Drilling a hole in the side of my house

Savvy1

Active Member
I'm going to ask a question I haven't seen anybody else here yet, what state do you live in? I don't give a shit about laws I'm more curious about what your climate is?

Realize that whatever are your pushing out, whatever cubic feet per minute you're pushing out, your also sucking in from outside.

I tried a vented for my first grow with the same fears you have, and I will never do it again. Pretty sure I spent more trying to keep things cool while constantly sucking in hot summer outside air.

If your somewhere with high humidity, heat, or extreme cold any of the times you're wanting to grow, you may have a really rough time at it.

I grow in my garage in Southern Illinois now, I use a filtration system that blows into a cabinet that I keep odor gel in. I have no smell issues. But even still, I only grow in the garage August-May and try to harvest and be shut down by May 1st due to the humidity from mid May to October. 100% in summer here,

Just north of seattle where it's never too hot, to humid. My temps range up and down but not to extreme. Again I have a wife factor and am choosing to run exhaust outside and intake fresh as well. I've worked this very setup before and am adapting it to my specific environment. I'll post my install after the weekend.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I used an old ryobi cordless.Worked fine. Just have to make sure to apply even pressure to not dig into one side or another. Those old pistol grip corded drills will break a wrist lol.
When I was drilling holes like that I was going through a rim joist that was doubled up 2x12. That was hard drilling lol. Had to drill through the first board and pull the puck out of the bit then go back in for the next board. The bit loved to bind up and try to twist the drill so I wore gloves and made sure my hands wouldn't get caught up or mashed Going through a sheet of plywood is way easier.
 

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
When I was drilling holes like that I was going through a rim joist that was doubled up 2x12. That was hard drilling lol. Had to drill through the first board and pull the puck out of the bit then go back in for the next board. The bit loved to bind up and try to twist the drill so I wore gloves and made sure my hands wouldn't get caught up or mashed Going through a sheet of plywood is way easier.
Oh yeah, I was talking plywood rather than a joist. You still could probably make it with a cordless with 4 or 5 batteries and an afternoon lol. Yeah, when I worked for an old timer electrician, he had a Milwaukee pistol grip drill. I always avoided that and went with the 90° Milwaukee drill for tough going. Nice low speed so if it did bind up, it didnt take your arm with it lol.
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
No shit!! I have some cornbread clones that reek in veg.
They fact many inexperienced growers and even some experianced growers forget is that people adapt to smells they are around a lot.
You think a cow rancher smells the cow shit like a tourist? Nope.

Same with this, people growing it dont smell it like people walking by the house do.
Same with smokers, they dont smell the erb on their clothes but everyone else does
 

Savvy1

Active Member
So this is the blueprint for my exhaust situation. Questions on this is do you think the 6" booster fan is necessary or beneficial. Or would I be better off putting a 4" booster between the 4" reducer to dryer vent. Appreciate all the feedback, it's nice to have cannabis grow think tank to bounce crazy ideas off of.20190815_094645.jpg would be using the booster fan merely for supplemental air flow to act in conjunction with my main 8" exhaust/w carbon filter. My tent is located directly by the garage wall I'm using so my overall duct length is fairly minimal with few bends.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
booster fan is more likely a restriction as is the whole situation. If you have a anemometer you can measure the velocity of the air coming out of the end of that and calculate the CFM.

The dryer vent alone is a restriction on a 4 inch line. The actual CFM you will get out of that setup is probably about 180 - 200 CFM at best.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
The velocity the air is going to be accelerated to going from 8 inch down to 4 inch is more than the booster fan can generate so it will be a restriction.
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
So this is the blueprint for my exhaust situation. Questions on this is do you think the 6" booster fan is necessary or beneficial. Or would I be better off putting a 4" booster between the 4" reducer to dryer vent. Appreciate all the feedback, it's nice to have cannabis grow think tank to bounce crazy ideas off of.View attachment 4379652 would be using the booster fan merely for supplemental air flow to act in conjunction with my main 8" exhaust/w carbon filter. My tent is located directly by the garage wall I'm using so my overall duct length is fairly minimal with few bends.
The booster will be a wasted effort. I'm pretty sure that you'll need to reduce that 8 inch with a speed controller as will so the vent doesnt whistle, I know I had to
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
A 4 inch dryer vent wont ever flow more than 200 CFM and it would be singing hard to do that. Thing is will 200 CFM do the job? Not worth putting all that together is it won't work.
 

Savvy1

Active Member
Do you already have a blower? If you are going to be fighting so much static pressure loss you will definitely require a centrifugal blower not a mixed flow or axial fan.
No I don't Im still scratching my brain but thank you all for the Intel. Lol. Oh boy. Maybe I'll just scrub out into my garage, assess the smell and my wife's attitude, lol, then create an additional exhaust moving air outside?
 

Savvy1

Active Member
A 4 inch dryer vent wont ever flow more than 200 CFM and it would be singing hard to do that. Thing is will 200 CFM do the job? Not worth putting all that together is it won't work.
Well it's a 5x5 tent with 175cu ft so wouldn't that be sufficient, even without a booster?
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
Well it's a 5x5 tent with 175cu ft so wouldn't that be sufficient, even without a booster?
You'll be totally fine if the main goal is carbon filtering. The filters actually work much better when used that way.
Just connect everything up and adjust it until it isnt making more noise than you think it should outside. The air will be good an clean if using a 8 inch carbon filter.

Now if your trying to remove heat its questionable, some will say it's still enough air for the 5x5 to remove heat, other will disagree. Comes down to your location
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
If you are using LED lighting maybe. If you are using HID you want around 400 CFM. 2 - 2.5x the volume of the tent and that assumes the ambient is around 70 - 74. If the ambient is warmer (the air going into the tent) then you will need more airflow. You will never cool the tent lower than the air used to cool it and if you have a flow rate of 2.5x per minute you will be able to keep the tent temperature to within a few degrees of the room. Know that under the HID lighting the IR light will warm the leafs, like it warms your hand under the light, so a canopy temperature is typically 8 - 10 degrees warmer than the ambient, a little less if you have a air cooled reflector. So if you want a canopy temp of 80 degrees and the tent is getting air thats 72 degrees you will need to keep that air flow up to stay as close to 72 as possible.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
A booster won't boost in your situation, it only boosts really weak flow and when you are reducing the larger duct down to smaller duct the air flow speed is forced to increase causing static pressure loss but the velocity will be pretty much max for the smaller duct thus the booster fan is a restriction.
 

Savvy1

Active Member
You'll be totally fine if the main goal is carbon filtering. The filters actually work much better when used that way.
Just connect everything up and adjust it until it isnt making more noise than you think it should outside. The air will be good an clean if using a 8 inch carbon filter.

Now if your trying to remove heat its questionable, some will say it's still enough air for the 5x5 to remove heat, other will disagree. Comes down to your location
I'm just north of seattle WA and will be running LED. I'll most likely be supplementing heat instead of removing heat.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Well the LED makes a massive difference. You may get away with the reduction but don't use the booster fan.
 

Savvy1

Active Member
I saw this at lowes. I'm probably just gonna stop being a little b!#$h and cut a 6in whole instead of this aesthetical 4in bull ish I'm dreaming of. Lol
 
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