venting.. about venting

[BROMAN]

the old lady has begged me not to post pics so im forgoing a journal but, I need to gripe. the girls are looking good. a twist tie did cut the main, affectively topping one plant though. so I fimmed the other two. between that and the lst they are doing well. they could be greener so I've upped the canna a&b while a tea of high n castings, p guano, kelp meal and alfalfa is brewing. my three plants have just come to the end of there 3rd wk of veg and, they're getting pretty loud already. this is disturbing because I've got my diy filter hooked up (hxxps://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=509470). I wanted to keep the fan noise minimum. right now the wife says she doesn't smell anything but, my nose knows. so before transplanting I'm going to take reattach the insulated ducting using zip ties instead of duct clamps to eliminate any leaks. I'm also going to tamp down the carbon to make sure its packed well.. I've got a 400w batwing and cool tube (dual capable) 6" cap fan in a box and the filter in an 8'x2' closet with the shelf in for about 4 1/2' of height. the filter is made of hardware cloth and is laying on the shelf. I think this may be causing the probs as the hrdwr cloth is not very rigid. xmas is the worst time to have to buy a filter so I may rebuild it with something stronger and/or place it on the floor. setbacks. and I haven't smoked in over a year! I'm having fun though and I will smoke again. I have a dank destiny.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Actually, duct clamps will tighten down a lot better and tighter than zip ties. The hardware cloth should be plenty strong. I am not really understanding what the problem is? If you do not have good negative pressure in your space, you are not going to contain all smells--it is not the fault of the carbon or leaks in the ducting. Since your fan should be pulling (is it?) leaks in the ducting would not let the smell out anyway--it would just pull in more air.

I did not quite understand from your description though how you have your ventilation set up? Why is your wife so paranoid about pictures? It is no more dangerous to post up pics than it is to post about it in writing...

 

[pcduck]

Geo tagging with cell phones.
Turn off the gps

 

[BROMAN]

THG and Duck.. thanks for listening. both you guys gave great explanations regarding pics and safety that sounded much the same as mines but, she just feels that pics will lead leo to the door and provide definitive evidence. ???

as far as the odor she can now smell it too. its nothing overwhelming but, they're not that big or in flower yet. the negative pressure seems pretty good. the pressure will pull the closet door closed those last 2-3" and, a plastic bag will stick to the intake. I was thinking it was the filter and the inner core being compressed by the weight of the carbon. the filter is on its side and the hardware cloth is not very rigid. I also thought that maybe the carbon could be packed better.

my setup is.. 65 square inches of intake down low, on the far right side of the closet up high on the shelf is the filter-ins ducting-cooltube-ins ducting-435cfm fan-ducting-exhaust up high into the bedroom. I figured it must be the diy filter even though it seems to be pulling when I put my hand up to it but a little less from the bottom. there is also plenty of air flowing out of the vent. I don't know..

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

One thing I would do is to get more intakes. A 435 cfm fan is most likely a 6" or 113 sq inches--65 sq inches is 1/2 of that. Your fan is trying to suck through a hole that is less than the intake of the fan--in fact 1/2 the size. Your fan is capable of putting out no more air than it is taking in and in addition, it is making the fan work extra hard trying to pull the amount of air it is supposed to. I have about 4 4" intakes in my 20 sq ft space with my 448 cfm fan. However, there is a good possibility that the DIY filter is simply not blocking the odor. In which case, the only option is get it working or get a commercial filter.

 

[BROMAN]

THG, I figured that my intake was 2x the area of my exhaust and that this should be enough. yes its a 6" fan and exhaust with the 4x14 intake and a 3x3" hole for the extension cord. not enough? math is not my strong suit but, its double the area of the exhaust. no? should it be triple?
I may have gotten the problem fixed. I propped the bottom of the filter up about a foot off of the shelf so that(even though the shelf is not one solid piece) the surface of the filter is not in contact with it at all. it seems to be working now.

I long ago decided to use Mass P's coco buckets. I went to layer the buckets and realized that the miracle grow perlite was a different color than what I already had. reading the bag closely I find it has nutes added. so im headed to the hydro store tomorrow and im going to get these girls transplanted. the buckets are cut, ive started to build my scrog screens. I need to wire the fixture that will make the cool tube into a dual cooltube. and now I don't seem to have to worry about odor anymore. its happening.:dancing:

 

[Hushpuppy]

I don't know how you have your diy filter set up but if you make a small cage that is long and uses rigid wire to form a cylinder shape with one end closed, then wrap the whole thing in window screen. Set this inside a bag that you form out of the hardware cloth, then pour in the carbon so that the cage cylinder is buried in carbon with no carbon inside the cage, and the hose connecting to the open end of the cage, and the cloth enclosing the hose, this will give you really good results as you will have more area of carbon to pull the air through.

Having more surface area to go through will lower the speed of the air that is passing through the carbon and allow it to strip the odors as it goes through. If you don't have enough surface area for the air to pull through, it increases in speed which cuts down the ability of the carbon to scrub the odors from the air.

I hope this makes sense to you. I actually made my own like that once. I think its still in the DIY section with pictures of the cage cylinder.

 

[BROMAN]

Hey Hush.. The filter does seem to be working now but, the real test is coming up in a few weeks. the design is in the link in the first post and, is similar to what your saying. I've got a six inch cylinder inside an 8" giving 2" of carbon for air to flow through. I will check out your diy as greater thickness makes sense.
the plants have been xferred and its amazing how quickly they can change. after a night I looked in on them the next day and they seemed ok. a few hours passed and I looked in again to find that the top growth of all three plants had taken on a greener, darker hue. they really respond quickly. the amendments and tea appear to be working.

 

[BROMAN]

I found your post.. hush and it is the same design. the screen is a great idea. mine is a little longer than most I've seen though. the diy I followed was the only one that I saw that addressed the cfm to filter size relation. I think the problem was that the filter was horizontal causing the core to be depressed by the weight of the carbon. I don't smell anything but, now the wife says she still smells something. I cant call it so, I'm putting cash aside for a phresh filter once flowering starts. I still haven't removed it and looked it over. I just propped it up and it seemed to work much better. I will look it over and perhaps stand it up. thanks

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yeah unfortunately, when making something like that, if you don't have the density of the carbon right with the amount and speed of the air flow then it can do that to ya. That is why I have all Phresh ffilters.

 

[justafarmer]

had to edit...sorry