Please evaluate this closet grow design

[Six9]

White Widow seeds inbound, first time grower hopes for a great first closet grow. Please evaluate this very crude design:

It's a 3 x 3 x 8 (6" at the bar). I'm lining bottom to top (shelf) with mylar, and plan to install one of these with ductwork exhausting directly into attic:

I plan to purchase/build a basic shelf that will allow for four good size plants/pots. I'm not sure on lights yet, i was planning on CCFL using clip-on lamps shown, but am open to something else. It's in a bedroom 74-79F most of the time, 68-72F four months in winter. I'm hoping the 1 1/2" gap at the bottom of the door will allow for passive air intake, thinking the exhaust fan will be powerful enough to pull air in. I plan to mount a small oscillating fan between the plant levels pointing upwards. Okay that's the basics. Big questions are:

* Will a passive air intake be enough? It's clean, dehumidified air being pulled in, no pets.

* It's a large two story traditional with huge attic. I plan to run ductwork straight up through the loose insulation and let it exhaust into the attic, no carbon filtering. My attic is very airy with plenty of ventilation. I've no clue, but I can't imagine a smell coming back into the rooms without finding it's way out one of the many vents/soffets first. On neighbors, my roof level is much higher than the neighbors, it's up there. Thoughts?

* I'm seeing stuff about a vegetative section and separate flowering section. I plan to germinate four plants and take them through the same cycles, do I need separate spaces? I don't plan on germinating/cloning anything during the grow, just tend to the four.

I'm researching timers, lights, everything. I'll not drop seeds in water till I'm fully prepared. I'm so impressed with this community. The knowledge and experience being freely offered here is truly impressive. I wish all of life was this righteous.

 

[NCDude]

If you keep up with posts in this site, you will learn that there is no right or wrong way to grow...

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yes you can grow it from start to finish in the one room if you are only growing those plants. You only need two rooms if you want to be flowering them in one room, and growing the younger plants/seedlings in another.
The passive air intake thing could be ok- except ... Your intake air temperature (in summer anyway) is already about the ideal temperature for the plants. This doesn't allow you much temp difference to have a cooling effect, unless you lower your house temps or draw cooler air from elsewhere. It's hard to bring temps down to under 80 degrees when your cooling air is 79 degrees... So whatever lighting you use should be fairly low heat. I don't have experience growing with cfls or LEDs so can't help you much with info there- except I do know LEDs, while they probably don't produce much heat, need more distance from the plants, which would rule out your double decker shelf thing. Not sure how much heat cfls produce.
You can do the shelf thing if you want- it's certainly possible. But it will be more to build, and more to learn re training your plants to fit into those spaces. It's not always that easy to keep your plants under control and that small. It will be a sort of micro- grow because of lack of vertical growing room. My personal feeling would be that it makes more sense to just do one level for now and your life will be that much simpler. You can do the shelf thing any time and you'll be that much more prepared.
The main issue I would consider with the shelf idea, besides height restrictions, is how to get around the problem of keeping water in the upper area from getting in to anything electrical down lower.
Here is someone who is doing a double decker shelf grow. Nivek's Need to Know Nature - First Grow Journal - 2015

EDIT- oh I see I misread, I thought it was only 6' high. So thats not micro growing then. You'd have room for two levels of small size plants, depending on your lighting method.

At lights off especially (importantly) during the flowering phase, it should be completely dark. This may not work out with your crack under the door plan. You will be ok for the vegitative growth phase, but will need to have it sealed up before flowering. There are diy options for making venting that doesn't let light in.
As for the venting into the attic- I think it should be ok if it's well vented up there like you say. The smell probably will escape from your closet in to the adjoining room. Even if it's extremely well sealed when the door closes, as it should be, there may well be a little bit of smell escaping, and when you open the door to tend to them it will be very aromatic during budding.
If you had a large room full of plants, you'd probably get random wiffs of spine chilling smells wafting out of the attic and through the neighbour's yards during budding. But with just the little closet you should be ok and I don't think it will be a problem at all, except maybe in the immediate area of the closet. If it is you can get a carbon filter or there are other cheaper odor masking options like Ona. You'll obviously be choosing your plant tending hours for quiet times anyway. I'm sure you can be the judge of how workable that is in your home.
Hope this bit of blathering helps. Good luck

 

[Dota2]

You could do just one now and see how it goes. Learn from it and decide what you wanna do further on. Better then putting extra work and maybe all for nothing. Good luck!

 

[Six9]

Yes you can grow it from start to finish in the one room if you are only growing those plants. You only need two rooms if you want to be flowering them in one room, and growing the younger plants/seedlings in another.
The passive air intake thing could be ok- except ... Your intake air temperature (in summer anyway) is already about the ideal temperature for the plants. This doesn't allow you much temp difference to have a cooling effect, unless you lower your house temps or draw cooler air from elsewhere. It's hard to bring temps down to under 80 degrees when your cooling air is 79 degrees... So whatever lighting you use should be fairly low heat. I don't have experience growing with cfls or LEDs so can't help you much with info there- except I do know LEDs, while they probably don't produce much heat, need more distance from the plants, which would rule out your double decker shelf thing. Not sure how much heat cfls produce.
You can do the shelf thing if you want- it's certainly possible. But it will be more to build, and more to learn re training your plants to fit into those spaces. It's not always that easy to keep your plants under control and that small. It will be a sort of micro- grow because of lack of vertical growing room. My personal feeling would be that it makes more sense to just do one level for now and your life will be that much simpler. You can do the shelf thing any time and you'll be that much more prepared.
The main issue I would consider with the shelf idea, besides height restrictions, is how to get around the problem of keeping water in the upper area from getting in to anything electrical down lower.
Here is someone who is doing a double decker shelf grow. Nivek's Need to Know Nature - First Grow Journal - 2015

EDIT- oh I see I misread, I thought it was only 6' high. So thats not micro growing then. You'd have room for two levels of small size plants, depending on your lighting method.

At lights off especially (importantly) during the flowering phase, it should be completely dark. This may not work out with your crack under the door plan. You will be ok for the vegitative growth phase, but will need to have it sealed up before flowering. There are diy options for making venting that doesn't let light in.
As for the venting into the attic- I think it should be ok if it's well vented up there like you say. The smell probably will escape from your closet in to the adjoining room. Even if it's extremely well sealed when the door closes, as it should be, there may well be a little bit of smell escaping, and when you open the door to tend to them it will be very aromatic during budding.
If you had a large room full of plants, you'd probably get random wiffs of spine chilling smells wafting out of the attic and through the neighbour's yards during budding. But with just the little closet you should be ok and I don't think it will be a problem at all, except maybe in the immediate area of the closet. If it is you can get a carbon filter or there are other cheaper odor masking options like Ona. You'll obviously be choosing your plant tending hours for quiet times anyway. I'm sure you can be the judge of how workable that is in your home.
Hope this bit of blathering helps. Good luck

Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't considered light leakage during flowering. I'll look around for solutions that would allow air passage yet block out most light. I've stood in closet with door closed, it's very dark but that gap could use some work.

On my temps, I'm leaning towards fluorescent for energy savings already, passive intake/temp situation as you mentioned seems to make it a requirement. Just found these, I can grab two of them and mount them above each row: HTG Supply - GrowBright 2 Foot 2 Lamp High Output T5 With Choice of Bulbs

On smell, I can't wait to smell it! But I'm hoping the negative pressure created by the exhaust fan will keep smell down in the room, which is my master bedroom. I'll carefully consider my tending times. Yeah I think the exterior should be okay. I plan to mount the fan in the attic so I'll have room to install a filter on the closet side should it be necessary. Yeah I'd really like to try two shelves. I hope I'm able to manage plant growth, I've chosen a short strain. Thanks again..