ventilation for 1st grow

[euthyphro]

So, after a weekâ??s worth of research, Iâ??ve come up with a design for my first grow-box/cabinet. All homemade save for a lamp kit (HPS 430w Agro). I havenâ??t decided on type of hydro system to build (more research to do), but I know I donâ??t want more than two plants around 2-3 feet tall. The cabinet should be about 5â?? tall 2â??wide and 1â??deep, including a 1.5â?? upper compartment. The cabinet is meant for my closet cuz Iâ??m only after enough smokables for personal use, and donâ??t want nosey houseguests making off with an unexpected door prize. Iâ??m happy to share the bounty, but I donâ??t want to welcome any pirates either.

The focus here is privacy, ventilation, and odor control.
This design centers on a â??neutralizerâ?? that I found plans for elsewhere on this forum.
The neutralizer is very simple: a bucket with fan intake mounted on lid, exhaust ports, and a neutralizing solution (a mix of water, air freshener and hydrogel crystals). The fan blows odor saturated air onto the neutralizing solution, and out the exhaust ports.
My idea is to kill two birds with one stone by using that air flow to remove not only odor, but warm air as well. Iâ??ve added ductwork to the intake and exhaust, hoping that the intake ducts use the vacuum from the fan to draw warm air from the top of grow chamber (where I expect it to accumulate), then expel the neutralized air to the exterior of cabinet.
Will this system work, or will I just be pumping skunkified air into my room? Will my intake need a fan as well? Or will a strong enough fan up top create enough vacuum? Iâ??m also concerned about humidity but Iâ??ve found very little info concerning humidity directly (save for a few vagueties like â??too much can lead to fungal growthâ?� - but how much is too much/not enough?)

Any experienced advice you guys can offer would be great.

[invision]

one foot deep??? i dont think you can get a hood in that space and that will hurt your grow

[BlueBear]

If you could get a hood in there you could bake cookies, and I really like peanut butter, oh yeh, oatmeal too with raisins, lots of raisins. No seriously you would have a bakers oven with such a small area, sorry but you want to look at some of the CFL grows for some ideas IMO. 2 65w CFL's in there would do you for a little personal, but if you tried to stick a 430 in there the fan would have to be so strong to keep the cab cool that it would suck the heat and stink out into your room before it ever got to be neutralized by your home made neutralizer.
Don't mean to be a poor sport, just my pennies worth.
Oh, Light Bulb, I know what might work get two 4FT t5 high out put fixtures to put on each side with two bulbs or 4 bulbs each about 10 and 1/2 inches wide and get an eight bulb fixture for the back wall, 21 inches wide, but, hmm still don't know, still allot of heat, just maybe the 8 bulb would do something, it does have approx 40000 lumens that is almost the same as a 400w HPS. They are pretty expensive though. Well, I shot the bull with you and maybe it aint to thick and you can pick up a few peaces of the BS to fertilize your grey matter with to grow some ideas to use this space for midget captivity.
Adieu

[euthyphro]

1st off, i misprinted dimensions, i plan on 5x2x2, with 4x2x2 grow space. that's 16 sq ft. from the researhc i've gathered, u need 3000 lumens per sq ft, and a 430w hps offers about 48000. 16x3000=48000. perfect match, no?? i was planning on that bulb cuz every1 said it was the best. experienced grows and horticulture books alike.
you guys seem to think that heat will be a serious problem (though i too am a fan of oatmeal cookies - especially when they're made with 'green' butter. but i need to complete a harvest before i can start baking.
so, is the bulb the prob, the size of the cab, or both? i've seen dozens of pics -of very successful grows- that dont look any larger than what i propose. if i'm only growing a single 3 footer, how much space will it need? i dont want to make mutliple cabs. i want to build somthing capable of taking me from germination to harvest. i assumed 4 sq feet was plenty to get 4 plants started, then pic the best looking broad of the bunch, and take her to term.
bluebear, your descrip of lgihting is hard to follow. any chance u can clarify?

thanx for the imput bros. u guys rock

[c of green]

you dont have 16 square feet.16 square feet would be a floorspace of 8x2.you have a 4x2 or a 2x2 floorspace?2x2 right with 4 foot of height.2x2 floor space is 4 square foot that means at most you need 250ish watts of light.your 430 would be more than 100 watts per square foot.you would need insane amounts of fans and an airconditioner for that.i have a 70 watt hps and about 200 watts of cfl in a cab about the same size as yours and heat is still a problem

[euthyphro]

der... i feel stupid. in my head i was thinking cubic feet, not square feet. so the specs i've read requiring 3000 lumens per sq ft are refering to floor space!?

so hows your grow going with the same cab size?

[jamstigator]

I'd say 3000 lumens per square foot is a *minimum*. I have a 400-watt light with a decent bulb that puts out 55,000 lumens into an area about 1.75 times as large as yours (twice as wide, but not as deep), and the plants would still like more light. (I use another 240 watts of CFLs, in addition to the 400-watt light, during flowering.) If you can handle the heat, a 400-watt light will work in your cab, but I would highly recommend using a cooltube and a good fan, else I predict serious heat problems in your future. Basically, I suspect you're going to have to face a choice: spend more on ventilation, or downgrade your lighting.

I'll show you a pic or two of my cabinet, which is 47" wide x 72" tall x 20" deep. I'm not saying this is the best cabinet ever made (it isn't), but it's semi stealthy, and it's basically odor-free. Perhaps it will give you some ideas. I don't let people in the room when the fan is running (that hum would be suspicious), but I have had people in the room with it off, and they never suspected a thing. The carbon filter is on top of the cabinet, hidden behind books and stuff, and does a very good job of eliminating odor. There's a window AC unit in the same room, which keeps the ambient air temps down, but it also sucks all the moisture from the air too, so I keep some containers filled with water in the cab to reintroduce some humidity into the air. The intakes I use are passive, Doran 8"x8" lightproof darkroom louvres, 'bout $20-$25 each online, and I needed two to provide enough airflow.

[euthyphro]

nice plants, it's a jungle in there! i'm surprised that u dont have odor probs with plants that size.

ur cab raised my eyebrows though, what is the purpose of the screen? the plants seem to have grown through it without incident. also, can u explain functionality of the cooltube? looks cool, :P but how does it work?

my house has no ac, but i live in southern california were it's about 75 degrees all year round. also i have my windows open and large fan on in room 24/7 anyway, so air flow in room is damn good. but i want to put cab in closet, out of sight, where i lose a lot of airflow, and run the danger of stinking up my clothes. i have a cannabis prescription, so legalities not an issue. i just dont want nosey poeple catching the scent, and dont want to cook my plants till AFTER harvest ;)

i'm definitly going the cfl route, now that so many ppl have warned against high heat probs of hps.

[jamstigator]

Heh, the purpose of the screen is to create a level field of buds. But I veg'd too long for that grow (had to leave town, didn't want to flower until I got back), and those freakishly large bushes were the result, just blew past my screen. Wasn't exactly my plan, but ya do what ya gotta do. ;)