Closet ventilation

Hey guys, i live in an apartment and was planning to put a tent in a closet in my living room. I under estimated how hot it gets in there even with two 600 watt Led Mars Hydro lights. With the door shut it gets into the 90s/100s. With the door open it only drops it to 80. Im fine with leaving he door open but id still like the option to shut the door if need be like when visitors come over or if the maintenance people need to come in for something.

I was thinking of getting a small portable AC to put inside the tent or in the closet. I know those red to be vented to but if its inside the tent could it just be vented into the coset?

I was also thinking of cutting a 6" hole in the ceiling and venting it into the floor above me. Will that be effective dispersing the hot air or will that eventually fill up with hot air like inside the closet?

Im going to get another fan for an intake and i think that will help bring the temp down but it will only be effective if i keep the door open. If i shut it, it defeats the purpose recycling the hot stale air in the closet back into the tent.

Im just trying to figure out a solution to this before i call it off until i get my own house

Is that a suspended ceiling?

no its not, Its sheet rock. A suspended ceiling would be nice though to disperse the hot air. Since its a sheetrock ceiling, the hot air is only going to go into one of the bays of the floor above. Thats what concerns me of the air backing up and not cooling off fast enough. Im handy so patching the hole when i leave isn't an issue.

Just wasn't sure if someone else has done this before or not

Yea, don't do that then. You would vent moisture and heat into a potentially dead end. Shit's gonna rot in there.

Heres a thought, what if i found the floor joist and split the hole between the two?

I live in a bi-level and got suspended ceilings. Hooked tent to the range hood exhaust. Works brilliant plus hot moist air is normal there so the meter reader don't care either.

You got to get that air outside. Venting all that warm moist air into and enclosed space is going to end in tears. Black mold, sheet rock falling apart and dry rot in any exposed wood is the minimum.

Best to just go with the open door and close it when needed. Turn off the lights to keep the heat from building up until it's safe to open the door again. It does not hurt to put your plants into the dark during their lights on period and having lights on during the dark period only hurts flowering plants. Fine to turn the light on during vegging plants dark time tho it shouldn't become a habit.

roll_one said:

Heres a thought, what if i found the floor joist and split the hole between the two?

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Ok.... now you're venting in two potential dead spaces.

OldMedUser said:

You got to get that air outside. Venting all that warm moist air into and enclosed space is going to end in tears. Black mold, sheet rock falling apart and dry rot in any exposed wood is the minimum.

Best to just go with the open door and close it when needed. Turn off the lights to keep the heat from building up until it's safe to open the door again. It does not hurt to put your plants into the dark during their lights on period and having lights on during the dark period only hurts flowering plants. Fine to turn the light on during vegging plants dark time tho it shouldn't become a habit.

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What you said..

yeah you guys are right, its not good idea. I have some bag seed germinating now and will still give it a shot to see how they do. Ill just make the light schedule to have the lights off when anyone might be over so when i shut the door it won't be as much of an issue. Thanks for the quick replies!

Another quick question. How much of a difference heat wise is it between CFLs and LED. I know quality wise isn't there with CFLs. Just trying to think any options

CFLs work great for vegging but I'm not sure what the difference would be for heat in relation to usable lumens between the two. Maybe veg with CFLs and save the LEDs for flowering.

Another issue if you can't vent outside is odor. Not a big deal during veg with most strains but there are very few that won't stink up the place when flowering. The ones I'm growing now are surprisingly very low odor ate 4 weeks and a couple days.

i have a Phresh air filter and inline fan for the exhaust. I'm pretty sure it should be enough for the smell. i forget the CFM for the filter but the fan is a 400 or a 450CFM and the filter is bigger. The filter is a 6" and the length is 12" i believe. The inline fan has a speed controller and its turned all the way down. i just wanted to build a box around the fan to muffle the sound before i turned it up. Im sure turning it up will help a bunch too.

Why not use a passive exhaust? Instead of into the roof, out through the side wall. Make a passive intake. Pull cool air from the apt and exhaust into the apt as well. Let your Ac handle it.

Whats a passive intake? Like a hole in the wall that goes into another room to let the air exchange freely between the rooms or just running the vents into another room?

A passive intake is just one that doesn't have a fan pushing air into the room. You want to have twice the area for intake as exhaust if it's passive. So for a 4" exhaust you want at least a 6" intake. 4" has an area of 12.6" , 6" has 28.3", 8" is 50.3", 10" is 78.5".

oh ok thats what i thought. My tent has three flaps on the bottom, I'm assuming thats what its for? during veg i dont think having them open would make a difference smell wise but during flower it will won't it? If so how do you stop the smell with those vent flaps open?

As long as your air is being pushed out through your filter and exhaust then air can only come in through the vents near the floor. Your exhaust makes negative air pressure in the tent so air won't go out the floor vents and when the exhaust isn't running most of the stinky warm air is above floor level. The tent I got has the flaps on the inside so they close but not seal when no air is being pulled through them unless they are held up by the velcro tags above the flaps.

That makes sense. The flaps on my tent are on the outside and i just rolled them up and they seem to stay. Theres velcro that holds it close though, just not open. I have a small fan inside the tent to blow air around. The fan is actually made for the corner of a doorway to pull hot air into another room, it was the only small one i could find since its out of season. Should i have a bigger fan in there? i know its good to have one blowing on the plants to make their stems strong. Is there a certain size i you should have inside and where is the best place for it to be pointing? Sorry for all of the questions, i just want to have everything perfect or close to it before putting plants inside.

OldMedUser said:

As long as your air is being pushed out through your filter and exhaust then air can only come in through the vents near the floor. Your exhaust makes negative air pressure in the tent so air won't go out the floor vents and when the exhaust isn't running most of the stinky warm air is above floor level. The tent I got has the flaps on the inside so they close but not seal when no air is being pulled through them unless they are held up by the velcro tags above the flaps.

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I have similar question my 4x4 tent with passive exhaust has 3 approx 4in by 16in removable velcro flaps on the outside of the tent my issue is how do I keep them open and not let light in during my flower period?? I need them open to cool my tent Seems you guys have these tents pretty figured out this is my first run in a tent thxs.

This is my first run with a tent too so i really dont know but Im pretty sure light can still get in because its just a screen when the flaps open right? Maybe with the pots and the plant is above the vent opening. Maybe it won't effect the plant? When the light inside the tent is off and the light is on outside the tent. Can you see if the light hits the plant at all?