Ok, so I am almost ready to begin my first stealth grow..........but am racking my brain trying to figure out how to cool the room. It is 6' x 5' or so with a 400 HPS for light. I have no windows in the room and it is not an exterior wall, so cutting out a window unit is out of the question. I thought about venting to the attic but not sure. Has anyone tried this? I have been reading on here and saw something about cooling tubes??? I will begin research on that now. I would really like to get all construction done before I begin so any thoughts, ideas, or unfinished plans you have will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Temp problem
- Thread starter DC2+2
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Bubba Kushman
Well-Known Member
Exhausting into the attic is a good idea. You also need to get fresh air into the room. When you exhaust the air into the attic you can draw air into the room at the same time. You will need a space under the door or another hole on the opposite side of the room. Its best from the floor so it pulls the air across the room which willl cool the best. Good Luck!
Ahhhh.........Good thinking Bubba. Thanks. I was wondering one thing though: if my sealed room fluctuates from 78 to 82 F now, how much will this light really raise the temp? I know this is based on all factors of the room, but just a ballpark figure would help me out greatly. Thanks.
nasd90
Well-Known Member
Congratulations man and welcome to RUI.
I'd say watch out for the attic... You know those damn FLIR's !!
Closet grows are tough, the heat can do you in. Hopefully one of the guys in the closet can help... No offense fella's. Really though, if you can get your hands on a Flux Capacitor I hear they work well.
Peace & REP to you.
nasd90
I'd say watch out for the attic... You know those damn FLIR's !!
Closet grows are tough, the heat can do you in. Hopefully one of the guys in the closet can help... No offense fella's. Really though, if you can get your hands on a Flux Capacitor I hear they work well.
Peace & REP to you.
nasd90
privateaero
Active Member
I cut a hole near the top of the wall and then go to the other side of the wall and cut a hole near the floor and then cover with a heater vent. Someone might ask why your heat is on in the summer though.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere
Well-Known Member
I think you mean cool tubes. it's a light fixture. The light is in a glass tube that is hooked on one end to a fan extracting the heat made by the light. In a sealed room where people use CO2 the intake needs to be outside the room. If you want to hook it up like mine, I put my charcoal filter on the intake and the air gets drawn through it and through both my lights and then is vented out of the room. One small light like that won't get picked up on IR because the heat pattern won't be much more than your water heater.....
Brick Top
New Member
If you vent into your attic check to see if you have PVC stack pipes. If so, and if you are handy, you can cut out a section and install a Y-connection and attach your exhaust line directly to your stack pipe and your exhaust will not build up in your attic and instead be exhausted directly outside.
　
Another thing that can be done to try to mask heat buildup in an attic is to run a long exhaust line that snakes back and forth across/around all or most of the attic space. You seal off what would normally be the exhaust end of the line and poke/punch small holes all along the exhaust line so the heat is dissipated over the broadest possible area so if a heat signature were taken it would appear to be more natural, as in normal built up heat from the sun, and not a hot spot in one area of the attic.
　
Another option is depending on what sort of vents your attic has you can run an exhaust line directly to a vent or better yet if you have a full ridge vent. The heat will escape quickly with minimal buildup. The main problem with either of the last two options is if you are in a winter climate and enough heat will build up to melt snow that would build up on your roof and not melt because of attic insulation. A bare spot on an otherwise snow-covered roof can draw attention. If your home is under insulated and if you are in a winter snow area the snow will melt off anyway so some additional heat will not create a situation that stands out like a three legged race horse.
　
One other option is going down through the floor if you have a crawl space. Because of possible odor buildup a carbon filter would be a very good idea in such a case because meter readers, service workers of some type or another who may be needed to repair a pipe or heat pump heat exchange or something under your home or other types of workers like people who spray homes, including under homes, for termites and other bugs might catch a whiff and figure out what is up and possibly rat you out or tell you to share your crop with them in exchange for keeping their mouth shut or even one day pay you an unannounced visit of a hostile nature and abscond with your crop. Some or all of that might seem to be somewhat far fetched but over the decades I have heard of just about any imaginable unwanted scenario happening.
　
Another thing that can be done to try to mask heat buildup in an attic is to run a long exhaust line that snakes back and forth across/around all or most of the attic space. You seal off what would normally be the exhaust end of the line and poke/punch small holes all along the exhaust line so the heat is dissipated over the broadest possible area so if a heat signature were taken it would appear to be more natural, as in normal built up heat from the sun, and not a hot spot in one area of the attic.
　
Another option is depending on what sort of vents your attic has you can run an exhaust line directly to a vent or better yet if you have a full ridge vent. The heat will escape quickly with minimal buildup. The main problem with either of the last two options is if you are in a winter climate and enough heat will build up to melt snow that would build up on your roof and not melt because of attic insulation. A bare spot on an otherwise snow-covered roof can draw attention. If your home is under insulated and if you are in a winter snow area the snow will melt off anyway so some additional heat will not create a situation that stands out like a three legged race horse.
　
One other option is going down through the floor if you have a crawl space. Because of possible odor buildup a carbon filter would be a very good idea in such a case because meter readers, service workers of some type or another who may be needed to repair a pipe or heat pump heat exchange or something under your home or other types of workers like people who spray homes, including under homes, for termites and other bugs might catch a whiff and figure out what is up and possibly rat you out or tell you to share your crop with them in exchange for keeping their mouth shut or even one day pay you an unannounced visit of a hostile nature and abscond with your crop. Some or all of that might seem to be somewhat far fetched but over the decades I have heard of just about any imaginable unwanted scenario happening.
Brick Top
New Member
Assuming that there is already a heat-a/c duct in the room you can either add a small pusher fan to the line to increase airflow of you can partially close off other vents in other rooms or install inline flow controls in ducts going to other rooms and that will increase the amount of airflow to where you need it more.
Unfortunately no it does not have an existing vent. That is why i am so worried about the temp. I am going to start with an exhaust fan and more than likely add an AC vent from my main system.
Thanks thinkhigh, the only thing with the smaller AC units I have noticed is that most need a vent because of the heat they produce as they chill the air. I did find a very small unit that did not require its own vent but it would not operate at temps above 95F so I kind of ruled that one out. I am thinking put a variable speed 250 CFM just in case i need more movement, but can turn it down if it sucks the paint off the walls. This is actually something I have been meaning to add to my house anyway. With the higher CFM inline fans you can add more than one room and use a damper system so I can finally vent my garage and AV closet like I have wanted to do for 5 yrs.
Great feedback guys. Keep it coming!