loft for venting and electrics

my grow room is 12x10

3 x 600w hps
6" carbon filter and fan

im thinkin about using the loft directly above the room to vent the used air to and to store/house all ballasts extensions plugs timers etc and possibly even intake from too

its a huge loft, nicely insulated and i just want to use it to its full growing-related potential

any ideas? Downfalls? Dangers?

cheers

Loft = attic? I presume so since you mentioned insulation material.

NEVER EVER vent to an attic directly. The attic of your home is more important then people think. The air in your attic acts as a massive 'air pillow' that helps maintain the living space's comfortable temperatures. Moving air in and out of the attic often has a negative effect as this air pillow helps keep it both warm and cold.


Aside from the HVAC efficiency you will take a hit on you should expect mold down the line if you vent to an attic. My father was a custom homes contractor for thirty years, he has seen the results of cannabis growing in attics many times, mold.


Ventilation that dumps directly into an attic is not intuitive. Instead run ducting through the attic and to an outside exhaust hole somewhere.

Pumping humid air into attics results in black mold growth on the underside of the plywood sheeting. Not smart.

Put in a roof vent

Putting ballasts in the hot attic will toast them.

what da Cheese Man said.........

thanks for the advice

i forgot to mention the loft/attic has a window. i could keep this open constantly
does this change anything?

if not, how about using it as an intake area, ducting into the grow room from a fan mounted near the openwindow?
would it then be ok to house the ballasts?

thanks again

and how the hell are you guys 'liking' stuff? i cant see a friggin 'like' button anywhere..

fatboyslimshady said:

thanks for the advice

i forgot to mention the loft/attic has a window. i could keep this open constantly
does this change anything?

if not, how about using it as an intake area, ducting into the grow room from a fan mounted near the openwindow?
would it then be ok to house the ballasts?

thanks again

Click to expand...

Using it as an intake is okay, as long as you are willing to take a little hit in the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling.

Keeping the window open is not a solution unfortunately, inevitable mold unless that air is ducted out.

If you use the attic as an intake area placing ballasts up there wouldn't be a terrible idea. Keep in mind though that your room intake will be a little warner because of this, it may raise your temperatures higher then you wish.


You get the ability to 'like' after some mystic number of posts and other members give you another mystic number of likes. Seriously, the admin has bit releases the specific numbers. Spam measures I suspect.

fatboyslimshady said:

and how the hell are you guys 'liking' stuff? i cant see a friggin 'like' button anywhere..

Click to expand...

You will get a like button when you become a more established member. I think you have to get "liked" a certain amount if times too.

polo the don said:

You will get a like button when you become a more established member. I think you have to get "liked" a certain amount if times too.

Click to expand...

Either that or he performs oral sex on an admin. Lol

fatboyslimshady said:

would it then be ok to house the ballasts?

thanks again

Click to expand...

No.

Outtake through the attic to outside.

Ballasts, in the attic.

Intake from the grow room (not the same place where you have the ballasts) preferably.

fatboyslimshady said:

and how the hell are you guys 'liking' stuff? i cant see a friggin 'like' button anywhere..

Click to expand...

I see you got your "like" privilege.

yep went a bit ott with the likes too..

I vent into my attic. My large room pulls air from the entry way of my detached garage threw hoods into attic. So pretty much just hot air going up but I still have and attic fan hooked up to a thermostat and a humidistat any thing over 85* or 50% rh 2500 cfm clears it out.

If the op ran ac hoods closed loop don't see any problems venting into attic.

fatboyslimshady said:

thanks for the advice

i forgot to mention the loft/attic has a window. i could keep this open constantly
does this change anything?

if not, how about using it as an intake area, ducting into the grow room from a fan mounted near the openwindow?
would it then be ok to house the ballasts?

thanks again

Click to expand...

If the attic is well insulated then I don't see a problem with having your ballasts up there but external roof vents or vents to holes in walls has to be the way. Don't like the idea of leaving windows open at all. Also depends on how paranoid u r about the eye in the sky when venting hot air. I've got a friend in a top floor apartment who cut into drylined walls and had his air going out through the same duct that the kitchen extract went through. We boarded and plastered the new and improved duct work.

The underside of the plywood roof sheathing is cold in the winter. Warm moist air from your grow hits that and condenses. Mold grows. Seen it happen, seen the results.