Seeking advice on my new space

[SmokzAlot]

I will postulate, if you could create a lung in the attic space it may work well.
Although creating on the same level as the grow room would be more convenient to service and such. A walk in foyer if you will is large enough. Also could serve as a central control area and supply area. By restricting your grow space to something relevant to the foot print of your lighting, and then applying a reflective surface will exceed what an open room will produce, as far as how much light is effectively reaching the plants. These interior walls could easily be constructed of poly board as well and perhaps some 2"x2" studs. Changes and/or alterations again being very simple if desired.

Some basic logic as I see it:
To apply any insulation on or near the roofing is not advised. It needs free circulation of air and to be the same temp or cooler as outside for longest roof life span. Hence eave vents and ridge vent. Or in you case gable vents.

The extreme temps of attics are death to a roof by severely shortening it's lifespan. This refers to the roofing materials and the framing under it. Humidity as well is no good in any form. Humidity reduces the effectiveness of your insulation big time first of all. Hence the vapor barrier on the proper side. We won't go into the potential for mold and mildew spores to grow and possibly infect your garden. Another similar example is if one draws dirty air from under the house. Dark dank area ripe for mold and mildew. By having a lung you are able to condition and clean air for your grow room. You may be able to create a lung of sort by applying a polystyrene sheeting to the lower side of the roof rafters and other interior structure, there by leaving a free ventilated space above it. Where this lung vents to the outside can be where ever it needs to be as well. By making your setup modular in design as such, you are open to expansion and change with less effort. Also impacting less of your garden as change or occurrences happen, as you are isolating environments as well.

Only you know what your goals are and potential future plans if any. I always opt for versatility to allow for life's changes. Not to mention Keep it Simple as well. But it MUST get the job done.

Always good to see people put some thinking into a project.

DIY

 

[SmokzAlot]

More and more homes nowadays have washers and dryers on their second floors. If our all intrusive government flew over, could they really tell the difference between yours or your neighbors heat signature. Say you had the exhaust pumping out a side wall with a dryer louver on the outside. Can they tell if you are using a dryer or a grow room, I dont think so. Could they tell whether it was your high efficiency furnace pumping out a sidewall, I dont think so. I do not know how they do what they do or what they look for but my guess is they arent looking for exhaust pouring out but more of a heat signature from un-cooled lights. Which to me would show a big footprint. If exhaust was sucked directly from outside ran straight through your lights and then directly to the outside, the footprint would minimal. Just before it exits you could put a Y fitting, you could use this hook up for the exhaust of the room, the fan pushing this connection should have the filter attached to it. The intake for the room would be separate and not even on ducting, maybe a mechanical louvered vent controlled by a temp controller. This way your fan filter combo will always be filtering, the exhaust for the lights will always be on, at least when the lights are on and the intake for the room wont be pulling in cold air unless needed.

When I get time I'll use your original drawing and show you what is running through my head. No idea if its a good way to do it or a good idea,,,,I'm only on my first cup of coffee.

I'll give you the dryer vent, but not as a constant hot spot. Most E appliance today discharge condensed water vapor mostly, no heat sig like a few 1ks running 16 or 24hrs, or like furnaces of old. Perhaps I'll use the flu? First I suggest you stay away from any mixing your environment with noxious fumes. Else you could end up going to sleep and never waking up. Need we mention that a flu doesn't have a sig 365 days a year let alone 16hrs a day. Also keep in mind if you are in a plat of homes, does yours stand out in the crowd? Are the heat sigs where they should be? Are the temp ranges detected relative? Time of year as well, furnaces don't run 24x7 and so one. Look at the real patterns of life. Abnormalities in the matrix if you will, is what they watch for. Most folks don't pay attention at that level. It's about the little details... things that you accept as common place even though they are not.

To me the solution is to handle the air internally and discharge as low a sig as possible. Keep in mind as well you need fresh air to get CO2 into the garden.

Think submarine, a complete environment with minimal public exposure. Stealth

 

[420fied]

I wanted to add this drawing as it's where I'm at in my plan. If you want to add feedback, please work off of this drawing.

The only place I can bring up air from the crawl is located closer to the staircase so the air to cool the hoods has to come in midway down the right side of the room and exhaust out the top between the hoods and the window.

We're planning the 8" passive air duct to accommodate the 8" fan pulling air through the carbon filter by coming through the dead space behind the knee wall from the eve. Any and all feedback is welcome. That's why I started this thread. I appreciate your time folks.

 

[dragontoker]

What I would change, cause now I see where your pulling air from for the lights. I would reverse it. Put another vent on roof and attach ducting right to it. Pull air from here and dump everything including air from filter down the duct work to the crawl space under the house.

420, pulling air from the crawl space below the house will pump humidity through your lights and into the attic. Add another PoP vent to the roof and pull air from here then pump all exhaust under the house. Dont use existing PoP vents on roof, as this will screw up your circulation in your attic because you need 1sqft of ventilation per 300sqft of attic space.

Seeing that you have access to run duct work all the way down to the crawl space, makes this easy. To me that would be the perfect spot to dump because it should mix with cold air before it ever leaches out of the crawl space to the outside environment.

 

[420fied]

What I would change, cause now I see where your pulling air from for the lights. I would reverse it. Put another vent on roof and attach ducting right to it. Pull air from here and dump everything including air from filter down the duct work to the crawl space under the house.

420, pulling air from the crawl space below the house will pump humidity through your lights and into the attic. Add another PoP vent to the roof and pull air from here then pump all exhaust under the house. Dont use existing PoP vents on roof, as this will screw up your circulation in your attic because you need 1sqft of ventilation per 300sqft of attic space.

Seeing that you have access to run duct work all the way down to the crawl space, makes this easy. To me that would be the perfect spot to dump because it should mix with cold air before it ever leaches out of the crawl space to the outside environment.

So draw from the roof? There's already vents there so I wouldn't have to cut any more. I could just hook to the existing.

What about my carbon filter? Why do I have to send it down to the crawl too? Would I join them in some sort of Y connector and send them both down to the crawl?

I really don't wanna send my scrubbed air to my crawl. I wanna send it to the attic.

Is this what you're thinking?

 

[dragontoker]

Cant use existing vent on roof because you need it to ventilate attic. Thats where that 1sqft of vent to 300sqft of attic space comes into play. If you were to use o ne of the existing vents, your attic could build up excessive heat.

 

[dragontoker]

Adding another vent on the roof is very easy. Vents will come with directions. Basically you cut the hole, pry up the shingles a little bit, spooge some roof tar on the bottom of the flange of the vent, slip the top of the flange under the pried up roof shingles. Half hour job.

 

[420fied]

I REALLY don't want to add another vent to that roof. In fact, I won't/can't. If I can't draw from one of the existing vents then I have to figure out something else.

 

[dragontoker]

How about using another eave vent to feed the lights.

Boy, you sure did put your foot down on the roof vent. LoL

 

[420fied]

How about using another eave vent to feed the lights.

I was going to suggest that. That would work, wouldn't it? So I'd pull it from an eve, into the room where the fan would be, and then back out of the room and down to the crawl?

 

[dragontoker]

Yes, by rights you should only have to run duct work from the eave to the inside of the room. Just like you did already, except now you would have 2 vents going in. If you did it this way though, instead of running duct work all the way to the lights, you could pull in to much outside cold air.

If you hooked it direct from eaves to lights you wouldnt have to worry about to much cold air.

 

[dragontoker]

 

[dragontoker]

I would almost think you would want to pull the air for the filter from a vent in the floor that sucks from the conditioned room below.. Your filter you want running all the time, right? Well if its running at night, pulling from your passive intake, maybe it will get to cold up there and you will have to fight that passive cold intake with a heater.

 

[SmokzAlot]

I would almost think you would want to pull the air for the filter from a vent in the floor that sucks from the conditioned room below.. Your filter you want running all the time, right? Well if its running at night, pulling from your passive intake, maybe it will get to cold up there and you will have to fight that passive cold intake with a heater.

I agree, why condition the air if you have a conditioned air to draw from, use the space below as your lung if it fits your stealth plan. If you have a tight house you can use the passive as a secondary vented relief. Just install a spring balanced damper so it opens when you want. Don't forget backdraft dampers so each is isolated directionally. Don't need anything heading the wrong way. I can also see a TEE or two, a damper here and there, perhaps a cap on a TEE, all in the vertical exhaust for optional winter heating dispersal. A booster fan at this point may be beneficial as well. Do use hard pipe and only flex when pipe won't work. Round pipe flows better, than any not round shape.

 

[FrankFoster]

make sure all the air that gets pulled is filtered. air should go in filter, through inline fan into light out light into light etc., out of lights, then that super heated air gets pumped out.

I had a buddy running a 16 inch inline through 3 1000W lights and the air was over 225 degrees when it came through the 3rd light. So obviously if that air is vented to the rooftop, you are going to be a thermal nightmare.

Depending on your sewer, super hot filtered air can be pumped into the ground or add another 100 feet of the insulated ducting and coil it round and round. I have even seen thermal insulated ducting into unisulated ducting that with fans blowing on it like a giant heat-sink.

just 2Cents

 

[dragontoker]

make sure all the air that gets pulled is filtered. air should go in filter, through inline fan into light out light into light etc., out of lights, then that super heated air gets pumped out.

I had a buddy running a 16 inch inline through 3 1000W lights and the air was over 225 degrees when it came through the 3rd light. So obviously if that air is vented to the rooftop, you are going to be a thermal nightmare.

Depending on your sewer, super hot filtered air can be pumped into the ground or add another 100 feet of the insulated ducting and coil it round and round. I have even seen thermal insulated ducting into unisulated ducting that with fans blowing on it like a giant heat-sink.

just 2Cents

If you have 2 separate duct runs, whats the point of filtering the air that comes from outside, runs through your lights and then back outside.

Air never enters the room, so filtering it doesnt make sense.

 

[SmokzAlot]

It's about keeping the lights cleaner longer and maintaining lumen output. Stick a filter in there and you will see for your self how much dirt you will capture. It's a matter of choice in the end... My guess is most don't.