Plannin a nice room, need some help, intake,exhaust, ballasts etc.

Hong Chong said:

so what is a remote ballast, is that electronic? Ive found some sites with lumatek and galaxy electronics but then the rest of the ballast companies have remote ballasts, that just another word for electronic?

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Hong Chong said:

I'm in the plannin stage of a little room, I know I want the full deal, carbon filter, perfect vent system, and so on, to help anyone out who can answer these questions, well say the room is about 8x8 or 10x10, I'm thinkin intake in the window bringin in fresh air? Then exhausted into another room and out that window. It'll have a couple 600's with a dual ballast. Ventilation system will be same as any other with a carbon filter. I also need to know what size of filter to use, maybe someone has a reference guide for that? So anyway thats what I'm thinkin for the room, with timers and all but heres my main questions;

1)What is the difference between passive and active intake? I read that passive has no intake fan and active has to be pretty precise but I need it layed out in simple form.

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Sounds like you have it in simple form. Passive intake should be twice the size of your active exhaust. Active intake should be slightly less than you active exhaust. If you blow more air in then you pull out, it will flow out of every crack and avoid your carbon filter, not good. The size of the filter and fan are determined by the cubic feet in the room so mulitply your height by the sq.ft. to get cu.ft., the manufactureres will tell the capacity.

2)What is the differenece between a power fan and a blower? I think vortex is a power fan and Ive heard good things about it but whats the difference between that and the blowers? And why are the blowers so much cheaper? Are they used for intake or exhausting air?

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Blower usually refers to a fan the is not 'inline', your furnace and air conditioner use 'blowers'. 'Inline' fans come in three different flavors, axial, Centrifical and Mixed flow or Vortex (which I think is a trademark name?). If you look at a side view of all three fans you can see a Vortex or mixed flow fan is an axial fan mounted in a chamber with smaller ducts on both ends. This additional fan size, mounted in the smaller duct creates air pressure. In order to put this all together and have it be relatively quite, they do have to build in some quality. The blowers are cheaper because they cost less to build. They are designed to pull air into the sides and blow it out the front.

3)What is a conversion bulb?
its a bulb that will work in a different type of ballast, an example would be a HPS Conversion bulb, This bulb would work in a MH ballast.

4)What is an environmental controller and where can I get one? I know they control things like lights and fans but I can't find too much info on em.

Uhh....it controls the environment. Hydro shop.

5)Can I get a dual (2-lamp) ballast that I can also switch from MH to HPS bulbs?

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My question would be why would you want too. If you are going to set up a 10 x 10 grow room you will not need mh lights. They will be a waste of money, IMO. Al B Fuct is harvesting 3# a month or more from a room that size with 2-1000 watt air cooled lights a 400watt hps for the mothers and 3-2bulb 18watt floros over the clones. You will not want to be running four tables too harvest from vegging all at once and then starting over will you??

and finally, how hard is it to setup this setup, basically just hook the ballasts up to the lights and put them on a timer. And then also setup the intake and exhaust to the ducting and a carbon filter? Is it do-able for a person with no experience>?

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All of what you are discussing here is fine, setting up the air handling sytem is overlooked by a lot of folks until they have to deal with the heat issues. That is only one of the components of the physical plant you need. The others are the electric, plumbing and sewer systems. You will want these all in place before you start throwing a few lights in there. I recommend a minumum of one (20 amp) circuit for each big light, and at least 4 circuits not dedicated to lights. 20amp circuits need 12ga wire which will be more efficient than the 14ga normally used for lights in a residential structure. And will supply enough to run a fan or a pump etc. with out blowing the breaker. Its take more than a few gallons of water to run this type of operation. You will not want to be hauling buckets and having hoses laying around on the floor. And of course there will be some water your done with that needs to be gotten out of the room.

I would suggest you take a look at some journals posted by folks that have set up this type of operation, many include pictures. And there are other options for lights you may want to consider, that is a whole other subject at this point.
Yep, its doable by a person with no growing experience, as long as you have knowledge of plumbing, electric, air handling, pumps, etc. or know where to get the information. Rollitup posted setups for grow rooms from simple to professional that may help you visualize all of this better, may want to look for that one. VV

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5)Can I get a dual (2-lamp) ballast that I can also switch from MH to HPS bulbs? My question would be why would you want too. If you are going to set up a 10 x 10 grow room you will not need mh lights. They will be a waste of money, IMO. Al B Fuct is harvesting 3# a month or more from a room that size with 2-1000 watt air cooled lights a 400watt hps for the mothers and 3-2bulb 18watt floros over the clones. You will not want to be running four tables too harvest from vegging all at once and then starting over will you??

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