Ventilation Advice

Hey y'all I'm working on setting up a small grow cabinet. I have an old fiberglass ice chest that came off a small shrimp boat, the inside dimensions are
21 1/4" wide x 23" deep x 45 1/4" tall. The chest has a hinged lid with a gasket so it's light tight and virtually air tight. I plan on having a 4" diameter intake vent at the bottom with a 4" diameter outlet vent on top. Because of space constraints I plan on having my 4" fan and carbon filter outside of the chest. My question is this;
Are the inline carbon filters designed to have air pulled through them, which seems to be the most common practice or can I push air through them? I'd like to pull air out of my chest and my filter at the end of the run, just not sure if the filters were designed to handle it. I'll be using T5 lighting in the vertical (3 sides) with a compact florescent fixture on the overhead so heat shouldn't be a major problem. However I live on the Gulf Coast and my chest will be in an out building and it's stays hot and humid down here most of the year. Also this will be my first time growing, taking in consideration my limited space I was thinking of California Orange Bud, my wife has Multiple Sclerosis so I'm looking for a Indica dominant strain that can handle the heat down here so I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks,

OctK

Goodday Sir,

If you are growing for meds for your wife, I take it you are serious about what you are about to attempt. This assumption is what is leading me to give you the following advice: Abandon the idea of a grow in this cabinet. Heat control is a big issue, as is humidity, both factors are extremely important for a marijuana plant's overall health.
If it is permanently hot, you need climate control, even with T5's. CFL's also can put quite a lot of heat into a box such as this. Unless the outbuilding is climate controlled, you are going to have more problems than it is worth. Also, for security reasons, an outbuilding is not a very good idea. Most rippers/cops will not hesitate to poke a nose in there, whereas your home will have a lot more respect when it comes to this. NEVER use an outbuilding. Legally you will be in the same boat as when growing inside a home if caught. But practically you run a much smaller risk if you keep your security tight.
I do understand the need for good medicine. My advice comes from a place of deep compassion and empathy, from the bottom of my heart to you dear Sir.
Please feel free to PM me and we will design you a suitable setup that will provide your wife with the best medicine possible. I will always assist a fellow ganja head in this cause. And I urge you to be patient, it gets expensive but that is how it rolls, unfortunately. If medicine is your goal, you have no room for messing about. Let's do this properly.
Love and Light to you and yours,
MH

MH,

Well thanks for the advice. You are making an assumption on where I plan to grow that is inaccurate, I'm old and wise enough to make the decision on whether or not my location is secure. Yes in most cases an outbuilding is not the best location, but based on my circumstances, how much property I have, where it is located this is is absolutely the best location for me. I do a remarkable job flying under the radar and I'm confident in my ability to remain there. Thanks for your concern and empathy concerning my wife's illness, but what I'm actually looking for is whether or not one can effectively push air through a carbon filter as opposed to pulling it through. Concerning the heat and humidity in my building, fall is knocking on the door.

Peace be with you,
OctK

From what I remember from my time in the south, even in fall humidity stays over 70%. Hell in Missouri it seemed like humidity got higher in the fall then during the summer. If you throw a temp/humidity gauge in the outbuilding to see what range you are in, can get a much better sense of what will and won't work. If your humidity is over 50% your going to run into all kinds of mold issues. However, dehumidifiers are pretty cheap, and you can easily rig one to drain outside the outbuilding. i would recommend running a dehumidifer either way, as lower humidity will also help your temperature issues a bit as well.

As far as pushing through a charcoal filter. In theory you can, however, all that back pressure will greatly reduce the life of the fan, and you won't get nearly as many CFMS as you would if you were to correctly use the filter. Plain an simple, filters were designed to have air sucked through them. They will function the best and for the greatest period of time and with the highest level of odor control, when used as the manufacturers intended. Another thing to consider is the filters don't like humidity either.

All that being said, I to would recommend you rethink an outbuilding. Not just for security reasons although that's also high on my reasons, but more for climate control reasons. You already said you know it stays hot and humid where you live. I think you will find very quickly that heat is the number 1 thing to control when growing indoor. High heat will kill your yield and your potency, and will make pest control nearly impossible. Spider mites reproduce, someone correct me if my numbers are off, I am going off stoner memory, at a rate roughly 30 times faster when taken from 75 degrees to 90 degrees. They mature faster, lay eggs faster, the eggs hatch faster etc. In that 2ftx2ftx4ft space, even just with CFLS, you are gonna have heat buildup real quick. ESPECIALLY since the grow box you are intending to use is insulated. Its the same thing with fridge grows. All that insulation made to keep the cold in also will keep all the heat in. That's not very much volume to work with for temp control. The nice thing is if your intake air is cool, then it wouldnt take much fan to cool it, but if your intake air isn't 65-70 degrees, its never gonna cool the box down.

-papa