Venting and Cooling

Hello all.. I'm about 3 days away from throwing the switch to 12/12. 1st time grow and I currently have 10 plant looking lovely under 2x 250 MH. (plus a 85w CFL. What can I say, I just couldn't pass up the lumens) It's a soil grow, Fox Farm Ocean Forest, and the water and nutes are PH'ed to 5.5....run off is between 6.5-7. Since it's my first grow I wanted to see how it goes before I go plunking down cash for sum Blueberry, or Bubblelicious...mmmmm So it's just bag seeds.. one batch I call Jackie and the other I call Killer Light Green.

So now that I have to seal off my door due to light leak I will need to address ventilation. Keep in mind I'm a total n00b and everything I've learned thus far is from the Rollitup community. So I go down to my local hydro shop and pick up a CAN combo.....CAN 66 (air scrubber) and a CAN 6 HO (420cfm's) the room is 6x6x8. I hooked everything up and decided to vent to the attic. Well this works really well temp are at 77 in the room and 80 at plant top. Bad thing is my AC is working overtime. I'm thinking of cutting a hole into another closet and exhausting into that closet. it's across the house from my grow room and the exhausted air would have to travel past the thermostat for the home's central AC unit before it would ever see the grow room again. I mean how hot could the exhausting air from 2 MH be.. I think I need the air movement more for ventilation of the room rather than heat exhaust... Does this seem like a better idea than just moving the air into the attic? Suggestions are welcomed.

A few pics of the grow.

nice setup so far!

any thought about getting hps for flower? or is it MH all the way? (plus CFL)

question
if you can vent up through the attic...

anychance you can get some roof vents to hook up to?
draw in fresh outside air and exhaust the scrubbed air outside?

lumberjack_ian said:

nice setup so far!

any thought about getting hps for flower? or is it MH all the way? (plus CFL)

Click to expand...

Depends on how many females I end up with... If it's more than the 2 250W MH can support then I'll have too plunk down some $$$ for one of those HTG 400w HPS kits. The bulbs in the MH are 4200k...not ideal for veg but it got the job done...not ideal for flowing either..dunno if it will git her done? Fist time grow so I'll have to see how it goes.

lumberjack_ian said:

question
if you can vent up through the attic...

anychance you can get some roof vents to hook up to?
draw in fresh outside air and exhaust the scrubbed air outside?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't want to draw in outside air because I would lose too much control of temp and humidity. The house stays @ 78 during the day and 77 at night so it's good for the plants.

MidnightSurfer said:

Depends on how many females I end up with... If it's more than the 2 250W MH can support then I'll have too plunk down some $$$ for one of those HTG 400w HPS kits. The bulbs in the MH are 4200k...not ideal for veg but it got the job done...not ideal for flowing either..dunno if it will git her done? Fist time grow so I'll have to see how it goes.



I wouldn't want to draw in outside air because I would lose too much control of temp and humidity. The house stays @ 78 during the day and 77 at night so it's good for the plants.

Click to expand...

intake can be sourced from wherever you like then, but the exhaust should still go outside (in winter time the warm exhaust air could be used to help heat house, save some energy)

best of luck friend!

Beautiful plants mate! Can't wait to see them fully flowered!

Not sure how hard it would be to do now, and if you have the cash, but instead of running a bunch more ducts, you should get a new light fixture - one that you can duct. That way all your cfm power is concentrated directly on your heat source, your ac won't work nearly as much, and the top of the plants will be allot cooler, plus you can grow closer to the lamp without burning.

get a variable speed control so if it gets cold in winter you just turn the speed down, letting the light fixture give extra heat. put the carbon filter on the other side of the light (the intake side). Depending on how well the room is sealed, you might need one more intake (to your other closet would work fine.

also, get some small fans to blow across the tops of the plants - 80 is a little high i think..especially considering they are going to get closer to the light as they bloom.