haole420
Active Member
this is my first serious attempt at growing indoors. i'm getting my 10x10' room ready for flowering. vegging under HO T5s right now in the closet of that room. planning to run (2) 600watt HPS aircooled tubes similar to what this guy did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnQ9BzVaJ80
for air intake into the room, i plan to just use the existing ducting in the house. this particular room has a 5" insulated duct going to it. i was going to add a booster fan and just let the cool air spill into the room from the vent on the ceiling. i figured that even if the central a/c is off, the fan would still be pulling some (presumably) cooler air into the room. would it be better to upgrade the ducting to 6" or even 8"?
i built a DIY scrubber using instructions found here: http://forums.mycotopia.net/cannabis/8038-diy-carbon-scrubber.html. mine is 24" long and activated carbon trapped between 8" and 6" diameter screen. surface area works out to 4.2 sqft. i used aluminum screen instead of pantyhose and used bamboo/cotton batting on the outside since it's a little less flammable than polyester.
i'm planning to hang the scrubber close to the ceiling, running 6" duct to the bottom of the first tube, coming out the top and into the bottom of the second tube, then out the top again, where it's being pulled by an el cheapo suncourt 6" duct fan rated at 160cfm (free air, unboosted). that should be sufficient to cool (2) 600watt HPS, right?
i was going to run the exhaust into one of several places (with another booster fan pulling from the far end):
1. the dryer vent is very close to this room. i could just pump it out the dryer vent, but i hear police helicopters flying over my neighborhood once or twice a week and am a little paranoid about a strong infrared heat signature constantly being emitted from that vent. yes, technically cops need to have a court order, but...
2. back to the return air duct. issue here is stale air. when the a/c is running, it will mix the air with fresh air coming in from the main return air intake, but when it's not running, it's almost a closed system. it's just going to recirculate the same hot, moist air.
3. out a vent in the laundry room, which is right next to the central a/c thermostat. my rationale is that as the warm air fills the laundry room and spills out the open door, the warm air will kick on the a/c.
4. into the master bathroom, which is always cold due to the fact that it is north facing and the bedroom and bathroom flooring is tile (seems to have a small but noticeable geothermal cooling effect). i'm leaning toward this option since the exhaust fan noise will be isolated to the master bath/bedroom and since no hot air is actually vented outside the house.
is hooking into my central a/c not a good idea? my gut tells me i need more air coming into the room. how/where should i vent? thanks in advance for any advice.
for air intake into the room, i plan to just use the existing ducting in the house. this particular room has a 5" insulated duct going to it. i was going to add a booster fan and just let the cool air spill into the room from the vent on the ceiling. i figured that even if the central a/c is off, the fan would still be pulling some (presumably) cooler air into the room. would it be better to upgrade the ducting to 6" or even 8"?
i built a DIY scrubber using instructions found here: http://forums.mycotopia.net/cannabis/8038-diy-carbon-scrubber.html. mine is 24" long and activated carbon trapped between 8" and 6" diameter screen. surface area works out to 4.2 sqft. i used aluminum screen instead of pantyhose and used bamboo/cotton batting on the outside since it's a little less flammable than polyester.
i'm planning to hang the scrubber close to the ceiling, running 6" duct to the bottom of the first tube, coming out the top and into the bottom of the second tube, then out the top again, where it's being pulled by an el cheapo suncourt 6" duct fan rated at 160cfm (free air, unboosted). that should be sufficient to cool (2) 600watt HPS, right?
i was going to run the exhaust into one of several places (with another booster fan pulling from the far end):
1. the dryer vent is very close to this room. i could just pump it out the dryer vent, but i hear police helicopters flying over my neighborhood once or twice a week and am a little paranoid about a strong infrared heat signature constantly being emitted from that vent. yes, technically cops need to have a court order, but...
2. back to the return air duct. issue here is stale air. when the a/c is running, it will mix the air with fresh air coming in from the main return air intake, but when it's not running, it's almost a closed system. it's just going to recirculate the same hot, moist air.
3. out a vent in the laundry room, which is right next to the central a/c thermostat. my rationale is that as the warm air fills the laundry room and spills out the open door, the warm air will kick on the a/c.
4. into the master bathroom, which is always cold due to the fact that it is north facing and the bedroom and bathroom flooring is tile (seems to have a small but noticeable geothermal cooling effect). i'm leaning toward this option since the exhaust fan noise will be isolated to the master bath/bedroom and since no hot air is actually vented outside the house.
is hooking into my central a/c not a good idea? my gut tells me i need more air coming into the room. how/where should i vent? thanks in advance for any advice.