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Exhaust Fans, carbon filters, ductwork - help..

  • Thread starter pthiel
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    bog
Hello all,

I am working on the latest version of my indoor growing rooms and I am trying to make sense of the input fans, ductwork, exhaust fans their ductwork, etc. How to determine what fans I need, how to set up the ductwork and such things. I have not found anything online that truly shows me what I need and explains how to determine what I need. I do not want to cool down or dehumidify the chamber because it is for lowland plants, but I need to get some air circulation and pulling out the "bog" smell would not be a bad thing.

If anyone can point me in the right direction or explain the ins and outs to me I would appreciate the assistance.

Cheers
Pete
 
There's a fresh bog smell, which is nice (or maybe I nice like the smell of LFS. I'm weird) and a gross bog smell. If you've got a gross bog smell, you need to find the root cause of it instead of putting a band aid like a carbon filter on it. Do your plants sit in water? Feed bugs? Does the media need replacing?

If I were in your situation, I would just get an oscillating room fan from Wal-mart to provide the air circulation. Unless you're chamber will overheat without exhaust fans, don't worry about it. Just think of your chamber as one giant terrarium.
 
Thanks - with the chamber being enclosed wouldn't I need an exhaust fan to allow the air to circulate and to remove the stale air (which then would bring the smell into the house - annoying the spouse and leading to a messy divorce, causing me to have to pay outrageous spousal support and I could no longer afford to care for my plants while living in a cardboard box under the train bridge - sorry I was ranting)?

Cheers
 
ROFL, what a rant :).

I would just open a window if you can. Exhaust fans can be fairly loud, and they will still dehumidify the room some. If you have a bog and lots of moisture in the room anyway, the humidity will stay up via evaporation and plant respiration. You could always try running a humidifier with the window open so you get ventilation and you don't have to run a fan. If opening a window is not an option for you, and you are determined to get an exhaust fan, there is a lot of information on how to set up a room like you describe. Look into indoor hydroponic setups, and see what kind of information/tutorials you find. Generally these are going to be for growing illegal plants, but the same info can apply to CPs. Those guys probably want to keep humidity down, so keep that in mind also.
 
Yeah basically you need one inflow and out flow. They sell ductwork boosters that fit in the duct work that would be good for a fan to pull air out and as it pulls air out it will automatically suck air in the inflow. Just make sure you have the inflow on one side of the room and the outflow on the other side to create a cross flow. The best setup would be to have the inflow low in the room and the outflow across the room at the top. Will cause great cross flow, but like nepenthes said it will drop your humidity.

Good luck
 
Kinda off the wall but I used a bathroom vent fan that went into an old garage window that was getting boarded up. Now that I think about it why not hook it up to a humity sensor to kick on and off when you want ??
 
No need to make it air tight in the first place, really. You could hook it up to a humidistat if you wanted. If it seriously drops the RH, you can hook up a humidifier to come on at the same time the fan does.
 
Thanks to all and sundry. The growing chambers are in the basement with no access to outside to vent out of the house. I think I like the low intake, high outflow and filter it to kill odors option, but would appreciate any input from anyone who has done something similar, maybe venting a greenhouse.

Thanks
Pete
 
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