Help with exhaust

[jmac2267]

Ok. First time grower here. So I have a tent in my coal room in the basement and I am using passive intake and have my current exhaust as follows. Fan===duct===air cooled hood===duct to outside the tent. My plants are 3 weeks old and I have a strong smell as soon as I open the door to the room, not the tent door. My girlfriend can sometimes smell it when she opens the door to the basement from the kitchen. My carbon filter will be here tomorrow and I plan on installing a second inline fan int he same duct to help with airflow. My question is should I keep the filter in the tent with the 2 fans next then the hood? Or filter,fan,hood,fan, duct to outside the tent. The coal room has no air circulation other than a tower fan I put to blow along the ceiling and there is still moisture. I plan on venting the exhaust through a hole in the wall to the garage. Should I put the carbon filter inside or outside the tent. If I put it in the tent I plan on sealing my air cooled hood to prevent the smell from bypassing the filter and stinking the room up. I can't have any smell since my kids play video games in the basement. The 6" fans are rated at 240cfm and it's a 36x20x62 tent and I have negative pressure but once the filter is on I feel 2 fans would be best for airflow and temps. I am open to suggestions and can upload pics if needed. Thanks

 

[Flower Child]

Hi Blaqhauq- sounds like you are adressing the odor issue just in time. At 3 weeks they are only starting to smell- just wait till they are in flower- whew!
I would definitely put the carbon filter in the tent at the top. That will pull out the hot air and contain the smell much better than trying to filter the whole room. It will last a lot longer too if not pulling dust from the whole room.
Your configuration sounds good. If theres not space for the filter and both fans at the top, you could always put one of the fans in a bottom port as an intake fan(might need a controller). That would give you some footage back too without those sucked in tent walls that passive airflow causes.
Happy growing!

 

[MacEFL]

Do you have a filter on your intake? I would be leery of constantly pulling in coal dust from your room. If it were me, I would run filter, fan, duct, hood and run it outside the tent. Then you can add your second fan if needed. Put the second fan halfway from the tent to your outake into the garage. If you put them too close you will lose all benefit of the second fan.

 

[jmac2267]

I should clarify, it was used as coal room at 1 time. It has been painted from top to bottom and used as a closet for food and a fridge and freezer. Just has no air circulation. I am now venting the exhaust out into the garage so the ceiling and wall isn't soaked with condensation and grow mold. Now I am just waiting for the filter. I do have a tower can to hopefully help pull air from under the 2 doors.

 

[spl8r]

I use a 4x4 setup as well. I open the side screens one or two at a time, then my inline fan takes care of the rest. I hang the carbon filter in the tent and have that attached to a two foot piece of hose on the inlet side of my fan. The outlet of the fan then pushes air through my hood and out of the tent. No smell and constant fresh air coming in through the screens. You could use more ducting with the sic inch holes in the lower portion of the tent and run the duct to a window for cooler fresh air and no light leakage. As long as the tent is in a slight negative pressure with the filter in the tent you'll be fine.
With your setup hang the filter in the room and let your inline fan create a negative pressure by drawing air through the filter the fan has enough power to draw air in through any openings such as door cracks and any vent holes you may cut into the door. a six inch inline fan should draw at least 350 cfm, thats about a third of the size of a furnace/air handler blower, more than enough to provide fresh air and contain smells with a filter attached.

 

[jmac2267]

Ok I got the filter inside the tent, it's setup filter, duct, fan, duct, air cooled hood, duct, fan, duct to garage. No smell and works great. Now it's is getting cold here and my light out temps are around 60 but the room is low 50's. My space heater was blowing along the side so the warm air gets pulled in through the vents. It kept it up to 70 until today when the temps dropped outside a lot. I have my light out from noon till 6pm and the lights on during the coldest part of the day and it stays around 78-80 in there. My humidifier has been on the fritz so I got a new one coming tomorrow that I can't set the rh level and I hope that helps the temp cause the other wouldn't fit in the tent and this one is only 5" wide so it will fit with no problems. If that won't keep it up I was checking out heating panels on amazon. I don't like space heaters for fear of a fire and coming home to the fire department and cops. That would not be fun.ill keep my fingers crossed

 

[Flower Child]

Glad you got it figured out. Your setup sounds great (well except for the fire and cop thought).
If you run the humidifier or heater in the tent during lights out, be careful about those little led lights everything seems to have nowadays. I wound up putting black tape over a light on my humidifier so it wouldn't glow in the dark. It doesnt take much light to mess with these plants light schedules.

 

[jmac2267]

Yeah I am gonna cover the light on them. I can't even stand the light on my olevia tv. It's blue when it's off and lights up half the bedroom so I covered that up, problem solved. Thanks all

 

[spl8r]

Try an inline fan speed controller to help with temps, you don't need a wind tunnel haha just enough to keep the light cool and a slight negative pressure to contain smells. I found that a speed controller helped me with my temp issues during off periods