growing in the attic...help!!!

[divious]

im growing in my attic, i tarped off a 8x8x8 area painted it white, i have a 400 wtt mh, there is 25 plants i cut a hole in the roof for intake and exsus.one towerds the top one on bottem.my question is how often should both fans kick on and off???

divious Reviewed by divious on 07-22-2007. growing in the attic...help!!! im growing in my attic, i tarped off a 8x8x8 area painted it white, i have a 400 wtt mh, there is 25 plants i cut a hole in the roof for intake and exsus.one towerds the top one on bottem.my question is how often should both fans kick on and off??? Rating: 5

[SpaceNeedle]

Your bigger consideration will be to find out the temperature variations between day and night, in the summer and in the winter. Attics are notorious for wide temperature variations that can kill your plants in very short order. One of the best ways to accomplish a more even temperature is to completely insulate your room and almost treat it as if it was outside, especially temperature wise. What region do you live in? Your ideal temps are 65F at night and 75 during light.

[Villui]

use the air vent that all attics have run a dryer hose

[stinkyattic]

You have to either run climate control all the time based on timers that turn on extra exhaust during lights-on and run your lights at night to even out the heat, or put your systems on a thermostat- a good one, that turns on a/c above 75 degrees and turns on a space heater below 65.
Attics are doable but they kinda suck, you really need to treat your attic as if it were a living space if you want to have a successful grow up there. I grow in the attic, it's a walk-up with a couple windows, I have to run a/c from April to September and a heater from Thanksgiving until April Fools.

[Opie Yutts]

Who better to answer an attic question than a guy with "attic" in his name?

You cannot skimp on the thermostat that he mentioned above. I think one of these costs about $400. You are going to have to both heat and cool.

If I were doing it however, I would put serious thought into the possibillity of cutting a hole in the ceiling of one or two of the rooms that are under the grow area. You can put nice vent covers over the holes and nobody will ask any questions, or you can go up through an upper cabinet also. Then seal of one area for veg and one for bloom and make it air tight. You could probably do this with some black plastic or clear plastic for that matter.

That way you can put a nice big fan over the hole in the attic's floor and suck the atmosphere of the house into the sealed grow area. You might find that you won't have to heat anything this way. You will most certainly have to cool however. Trust me this is one of the most important things that you can put your money into. Never skimp on this. Buy good, big fans, and I'm going to have to dissagree with Villui on the dryer vent, as I'm sure SpaceNeedle would agree. He's HVAC for a decade. You need low heat pipe, or I think it means real ducting. The smooth metal kind you might find under a house. The coils in a dryer vent will greatly reduce precious air flow.

It's real easy to underbuild the ventilation system. And then you have to do it all over.

Sigh... I wish I had an attic.

[PharmaCan]

Who better to answer an attic question than a guy with "attic" in his name?

Just so ya know, Stinky Attic is a lady.

PC :stoned:

[Opie Yutts]

Oops. Sorry stinky, I hope I didn't offend. And thanks for the heads up, Pharmacan.

[stinkyattic]

Not the first time and it won't be the last.
If you have crawlspaces to add to your climate control contraptions, those can be used for exhaust if you don't want to mess around with punching a hole in your roof or chimney. You can also build a little door and make a space to keep ballasts so the heat is not adding to the heat load inside.
In summer, exhaust to outdoors. In winter, I personally exhaust to indoors (right into my bedroom, lol!!! smells SOOOO nice) to keep your heating costs down.

[Opie Yutts]

You can also build a little door and make a space to keep ballasts so the heat is not adding to the heat load inside.

Yes! This is more important than many people realize. Always keep your ballasts as far away from the grow area as possible, preferably in a different room, espcially if they are not digital. Could mean 5 or maybe even 10 degrees.