# Ventilation opinions



## Hushpuppy (Oct 2, 2011)

So I have the new grow room addition complete and we are getting ready to get our lighting and ventilation set up. Take a look at my floorplan and tell me what you think. I have drawn out where there are raised floors for the totes to sit on. The floors form an 'L' shape with the two sections being divided by a reflective curtain in order to have 2 separate grows. The blue squiggly lines are the reflective curtains that will keep the light held within the grow area. 

The bottom section (of the 'L')of the grow floor is 4'deep by 8' wide(as you face it) and will have 2 600w HPS in hoods and one 400wHPS in a cooltube(these are marked over the floorplan in orenge marker). The other section is 3' deep by 10' wide (or long). It will have 3 600wHPS in cooltubes (also denoted on floorplan in orenge marker).

I have 2 holes in the floor of the building right behind the entry door. These will be my intake that draw air from beneath the room. There will be an airconditioner in the end wall for the summer heat. My exaust is in the end wall at the ceiling (beside the AC). I intend to cut a second exaust hole in that wall on the opposite side.

My intention is to have one intake and exaust serve the lights and the other bring in fresh air to the room and exaust stale air. Do you guys think I can do the air cool of the lights efficiently with one intake and exaust? if so what would be the best configuration. I was thinking of placing a 'Y' connector on the intake and routing each leg to 3 of the lights in series, then have them join back up into the one exaust with another 'Y' then be pulled by a single strong vortex fan. What do you think?


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## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 2, 2011)

No, I do not see this ventilation plan working--3400 watts may take some doing to cool.  I think that you would be far better off with 2 exhaust fans--each cooling 3 lights rather than having an intake and an exhaust trying to cool 3400W.  And I think this may not even work.  How large of fans are you talking about?  How large are each of your growing spaces?


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## Hushpuppy (Oct 2, 2011)

That is what I was afraid of. Not that it is a big deal, it just means more holes in my walls.

Thg, the one grow-space is 4'x8' that is farthest from the AC unit and exaust hole. The other one is 3'x10'. I kind of figured I might have to separate them into 2 devoted cooling systems. I have a vortex 6" but not sure at the moment about the cfm for that(I think 450-550cfm?) 

What about if I were to connect 3 lights in series to one heavy cfm exaust fan and the other 3 lights in series to another exaust fan(in separate exaust port) but leave the other ends of the lights open so that I pull air from within the grow-room and leave the passive intake open to allow fresh air to be pulled into the room by the 2 exaust fans pulling through the lights. The AC will run so that its fan adds to the air circulation in the room but the compressor would only kick in on warm days(inside air above 77*f)? Does that sound feasable? 

As a side note, the reflective dividers will only cover the area next to the plants, leaving 1' open airspace at the top and about 1-2' open airspace at the bottom. This is for the purpose of allowing free air movement throughout the room while blocking most of the light from spreading wastefully across the working area where plants are not growing.

I am hoping to set up the most efficient and inexpensive way to both cool the lights and maintain temp ballance while still refreshing the air within the grow-room. The whole room will be HPS and dedicated to flowering in 12/12. The 2 sections are divided up for harvest timeperiod and for maintaining light within a set plant grouping area.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 3, 2011)

I cool 2 600W with a Vortex (448 cfm) but run them in parallel rather than series.  In the summer when it is hot, I generally have ducting that runs from near the floor to the inlet on the lights.  The air temps at floor level can be 20 degrees cooler than air temps at light level.  If you run 3 lights in series, I am thinking that the air going by that last bulb is going to be mighty warm and do little to actually cool the light.

Is this still a plan on paper or do you have things set up so that you can run some tests?  Ventilation generally needs to be tweaked to people's individual circumstances.


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## Hushpuppy (Oct 3, 2011)

The lighting and ventilation is still on paper at this point. I think I may be able to set up one section of lights next weekend. So I will do some testing then. I just want to get some ideas now so that I can try them out before getting my plants into flower that will be going into that room.


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