My project, my concerns

So I've been on this forum for a while and has been reading a lot of on the site, learn a lot even if I never experienced growing myself. But now will come the time to start it! I'll like to have a little help before I start this quest for my own ganja !

I'm living in an appartement and the concerns I have is smell and noise. For the smell I'm getting a carbon filter for sure, this is not an issue. The thing that may cause more problems is the noise of the fan I need to exhaust the air outside my place. The room will be using is about 12" x 8" (7" high) but the grow area will be smaller, I know I still need to get a fan powerfull enough for the whole area, so that means 672 cubic foot area, here come the question: will an 450 cfm fan be ok or do I need to get a more powerfull one? Do any of you know the noise in Dba of these fan, like a vortex 450 cfm? I'm willing to get a muffler to cut the noise down, but there is a building just in front of my exhaust about 30 feet away. Any idea are welcome, thank you for your help !

Answers to your q's are forthcoming, I'm sure. I have no experience trying to keep a stealth garden, but I have been an apartment manager/owner.

Take a look at your rental agreement, and see if the management or maintenance staff have permission to do occational property checks and inspections. Sometimes it says they need to give 24 hours notice, some say nothing about notice.

Besides requiring stealth, the problem with growing in appartments is, if something happened in another unit, lets say a water leak...even if your unit isn't the one leaking, they may just walk right in to check, and find your hidden treasures. For some managers or maintenance staffers, it would likely be no big deal. For others, they usually have 911 on speed dial.

Also keep in mind...all occupants could be held accountable.

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Originally Posted by Rusty Trichome

Take a look at your rental agreement, and see if the management or maintenance staff have permission to do occational property checks and inspections. Sometimes it says they need to give 24 hours notice, some say nothing about notice.

Besides requiring stealth, the problem with growing in appartments is, if something happened in another unit, lets say a water leak...even if your unit isn't the one leaking, they may just walk right in to check, and find your hidden treasures. For some managers or maintenance staffers, it would likely be no big deal. For others, they usually have 911 on speed dial.

Also keep in mind...all occupants could be held accountable.

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Don't worry I've already check all that, it's not the first year i'm in this block, I've been on a 3 1/2 and now I'm living in a 4 1/2, I know the person in charge and he won't be getting in, but to be sure, I'll place a lock on the door of the grow room! As for the occupants... There will be only me by this june... So I'm just planning this thing right now, can't work on the room.

Planning ahead is likely a good thing, lol. :thumbsup:

Any chance of going to the hydro store, and test-driving some of their equipment? Could see what they've got, then ask around the boards here, and see if anyone has had experience with what you find.

good questions

i live in an apt to i use my closet and vent it in to my room...
were u looking to vent it out side your apt or just ur grow area?

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Originally Posted by twitch

were u looking to vent it out side your apt or just ur grow area?

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I want to vent outside as I'm not willing to use a cabinet (restricting the grow area), here is the problem!
I can install an A/C in the room so the neighbor think it's the A/C doing the noise but that will only work for summer as in winter I have to remove the unit.

450CFM is more than enough. Get yourself a rheostat and slow your fan down until it's quiet enough. If you exhaust on a timer just exhaust a little longer at a lower speed. On full speed you'd exhaust in less than 2 minutes.

Also, the further the fan is from the outlet, the less noise you'll have.

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Originally Posted by grey1223

450CFM is more than enough. Get yourself a rheostat and slow your fan down until it's quiet enough. If you exhaust on a timer just exhaust a little longer at a lower speed. On full speed you'd exhaust in less than 2 minutes.

Also, the further the fan is from the outlet, the less noise you'll have.

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Thank you for the tip !!! I was planning to get one. I may event get a muffler, never too sure !

I plan on an 6" exhaust so the air intake should be at least 6" but if I install a vent on the door do you think it's too much for the intake ?

Can someone please tell me what he think about this ?

I don't think you can have too much PASSIVE intake. The exhaust will just move air as fast as it can, it is the bottleneck in the flow.

Now if you start forcing air in, then there will need to be equilibrium, but I don't think that matters in yoru case.

Curious why the vent covers...? They won't work for light leaks, and is just another thing to keep clean. Guess it would be better than a big hole in the door, tho, lol.

If there is any space between door and floor, would likely be enough for passive air intake.

if you get a rheostat and hook it up to your 6" vortex its going to buzz a little bit when you turn the speed down. on full blast that fan is going to be loud even with insulated ducting and even at a little more than half speed its going to make some noise too. itll sound like one of your air conditioning vents does when the air is blowing out except itll be probably 2-3 times louder. hope that gives you some kind of idea.

check out harbor freight. they have lots of cheap supplies (made in china of course unfortunately). You can pick up a rheostat there for like 12 bucks (its the same made in china one hydro stores sell except its not marked up to 40 bucks). They have all kinds of neat things like machetes for when your in the deep woods scouting out your next outdoor patch or eye loupes for examining the crops and even digital scales on the cheap.