Grow room vs tent

There also quite a bit louder and dont do well with the speed control.The duct style ones that is.

myke said:

The smell will get into your Hvac and blow it all through your house.

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Hi Myke...I lived in Minnesota and became familiar with central heating. Each room must have a fresh air return vent. I don't believe they would set things up with intake in the basement. But I'm not an HVAC guy.

Point is that the odor control issue needs to be aderuate for that 20x20 room.
Good luck,
JD

JohnDee said:

Hi Myke...I lived in Minnesota and became familiar with central heating. Each room must have a fresh air return vent.

JD

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Building codes are different through out the world,pending on furnace type.Natural Gas type mid eff.would have a fresh air intake on the cold air return side.4~6"
High eff type have a direct air into the burner approx 2" Then also a 6~8" going into a heat recovery unit for make up air.So when you turn on your stove vent the return also turns on.
Codes are fussy In my area about this.Im not a hvac guy.

I have a room that i am converting to a grow room. I will put a 6 inch exterior vent through the brick and make it work. I am only scrubbing it to be nice to the neighbors because i dont want anyone knocking to see my 4 plants or so....

I was and am very tempted to get a shorty gorilla tent but.....i can make the room for free. I have 8 sheets of mold tough drywall and everything except a concrete drill long enough to get through the brick...but that will be fixed.

I can then spend the 600 bucks i would have on that tent to upgrade lights....wait a minute....i already did

Tent for the win. No need to control the whole environment for a big room and the reflective walls help.

Yeah I just spent some more time down there and I'm going to get a tent. Will figure a way to exhaust outside the house as well. This is my 1st indoor grow so not sure about temperatures and humidity that are ideal. More to study I guess. I imagine running leds is a lot cooler .. Will exhaust fan need to run all the time or should I be thinking about running off a timer or some thermostat type of situation?

Surfmore72 said:

I'm going to get a tent.

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Sounds like a good idea for the immediate future, easier to maintain the day/night temps, humidity, light and other aspects of growing plants.

Surfmore72 said:

Will figure a way to exhaust outside the house as well.

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Even with the tent, provide a way for outside air to get into the room as well, to replace the air exhausted from the room.

Surfmore72 said:

This is my 1st indoor grow so not sure about temperatures and humidity that are ideal.

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I would recommend obtaining and reading a horticulture bible pertaining to the crop of your choice and keeping a journal or equivalent...from my notes, I aim for 66F to 74F year around with ~65% relative humidity for vegetation and ~50% for flowering.

Surfmore72 said:

Will exhaust fan need to run all the time or should I be thinking about running off a timer or some thermostat type of situation?

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Without knowing all of your requirements and limitations, I suggest you set up a 4' x 4' x ~7' tent with a 200 cfm carbon filter and fan located in the tent, above the lights, exhausting out of the tent into the room, with passive air intake at bottom of tent. I ran a similar set up on a 5 minute on, 5 min. off timer, 24/7. The room the tent is in should have at least passive air intake if you have a powered exhaust.

I would definitely use a tent, specifically so I could filter the intake to prevent mold and bugs.

Surfmore72 said:

I imagine running leds is a lot cooler

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You may actually end up having to add heat to get ideal growth rates.

I run led in the veg room and hps in the flower room.Heat/air fom my flower room goes into my veg room then from there into the mech room then outside weather permitting.

4 x 4 Stealth Tent Grow. You have this HUGE room and only need a small area for what you want. Tent will make it so no one will know it is even there unless you show them. No smell, very little noise and excellent privacy. This is what you will need:

4 x 4 Gorilla Light tent $250. No need to exhaust the air anywhere but outside the tent. So get a nice quiet exhaust fan. 300 cfm for about $150 to $200. I like Whisperquiets. Get a 600 watt hps, Sun system 6" refelector and nanolux 600 watt overdrive ballast...$300. Phresh 400 cfm carbon filter $120. Some good 6" ducting with the heavy vinyl on the outside. No holes in it, much better. https://www.amazon.com/Can-Fan-Max-Vinyl-Ducting/dp/B007FNMMFG
A few clip on 6" fans and you are set. Less than $1k should set you up with some nice stuff, others may choose to go cheaper.

Set the tent up, hang the fans and the hood. Cut 8 feet of duct and connect one end to the reflector and pull the rest thru the hole in the upper side of the tent. Let the duct hang there for now. Put the Phresh filter on the ground and place the Whisperquiet (or other exhaust fan) right on top of the carbon filter. Place the duct you laid on the side onto the intake of the exhaust fan. Make sure the fan is sucking FROM the tent and blowing INTO the filter. Cut another 6' to 8' piece of duct and run it thru the opposite side of the tent and let it hang down the side. Close the tent. You now have created a vacuum. This way everything is right there by the tent.

The air will not only cool the bulb but continuously scrub the air from the inside of the tent. No long duct runs needed as long as the air around the outside of the tent is cool and being replaced and well circulated. A well placed fan a few feet from the tent will circulate air nicely, especially if it is a cool basement. In a 20 by 20 room, with good cooling, you can do about 8 of these tents and no one would see bright lights, notice funny odors, hear loud fan noises. Very quiet and private. Doesn't matter if you are legal or not, no one needs to know what you do but you.

Good luck.

I say Build a room, i started with a tent, then built a 42x36x8', now i have whats more like a large closet i can walk in, close the door, and sit in while i work on plants.

I found standin there with a door or flap open contributes to alot of smell in the house.

Could you build a 6x4? Im glad im bigger now, and i only do 2-4 plants at once

You will need to Have a carbon scrubber.

If you built a room could you buy some kind of cabinet, or cabinets you can mount on the wall outside your room?
Then Make some kind of vent on the bottom or side of the cabinet so the air can get out.

the cabinet makes it less obvious, and cuts the exhaust noise down.

The biggest plus is you can put as many odor gel cans as you can fit in the cabinet to take care of any smell that gets by the scrubber, and it will i promise.

Carbon scrubbers are not 100% effective. And the higher the humidity the less effective they are.

But the odor gel helps alot, i actually use the odor gel cans from lowes, CVS has some good ones too.

Ive done hvac work, i promise you that your system will suck up any smell out of that area and blow it in the house.

My 1st tent i vented outside. I consider venting outside a terrible idea but thats because i have hot humid midwest summers. And for every CFM of air your blowing outside, your also pulling the same CFM back in from the outside. Then your AC has to condition all that air your pulling in. I really noticed the AC working more.

2nd was the 42x36, it used a 390 cfm fan pulling through 25 lbs of carbon, but my house had an odor, i know my amazon delivery and mailman knew. It was always worse during the hot humid spells.

Now my new room vents into a purpose built cabinet i made, it works for my porpose, but a store bought cabinet would look better.

heres my filter pulling out,


It dumps into this


Which contains this


which dumps smelly good air out into the stud cavity behind this peg board.

I’d also say build a nice hidden room but if not at least a tent.
I run 3 boxes/rooms in my laundry room(in Canada)and have had first hand experience with my chimney backdrafting. With as little as 400-600cfm being thrown outside it would make my chimney backdraft. My solution was intakes on butterfly dampers so they open as the house needs air. You can literally open the front door and watch the dampers close instantly.

The next issue was heat because i am letting -40 air into the space. My solution was for Each room to dump it’s exhaust into the next on a perpetual grow.

I also run hps/mh not led I couldn’t imagine keeping temps up with led.

I cant imagine pulling that much air outside no matter what the climate.

Filtering the air and exhausting it inside is a far better option. It might be a little more work, and cost a little more in the initial setup, but the cost Savings on your power bill will far outweigh that.

I would never put an exhausting system like that in with a furnace and water heater anyway. You're just asking to mess the draft of your system up, and start pulling carbon monoxide back in.

PopeyeSpinach said:

I say Build a room, i started with a tent, then built a 42x36x8', now i have whats more like a large closet i can walk in, close the door, and sit in while i work on plants.

I found standin there with a door or flap open contributes to alot of smell in the house.

Could you build a 6x4? Im glad im bigger now, and i only do 2-4 plants at once

You will need to Have a carbon scrubber.

If you built a room could you buy some kind of cabinet, or cabinets you can mount on the wall outside your room?
Then Make some kind of vent on the bottom or side of the cabinet so the air can get out.

the cabinet makes it less obvious, and cuts the exhaust noise down.

The biggest plus is you can put as many odor gel cans as you can fit in the cabinet to take care of any smell that gets by the scrubber, and it will i promise.

Carbon scrubbers are not 100% effective. And the higher the humidity the less effective they are.

But the odor gel helps alot, i actually use the odor gel cans from lowes, CVS has some good ones too.

Ive done hvac work, i promise you that your system will suck up any smell out of that area and blow it in the house.

My 1st tent i vented outside. I consider venting outside a terrible idea but thats because i have hot humid midwest summers. And for every CFM of air your blowing outside, your also pulling the same CFM back in from the outside. Then your AC has to condition all that air your pulling in. I really noticed the AC working more.

2nd was the 42x36, it used a 390 cfm fan pulling through 25 lbs of carbon, but my house had an odor, i know my amazon delivery and mailman knew. It was always worse during the hot humid spells.

Now my new room vents into a purpose built cabinet i made, it works for my porpose, but a store bought cabinet would look better.

heres my filter pulling out,
View attachment 4289766

It dumps into this
View attachment 4289769

Which contains this
View attachment 4289768

which dumps smelly good air out into the stud cavity behind this peg board.
View attachment 4289772

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What kind of carbon were you using 25# of and not negating smell? Was it A.C.? Or just some lump charcoal? My diy filter runs the air for a 4 x 8 flower room and a 4 x 5 veg room with no odor at all. It uses about a # of the A.C. in my filter setup. Lasts 6 to 9 months before even thinking of replacing it. air flows through an 8" duct vertically with about 5" to 6" of A.C. inside of it. A couple prefilters first to keep the ac clean. By A.C. I mean activated carbon. Coconut husk based. My fan moves the air enough to cycle the room 8 to 10 per hour vented into a bigger room. Bigger room vented to exterior, also filtered as a failsafe, only run as needed for RH control. No smell escapes my rooms, ever. Buy 55# bags from www.activatedcarbon.com bag will last me years of smell free growing.

A tent in the room, vented into the room would be easiest and safest. Use a filter system with it, intake and exhaust. I would see the possible need for a dehumidifier in that case, or venting the larger main room in a way so as to not cause issues. Can you make a divider wall? With your setup in the mechanical room Popeye is correct. You would not want to be sucking air out a separate vent for the carbon monoxide reasons he stated. However a low flow fan vented out the same ducting as the heaters exhaust uses would be a safe option as it would be helping to exhaust the fumes they create. Youd have to do a y connection up high so as to not interfere with the appliances. I say this as a contractor who deals with buildings and their various systems every day. Or go the route of a high efficiency furnace and hot water heater as they have their own intakes and exhaust as part of there system. They high efficiency ones don't use house air. You'd then be able to use the old ducting to the outside for whatever venting you'd need or want.

Jesselikes2grow said:

What kind of carbon were you using 25# of and not negating smell? Was it A.C.? Or just some lump charcoal? My diy filter runs the air for a 4 x 8 flower room and a 4 x 5 veg room with no odor at all. It uses about a # of the A.C. in my filter setup. Lasts 6 to 9 months before even thinking of replacing it. air flows through an 8" duct vertically with about 5" to 6" of A.C. inside of it. A couple prefilters first to keep the ac clean. By A.C. I mean activated carbon. Coconut husk based. My fan moves the air enough to cycle the room 8 to 10 per hour vented into a bigger room. Bigger room vented to exterior, also filtered as a failsafe, only run as needed for RH control. No smell escapes my rooms, ever. Buy 55# bags from www.activatedcarbon.com bag will last me years of smell free growing.

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Pellet carbon, it works fine until humidity goes up in summer. When i say humid, I mean the AC ducts that run into the area the grow room is in, sweat like porn star on V iagra...

Why the hell is the word V iagra banned from this forum? Lmao

@PopeyeSpinach Weird word ban. I can swear but can't say the V word. Lmfao. Thats alot of humidity. Its dry as hell here almost always so my scrubber works well. I'm not using pellets, mines granulated, I can look up the mesh size if you'd like. Would a dehuey help your prob you think? Been thinking of adding one to my room for more precise control of RH.

My room is in my basement garage, under my house. Only place i could make one.

2 walls are concrete foundation, but the garage door itself needs replaced, its old, wood, and insulated by me. So it lets alot of humidity in during summer. It's why I decided just to shut it down for the summer.

I have ac from my central air blowing into thr garage. It stays around 75-85 in the summer. But that humidity just beats the crap outta the scrubber.

My avatar pic is a sour diesel i grew, I lost three colas that big to white fuzzy mold. Saw that stuff and pulled em immediately.

I wonder if i can say Vagina?