Here are the issues i'm having, the central ac duct blows a/c in whenever the thermostat (which is inside the house) kicks it on. When this happens and the exhaust fan isn't on, it creates positive pressure in the room thus leaking the smell outside my garage.

On the flip side when the exhaust kicks on to cool the room, usually the ac is on also, and the cold air coming through the central gets sucked rite out through the exhaust.

Does anybody have an idea as to how to use my houses central ac and a exhaust fan together?
Click to expand...
yes buy a small portable a.c. unit or fan system with built in room thermostat they are cheap on ebay, to run two rooms with different climate control from 1 thermostat and a.c. unit is totally 100% impossible you may get away with connecting the house a.c.fan wiring directly to your exhaust fan but i doubt it it will work in the long run as when the air conditioning comes on the exhaust fan does too in your garage when your house gets cold and it switches off your garage might feel like a freezer, as it is practically a seperate vacuum flask that the air conditioning thermostat knows nothing about and cannot control, now that is a hidden grow room.
 
L

LionsRoor

Well-Known Member
widowman64 said:
Does anybody have an idea as to how to use my houses central ac and a exhaust fan together?
Click to expand...
There is no way to make this work. The AC and the exhaust fan do no share the same environment. It is probably best to get another AC dedicated to the grow. Leave your house environment controller and ducting in tact. As you already have an outside air intake, you do have some options to coordinate cooling. Ideally, your grow would be cooled with cooler ambient air from outside if it has a temp diff of 5 or more degrees, but if the outside temps rise above 70F or so you would no longer have enough of a temp diff to cool the zone, so you would then need to switch to AC cooling (and CO2 supplementation as necessary and affordable). This type of orchestration may be accomplished through temp/hygro controllers and electronic dampers -- and air handlers for lager ops.
 
widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
ill post some pictures tonight showing how its setup rite now. looks like i might have to go with an a/c unit but i really dont want too. the garage is not insulated, however i did go around with a couple cans of foam insulation and sealed up all the cracks and between the bricks and drywall. lights are off during the day and the temp is about 75-78 degrees. Do you think these night temps will affect my girls?
 
widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
WeeGogs said:
yes buy a small portable a.c. unit or fan system with built in room thermostat they are cheap on ebay, to run two rooms with different climate control from 1 thermostat and a.c. unit is totally 100% impossible you may get away with connecting the house a.c.fan wiring directly to your exhaust fan but i doubt it it will work in the long run as when the air conditioning comes on the exhaust fan does too in your garage when your house gets cold and it switches off your garage might feel like a freezer, as it is practically a seperate vacuum flask that the air conditioning thermostat knows nothing about and cannot control, now that is a hidden grow room.
Click to expand...

portable a/c unit to cool a 4500 cu ft room that's not insulated will not be cheap!
 
widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
LionsRoor said:
There is no way to make this work. The AC and the exhaust fan do no share the same environment. It is probably best to get another AC dedicated to the grow. Leave your house environment controller and ducting in tact. As you already have an outside air intake, you do have some options to coordinate cooling. Ideally, your grow would be cooled with cooler ambient air from outside if it has a temp diff of 5 or more degrees, but if the outside temps rise above 70F or so you would no longer have enough of a temp diff to cool the zone, so you would then need to switch to AC cooling (and CO2 supplementation as necessary and affordable). This type of orchestration may be accomplished through temp/hygro controllers and electronic dampers -- and air handlers for lager ops.
Click to expand...
the other option i have is to rewire the house's thermostat into the garage. Do you think that would work?
 
pazuzu420

pazuzu420

Well-Known Member
I would disconnect the direct line to the A/C and use passive intake from a cool room in your house. Seeing as you can get to the ductwork this should be easy. You could as a suggestion connect your passive intake to a register in a room the is getting adequate cooling already. This way you set a temp controller on you exhaust fan which in turn will pull cool air from the house when need to cool the grow room. There are some other suggestions I have but this is by far the cheapest...
 
widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
pazuzu420 said:
I would disconnect the direct line to the A/C and use passive intake from a cool room in your house. Seeing as you can get to the ductwork this should be easy. You could as a suggestion connect your passive intake to a register in a room the is getting adequate cooling already. This way you set a temp controller on you exhaust fan which in turn will pull cool air from the house when need to cool the grow room. There are some other suggestions I have but this is by far the cheapest...
Click to expand...


thats a great idea! bbut hold up a minute ill take those pics.
 
S

shizz

Well-Known Member
no pictures needed. put your house back. build a box around your plants. and mount a regular window air unit in it. plywood works. i built mine out of 2x4 and silver insulation. works great. only way your going to keep tempt regulated
 
S

shizz

Well-Known Member
. you can bulid a small box in the corner. run your exhaust fan to the box. place ac unit in the box. so that the exhaust from the ac is drawn out. prob going to have to be like a 4x4 box.
 
pazuzu420

pazuzu420

Well-Known Member
The box will work also. It is like drawing air from another temp controlled room. So the black line comming I take it is what is hooked up to the AC unit? Disconnect it from the end and reconnect it to a register in another room.
you could just put an intake vent on the otherside of the wall, which I imagine is temp controlled room, and use it as passive intake to draw in cool air.
If you had a couple extra bucks you could just run ductwork through those aircooled hoods and connect them to the a/c vent with it's own fan dumping into the ceiling. This would create a closed loop system for the lighting, enabling you to get rid of all that heat as well as maintain the rest of the grow area in Co2 acceptable conditions. Just so you know there would be no need for odor control on the lighting loop as if it is put together correctly you won't draw in odor....
 
I

infinitescrog

Active Member
widowman64 said:
portable a/c unit to cool a 4500 cu ft room that's not insulated will not be cheap!
Click to expand...
Running your AC from your house, being sucked into your uninsulated garage, will not be cheap! e-l-e-c-tricity. I vote you run the scrubbed air back into your house via a floor register, that way, the house thermostat can get a feel for the garage and it's not just WASTING all that A/C. It's going to cost u like $250/mo in the summer if it gets to >85F if you leave it how you have it.

On a totally different note, I REALLY hope you UNPLUGGED that garage door opener lol....so you never accidentally open it...
 
widowman64

widowman64

Well-Known Member
pazuzu420 said:
The box will work also. It is like drawing air from another temp controlled room. So the black line comming I take it is what is hooked up to the AC unit? Disconnect it from the end and reconnect it to a register in another room.
you could just put an intake vent on the otherside of the wall, which I imagine is temp controlled room, and use it as passive intake to draw in cool air.
If you had a couple extra bucks you could just run ductwork through those aircooled hoods and connect them to the a/c vent with it's own fan dumping into the ceiling. This would create a closed loop system for the lighting, enabling you to get rid of all that heat as well as maintain the rest of the grow area in Co2 acceptable conditions. Just so you know there would be no need for odor control on the lighting loop as if it is put together correctly you won't draw in odor....
Click to expand...

yea originally i was going to vent the lights with that ac duct but when all my lights are on, temp isn't an issue. The real problem is when they are off, the plants night time temps are at 78 and about the same when the lights are on
 
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