Question about sealed room with no outside air?

[bigbud751]

OK guys, please help me with this. I have a 6X15 room and 4 1k lights are going to be installed. I will be usin a fan from outside and cooling the lights through a 6" duct to the outside. I will use a can 66 filter, dehumid and fans inside the room. My questions are:

Will the heat from the lights still be too much for that size room w/o an a/c?

If it is sealed do you have to have fresh air or can it keep using air from the room through the can filter?

If it does stay cool enough and does not need an a/c but it needs fresh air how could I use air from a big open space outside the room?

I do not want to cut 2 6" holes out the wall and spend 3k for an a/c if I don't have to.

Thanks for the help....I am pretty new to this but trying to learn!

bigbud751 Reviewed by bigbud751 on 10-24-2006. Question about sealed room with no outside air? OK guys, please help me with this. I have a 6X15 room and 4 1k lights are going to be installed. I will be usin a fan from outside and cooling the lights through a 6" duct to the outside. I will use a can 66 filter, dehumid and fans inside the room. My questions are: Will the heat from the lights still be too much for that size room w/o an a/c? If it is sealed do you have to have fresh air or can it keep using air from the room through the can filter? If it does stay cool enough Rating: 5

[BlueBear]

Well, you should look up "3LB per light" in the "Grow room set up" and post this question for Tranable and he may be able to give you some good input on sealed rooms, but I will still try to give you some things on general principle. Generally each 1K light without air cooled can bring a 5x5 space up at least 10d in temps, when air cooled depending on the fans your using to pull or push the air threw the hood, you can drop that 10d down to about 5d or less. So right now if your room is approx 90sqf your ambient temps my go up approx 20D, or less depending on how good the fan system is getting that air out of your room, so based on that, if the room is 70d without lights, then theoretically you will be at about 90D with lights, and if you are going to use C02, which I would imagine you are if you are doing a sealed room, then you will be fine with higher temps in the 90's. If your not using C02 then you will need to get thoughs temps down into the 70's for the best results, though many people grow in the 80's.
You asked if you will need fresh air coming in for the plants I assume, well the plants produce O2 and no matter what your room will not be completely air tight unless your using NASA technology, LOL, so they will be fine without outside air being brought in by you.

"Will the heat from the lights still be too much for that size room w/o an a/c?" This all depends on your rooms ambient temps, for instance a room that I am setting up right now is about 50D right now because it has no heating in it and it is close to winter hear, if you have a sanario like this then you may be able to go without an AC for the next 6 months or so.
"I do not want to cut 2 6" holes out the wall and spend 3k for an a/c if I don't have to." I am not sure if your talking about cutting the holes for the AC unit, but there are AC units that actually recirculate the air with in the room that are not vented out side FYI.
Hope all this helps some.
Adieu

[bigbud751]

BlueBear, thanks for the quick response man, this really helps. Here is the part I don't understand. If I do use a portable a/c and not cut the six inch holes I just let it recirculate the air. Well then how do I get fresh air into the room? If I did cut the holes and used the vented a/c then that would be my fresh air right?

[BlueBear]

Well, the plants will produce oxigen on their own, and your room will not be 100% air tight so you will still have fresh air seeping in, and as little as it may seem, there will still be enough for your plants. The main thing is to be able to have good air circulation with in the room, fans which are moving that air in the room to help strengthen the plants and provide the needed air movement for your plants to expire and absorb CO2, O2 water and so on. This all being the case, you do not need to duct the AC out of the room, just get the kind that can recirculate air without needing to be venting outside air in.
Is this going to be a grow using CO2? If not, you can bring in all the fresh air you want, the reason most people use a sealed room is to improve yields by using CO2 and venting in fresh air would defeat the purpose because it would disapate the CO2 unless you had a fairly complex venting system that stopped air coming in during the CO2 treatments, but if you can control all the temps without having to vent from out side then you are going to have less hastle. Also, with those aircooled hoods, they have to be air tight, so that when the air is being pushed, or pulled outside it is not sucking any air out of the grow room, or it will take the smell with it, and the CO2 as well.
Adieu

[bigbud751]

Thanks again! That helps me out big time. I was worried I had to have fresh air and not just for temp purposes. I know the buckets of co2 boost are expensive but would it be worth hooking up a couple of buckets and the the fans blow on the plants? I have an all electric house and in no way could I use a generator. I was told co2 is co2 and id doesn't matter where it comes from but I still need to know if there is a way to monitor if they are getting enough.

[BlueBear]

Not a problem. The CO2 buckets can work, but even better are CO2 generators or CO2 tanks. With the generator and the tank you would use an atmospheric controller that would monitor the PPM in your room and dose the CO2 accordingly when levels get too low or too high and a good controller will shut off when lights go out. For the tank you will also need a CO2 distributor that has all of the tubing and proper voulbs and you plug this into your controller. It can make a huge difference, up to 30% more yield.
Adieu

[bigbud751]

Are there any way to have the set up you are speaking of w/o natural or bottled gas?

[BlueBear]

Yes, probably, but with that size of room, you will be using more DIY CO2 methuds than would be worth your time. I mean, the cheapest way is to sprits your plants with a spray bottle of seltser water for a little CO2, but you would need to do it 20 times a day to make a real impact IMO.
Adieu

[cuddleup]

OK guys, please help me with this. I have a 6X15 room and 4 1k lights are going to be installed. I will be usin a fan from outside and cooling the lights through a 6" duct to the outside. I will use a can 66 filter, dehumid and fans inside the room. My questions are:

Will the heat from the lights still be too much for that size room w/o an a/c?

If it is sealed do you have to have fresh air or can it keep using air from the room through the can filter?

If it does stay cool enough and does not need an a/c but it needs fresh air how could I use air from a big open space outside the room?

I do not want to cut 2 6" holes out the wall and spend 3k for an a/c if I don't have to.

Thanks for the help....I am pretty new to this but trying to learn!

hey
A friend I know ran 2 flex- dryer vents into his ceiling to one side of his gables vent giving him outside air, equipt with a small fan one input of fresh air, the other was run thru a charcoil filter and then ejecting the smell outside at the top of the roof.

Putting in that flexable dryer vent, and 2 small fan like you use in the 1000 watts light set ups. You could walk thru and not smell the hundereds of tomatoes at all.

It may help to build a lower ceiling room inside, close it off running your vents thru the ceiling but hidden from sight, unless you have a 100 neighbors around it works pretty good. But run it thru a charcoal filter and you'll get ride of the smells.this adds more cost but gives more peace of mind about your set up.

Remember to cover the vent ends to filter out the small bugs that may find that enterance.

For cooling a room that big, He also has 2 small AC with a digital temp setting to get a perfect temp, those are pretty cheap some less then a 100 bucks.at least were I live.

His rule of thumb is 1-1k light- one AC, 2- lights 2 AC to keep the temp even.

Hope it gives some ideas.