cable/cord management in a sealed flower room ??

I am building an insulated and sealed flower room. I want to locate my lighting controller and ballasts and anything that may generate heat above this room in the attic area.

So, I need to find a good way to be able to run the light cords down into the flower room. The lid on the flower room will be plywood with insulation.

Does anyone have a good way to run cables into a sealed room without creating a new penetration that my be a leaking point for my good CO2 enriched air, etc?

Do they may a grommit or something that may be designed to run cables into/out of a sealed room?

Thank you!

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/181708-experienced-electrician-here-answer-any.html

Read this thread

I imagine they have big grommets but they wont fit your cords very well. Your best bet is to get a hole saw attachment for your drill that is just a hair bigger than your biggest plug. Drill the hole where you want it, install the cables and then you could use metal tape to seal it all up. Metal tape works great, no light, air or co2 leaks. I cant think of a way to put cables through to a ceiling without putting a hole in the ceiling.
Hope this helps
BigBudE

redburns said:

I am building an insulated and sealed flower room. I want to locate my lighting controller and ballasts and anything that may generate heat above this room in the attic area.

So, I need to find a good way to be able to run the light cords down into the flower room. The lid on the flower room will be plywood with insulation.

Does anyone have a good way to run cables into a sealed room without creating a new penetration that my be a leaking point for my good CO2 enriched air, etc?

Do they may a grommit or something that may be designed to run cables into/out of a sealed room?

Thank you!

Click to expand...

you could do what we do in the world of construction.....
its called fire caulking
a cable entry point into a sealed room provides a draft, for several reasons, the biggest ones being temp and pressure differentials between a room and a corridor/hall. this draft, is just enough to feed a smoldering fire, to keep it lit, so that a backdraft condition occurs if the room was to be vented to outside air suddenly, like when someone opens a door.
to overcome this, a firestop sleeve is used. a firestop is nothing fancy, its just a length of pipe barely longer than the wall its penetrating, if it was a 4" thick wall, your pipe would be 6" long... just long enough to get through the wall and leave an inch on either side. then, the edges around the hole you drilled to get the pipe in, and between the pip itself, are sealed with caulk. if you do it right, you now have a caulked pip going into your room. the wire goes through the pipe, and after you are completely done, and everything is wired up and stapled/secured, go back to the sleeve, and from both sides, caulk the area of the pipe remaining that the wire does not fill.

here is an example, this is a manufactured firestop, but its the same thing. instead of that round flange on the base close to the wall, you just use caulk and a peice of pipe...



its easier if you put as many cables in one penetration as you can fit, fyi....... you can them strap them to the ceiling to jkeep them neat, instead of having a penetration for every light

IAm5toned said:

you could do what we do in the world of construction.....
its called fire caulking
a cable entry point into a sealed room provides a draft, for several reasons, the biggest ones being temp and pressure differentials between a room and a corridor/hall. this draft, is just enough to feed a smoldering fire, to keep it lit, so that a backdraft condition occurs if the room was to be vented to outside air suddenly, like when someone opens a door.
to overcome this, a firestop sleeve is used. a firestop is nothing fancy, its just a length of pipe barely longer than the wall its penetrating, if it was a 4" thick wall, your pipe would be 6" long... just long enough to get through the wall and leave an inch on either side. then, the edges around the hole you drilled to get the pipe in, and between the pip itself, are sealed with caulk. if you do it right, you now have a caulked pip going into your room. the wire goes through the pipe, and after you are completely done, and everything is wired up and stapled/secured, go back to the sleeve, and from both sides, caulk the area of the pipe remaining that the wire does not fill.

here is an example, this is a manufactured firestop, but its the same thing. instead of that round flange on the base close to the wall, you just use caulk and a peice of pipe...

Click to expand...

Hey, thank you. That makes perfect sense. I'll use some pvc and some fire rated caulking. My next question became, what happens in the future when I want to add more lights, but I would guess that I would simply create a new sleeve. So, when my room is maxed out, I'll probably have a total of 3 sleeves each with 2 light cables in them. As long as they are all sealed up nicely, shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again. That really helps.

you dont have to use fire caulk, you can use el cheapo white latex caulk if you want... its alot easier to knock out of the pipe to get new wires in later on, than removing firecaulk. firecaulk is very expensive, and not really needed for what your trying to do.... fire caulk melts but does not burnas it gets hot, thats what makes it so expensive, you can get away with the cheap stuff for this.

IAm5toned said:

you dont have to use fire caulk, you can use el cheapo white latex caulk if you want... its alot easier to knock out of the pipe to get new wires in later on, than removing firecaulk. firecaulk is very expensive, and not really needed for what your trying to do.... fire caulk melts but does not burnas it gets hot, thats what makes it so expensive, you can get away with the cheap stuff for this.

Click to expand...

Perfect. I have some of the cheap stuff lying around.

So, if I want to put one 'sleeve' in that would eventually accomodate (6) 1000 watt light cords without too much trouble, what size would that be?

2 inch pvc? bigger?

Thanks.