Converted closet ventilation question

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

I am working on constructing a closet that will have an intake. I know that the ideal ration is 1:4 for in to out stats... But I was wondering on getting some feedback about how this may work.

I plan on using a 175 CFM rated 4" inline Hurricane fan and CFM matching 4" Carbonaire scrubber that I already own as the active intake. I know that the scrubber will not allow the full 175 CFM of clean air to get pulled in, but that is what I have so I am making due. I will then scrub an exhaust the air via a 440 CFM inline fan with CFM matching scrubber, I think from Apollo Horticulture, which I was thinking would allow my ration to be 1:2.5ish.

My questions is two fold... One, will this be adequate, or even too much of an exchange ratio? Two, what suggestions could you make? This is a work in progress so some of the stuff I have, which are essentials, but I am planning on putting together a shopping list for the rest. I want to do this right, and I really don't want to have to do this more than once.

Thanks to anyone that is willing and able to contribute!

 

[TurboBucket]

Hi welcome to the mag!
So your on the right track. Your air exchange ratios are more of a fresh air type setup than any sort of temperature control. A forced intake is really not necessary, especially in a small space. The amount of heat generated in the space, your target environment conditions and your available ambient air conditions will determine available effective cooling. I'm a huge fan of the new temperature-speed controlled ecm motors available from hyper fan and AC infinity. Operating costs are phenomenal compared to traditional means. Sorry if this overwhelms you. We're all here to help. Please ask any specific questions you may have. Feel free to cruise through my journal on my walk-in closet conversion in progress. It's a bit excessive but I did environmental controls as a day job so the design was fun for me.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

I will take a look at the set up! All info is welcomed. I am good at googling stuff I don't understand, ha!

 

[TurboBucket]

Yup tons of info out there on these plants now.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

Hi welcome to the mag!
So your on the right track. Your air exchange ratios are more of a fresh air type setup than any sort of temperature control. A forced intake is really not necessary, especially in a small space. The amount of heat generated in the space, your target environment conditions and your available ambient air conditions will determine available effective cooling. I'm a huge fan of the new temperature-speed controlled ecm motors available from hyper fan and AC infinity. Operating costs are phenomenal compared to traditional means. Sorry if this overwhelms you. We're all here to help. Please ask any specific questions you may have. Feel free to cruise through my journal on my walk-in closet conversion in progress. It's a bit excessive but I did environmental controls as a day job so the design was fun for me.

So if I only have a passive intake and use the 175 CFM scrubber and inline fan do you think that will give me enough fresh air exchange in a 7' x 3.75' x 8 ' area? If so, I was thinking about using two HEPA air filters to scrub the incoming air (that was the idea of my original active intake), and I will only have a few plants under a scrog net. I am going to start with bagseed to begin with to get my chops back and try to dial it in right. I got some stuff coming from Amazon so I am excited for it to get here so I can get to work on the room this weekend!

 

[TurboBucket]

I would say yes that little 4 inch will be enough with one exception. If you don't have AC in the house and your ambient air temps are too high or you run really hot lights. Depending on how it's ducted you'll still move 75-100 cfm with the filter on. Filters on the intake will reduce it slightly more but negligible with high static fans if you just use a pleated filter (furnace filter)

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

I would say yes that little 4 inch will be enough with one exception. If you don't have AC in the house and your ambient air temps are too high or you run really hot lights. Depending on how it's ducted you'll still move 75-100 cfm with the filter on. Filters on the intake will reduce it slightly more but negligible with high static fans if you just use a pleated filter (furnace filter)

Perfect! I need to take the best advice I was ever given by reading on the subject close to a decade ago... Research all you want, but if you don't do hands on research it is just that. Research won't get you stoned, lol!

Thanks again, Turbo! I will be sure to document things as I go, get a journal going, and plug it on here. This weekend is going to be a blast getting things together!

 

[TurboBucket]

I love doing design and install. Happy to help. Show me whatcha get for gear and where your putting it and I'll pitch my two cents in.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

I love doing design and install. Happy to help. Show me whatcha get for gear and where your putting it and I'll pitch my two cents in.

What are your thoughts on exhaust? If I exhaust in the same room that pulls the intake does that affect anything negatively? I can try and run a 25 foot duct to a window to the outside and exhaust from there, but that would present the expense and time to engineer a window cover to not look like I am venting a grow room out of my basement I will get some pics up over the weekend and let you see what I am talking about doing to give you a visual.

 

[TurboBucket]

Your fine to offload that closet into whatever room it's in. A bigger heat load could create a problem. Barely notice a couple hundred Watts. Especially if there's a ceiling fan or any sort of air movement through the house.

Edit: stick with your plan. Pull from the floor exhaust towards the ceiling.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

Got it. No ceiling fans, but I have oscillating fans I put in the basement because it helps air movement during the hotter parts of our year. It gets hot and humid where I live, and stale air blows, lol! A 40-something year old dude getting jazzed about constructing a grow closet. I feel like I am in my 20's again! HA!!!

 

[TurboBucket]

It's infectious haha. If the rooms down in the basement that's great.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

It's infectious haha. If the rooms down in the basement that's great.

Yep! The basement it is. I am pulling intake from the bottom left side of the room, putting the scrubber in the upper right corner then pulling it through the fan hood and exhausting out of the top of the room on the same side of the intake. I figured if it was going in a circle that would be the best route. I will have some fans creating breeze inside too.

 

[TurboBucket]

Oh your gonna run a Hid setup. You got a lot more heat to deal with then. Mount your ballasts outside the plant space if you can. Duct the intake of your hood to the intake of your room. Then just snorkle the exhaust out of the hood up by your scrubber. Let it pull the coolest air it can across the bulb first.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

Okay, so here is the workshop!

Workshop 1.jpg

• LongHairedCountryBoy
• Mar 7, 2018

And the DIY HEPA intake filter, ha!

Front filter.jpg

• LongHairedCountryBoy
• Mar 7, 2018

Back filter.jpg

• LongHairedCountryBoy
• Mar 7, 2018

And now the walls that I have to stare at for now, but this is before I wrap and air seal them with panda

Wood walls.jpg

• LongHairedCountryBoy
• Mar 7, 2018

The question is do I need to remove the walls down to bare gypsum, or will the panda sealed with white duct tape gonna be enough to fight off any humidity?

 

[TurboBucket]

Your image links don't work.

You'll need to upload them to the site.
Should be able to find a button some where in the media tab on here that says add media. I think a couple people have down write-up's for the different browsers, iPhone,Droid,PC for the new site.

 

[TurboBucket]

And now the walls that I have to stare at for now, but this is before I wrap and air seal them with panda

The question is do I need to remove the walls down to bare gypsum, or will the panda sealed with white duct tape gonna be enough to fight off any humidity?

Without knowing what's on the wall yet I'd say no panda is enough. I'm not positive duct tape will last though. I used a butyl adhesive tape to patch the holes I tore in mine. Other than that I did overlapped seams and stapled it. I'm not super thrilled with the appearance my film was 7mil so difficult to stretch. Ive heard of guys rolling the edges around a board or dowel, and using that to stretch it evenly then securing that all to the wall.

 

[LongHairedCountryBoy]

Without knowing what's on the wall yet I'd say no panda is enough. I'm not positive duct tape will last though. I used a butyl adhesive tape to patch the holes I tore in mine. Other than that I did overlapped seams and stapled it. I'm not super thrilled with the appearance my film was 7mil so difficult to stretch. Ive heard of guys rolling the edges around a board or dowel, and using that to stretch it evenly then securing that all to the wall.

That was my thought. I would use panels with overlapped seams to stop any air leaks, stapled in place, and then duct taped to seal any smaller pinhole leaks. I thought about getting this noise cancelling silicone adhesive and spreading it on super thin and rolling my panda with a dry paint roller or rolling pin for that nice smooth look. Honeslty, I will probably wish i just opted for flat white paint when it is all said and done.

Now I am thinking I may need another inline fan that is solely dedicated to extraction of heat from my cooltube. So I could run one solely for the scrubber then exhaust, and the second I could use strictly for pulling cool air over the bulb and out a secondary exhaust. I wonder if a cheaper duct booster fan would work?

 

[TurboBucket]

Those duct booster fans are made for low static pressure operation. So yea you could use it to push/pull air into the room. I would get the initial setup in; leaving yourself room to add a forced intake if you end up wanting it. No reason to add more cost if it's not needed. I did flat white paint on my first run and didn't have any problems. I just wanted a tighter envelope. The plus side is a minutely higher reflectivity with the panda.