I need help from the a/c engineer

[jaguarrh]

Having read thru most of the posts relating to ventilation, I noticed that one of you guys is an a/c engineer… was it pipeman?

 

Anyhoo, I’m sure lots of you guys can help me as it is mentioned a lot on many of the forums I have visited.

 

I am currently in the process of building a new grow enclosure in my garage as I have been struggling with temps in a cabinet grow for some time. The veg room I built in the cab is too small as well so I have decided to step it up in size a bit

 

The new enclosure is made from panda film over timber studding, against one of the brick walls in the garage (see diag.)

 

My problem is that I want to use a carbon filter in the flower room and a fan (S&P TD500x150mm I’m thinking) large enough to ventilate both of my spaces. I’m having a mental block and can’t think of a way of setting up ducting and vents etc to service both areas with one fan. Expense is an issue for me at the mo, and I would like to get one good big fan to do my entire grow area rather than multiple expensive fans.

 

As you can see there won’t be too much light power in there, 600 in the flower, and 250 in the veg, and as we are coming into the colder months I deffo want to try and get away without aircon, for now.

 

If someone could help me with an airflow circuit diagram ,so to speak, I would be forever in your debt.

[Pure]

No need for an ac tech here to answer what you need but I'm sure once they wake up they will see the post aswell

 

all you need is a Y joint , and two pieces of ducting running off of that , however your trouble is going to come in with the carbon filer , carbon filters are not made to have air blown into them they are made to have air sucked through the carbon , and to do the job effectivly you need to have

the filter directly attached to the fan which would make the y joint not possible to do , so in my opinion your options are this , go with a carbon filter for the flower room with a centrifugal fan , and a small inline for the exaust of the other room , and eigther keep the ducting seperate or get a y joint that matches your fans with two of the ends , and messures one sizes up for the single duct , to stop any back pressure if you join the ducts make sure the two room fans are some what equal

 

Your other option is to do more like your planning except using an ozone generator instead of a carbon filter , how you would do this is , haveing a Y duct , with a piece going to the top of each room , then have a single duct that leads to your ozone generator , and then from the ozone generator you add some more ducting and dump the air into a safe place ( preferably outdoors and away from people as it is very bad it breath in ) this option has the upside of only requireing one fan , and being cheaper , however it IS a health hazzard if you are exhausting into your home and not ouside into an open area away from you

[SukonmiSkunk]

youve got quite a bit of space to vent, I dont think one fan will be enough.... I would have a 300mm inline ductfan for each room. This doesnt mean they cant be vented through the same ductwork..

 

Each room I would work out 2 extraction points, to get a better airflow through the rooms....a Y peice 300x300x300 with the filter connected to it in the roof with the fan connected so the air is being sucked through the filter. with another Y peice 400x300x300 to connect both rooms into the same ducting. With the size of your room I dont think 1 fan would do the job.

 

so I would be keping both rooms as seperate extraction systems, but join them bothe together in the roof.... but that is really not nessasary with the carbon filters....

 

another option is Ozone.... the ducting would be the same, but a hell of a lot easier to install, however ozone is not real good to breath in so you dont want to be living in very next room unless you can duct it towards a safe part of the house....

[jaguarrh]

thanks for the reply pure

 

so it seems like the most simple option would be to keep the two rooms seperate and use a good centrifugal fan on the flower side, with the carbon filter sucking out to the high vent hole.

 

for this i am thinking either the "allvent 260 - 150mm ducting - 576 m^3/hr" or the "fantech td 500/150 - 150mm ducting - 396m^3/hr". they are $245 and $250 respectively. Which would you recommend?

 

on the veg side i am thinking the "allvent 150 inline - 150mm duct - 306m^3/hr - $88

 

both rooms will probably have 3x150mm holes at the bottom of the side panda walls (left and right as per diag) with a short length of 150mm ducting bent in an 's' for light proofing. does this sound ok?

 

i will update my sketch to make it a bit clearer...

 

thanks for your help

[SukonmiSkunk]

for the size of your rooms, nothing UNDER 300mm fan.. theres a lot of air that needs to be moved in those rooms. Also add the restriction of the filter... the bigger the fan the better in my opinion. Its expensive... I know, but a 300mm inline duct fan is made for this exact purpose... and are half the cost as a centrifigal fan, centrifical fans are a shit load better.. but an inline will be more than enough, mine cost me about $280AUSD....

 

its Expensive thats why its better to do it properly and spend the cash the first time.. otherwise you will just be replacing them for the next grow... the more air movement the better.. always upsize.. a 250mm duct fan will be enough.. the 300mm with be a shit load better... dont scrimp, it WILL cost you more in the long run.. also the bigger the duct sizes the less restiction on the fans, making them work more efficiently

[thc24]

Y cost around $40 need to have them made most of the time.

 

Nice rooms mate id go i little larger on the flower room and run flouros fro mum veg. it would cut costs of running. Hi pure why do you say filters are to be sucked through not blown. I did nt realise there would be a differance just cleaner on fan for blow through.

[jaguarrh]

here is the revised sketch,....

 

do these figures sound right to everyone? they are based on the figures on hydro aqua pet (l/s) and some unit conversion web pages..

[SukonmiSkunk]

yeah for sure, then just duct it all together into one if you like.. doesnt really need it looking at that though...

Also have the air in coming from ground level, and obviously exhuast from the top.... the cooler air comes in from the bottom and the warmer air out the top.... also helps create a natural airflow through the room....

this should be fine I think.... also a filter on the mother room might be the go too, they still smell....

 

think how the air will flow... as to where you exhaust to eliminate dead spots in the room.... the way you have it will be fine if you have an oscalating fan in that corner to help the air move...

 

having the exhuast directly opposite the inlet would be a better extraction point....

[jaguarrh]

thanks for the reply pure

 

so it seems like the most simple option would be to keep the two rooms seperate and use a good centrifugal fan on the flower side, with the carbon filter sucking out to the high vent hole.

 

for this i am thinking either the "allvent 260 - 150mm ducting - 576 m^3/hr" or the "fantech td 500/150 - 150mm ducting - 396m^3/hr". they are $245 and $250 respectively. Which would you recommend?

 

on the veg side i am thinking the "allvent 150 inline - 150mm duct - 306m^3/hr - $88

 

both rooms will probably have 3x150mm holes at the bottom of the side panda walls (left and right as per diag) with a short length of 150mm ducting bent in an 's' for light proofing. does this sound ok?

 

i will update my sketch to make it a bit clearer...

 

thanks for your help

 

 

so just to be sure, do these fans sound ok? sorry to repeat myself but i'm not sure as sukonmi said to use 300mm ducting?

 

the total volume of my two rooms is about 5m^3 each for a total of 10m^3

 

oh and btw, i did intend on having an oscillating fan in each of the rooms too, just hard to fit in my crappy drawing, thanks sukonmi

[Pure]

Y cost around $40 need to have them made most of the time.

 

Nice rooms mate id go i little larger on the flower room and run flouros fro mum veg. it would cut costs of running. Hi pure why do you say filters are to be sucked through not blown. I did nt realise there would be a differance just cleaner on fan for blow through.

 

ok well to start with it WILL clean air eighter way , however the filters are simply not designed to be blown into ,

 

use this as an example , you have a bag with a few tiny holes in it , the tiny hole represent the air passing through carbon and everythign else represents the metal parts of the filter , if you fill this bag up really quickly with air it's gonna fill up and trap air inside even though there are a few holes it for the air to go out this will be no comparison to the air that is fillign the bag , eventually if you continue to fill it , it will pop , because the pressure inside becomes too much for the bag to contain , ( you see whre i'm going with this yet )

 

ok now lets look at it as a filter , your blowing large amounts of air from your room into the filter , through your fan , and that air is being forced via pressure through the carbon , but much like the bag in the experiment the filter is filling with more and more air as time goes, in the case of the filter it's not gonna pop because it's metal and a solid object , HOWEVER all that equates to is more and more back pressure build up , in the short term the problem with this is that air will find any other possible way to escape , so any leaks ect are going to be pumped right through them without the air beign cleaned ( which in the end defetes the purpose of a filter ) , and in the long term the bad said is that your fan will last about 1/8th of it;s normal life because it would be under a heavy stress load all the time , and having to constantly fight back pressure is very bad for a fan

 

where as when you suck air through the filter , the right way , you connect the fan to the filter directly , and then the only air that it CAN suck through is air through the carbon ( forcing it all to be cleaned ) this requires a bit or torque which is why I alwasy sugest a centrifugal fan , an inline will work but you will replace it after a few grows

 

hope that explains the reasonsing