Controlling odor coming from portable AC exhaust. Please help before I get myself in trouble.

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markyd

markyd

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I've searched and read for hours, and I'm still not sure of the best approach here. I have my 10x10 room being cooled by a single hose portable A/C. I also have a dual hose that I can use in this room if it's a better solution for odor control.

Currently, the exhaust is stinking up the entire block. I have to get that addressed or the HOA is going to have an absolute fit. I currently have an 8" Carbon filter inside the room, scrubbing the air at full blast, and it does nothing to help. I obviously need carbon filtration on the exhaust, but I'm not sure of the best solution here.

Can I just put a carbon filter on the exhaust line with a booster fan? It seems like the traditional carbon filters like I've been using in my grow tent are porous on the sides. I'm not concerned with odor leaking out of the room into the house, so it seems like something that JUST filters the outbound exhaust (and not the entire room) would be best, but I'm not sure what product I'd need here.

Please point me in the right direction. I'm lost and need to fix this ASAP.
 
Kraken.headz

Kraken.headz

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The dual hose may be marginally better, as it'll probably draw less air out of the grow room.
I think that any portable manufacturer will warn heavily against adding even a booster fan to your exhaust vent, and you'd have to use a pretty powerful fan to draw through an inline carbon filter. An inline ozone generator may help to scrub that odor, but they're expensive and can be uhh... unhealthy.
Portable units are the worst for grow rooms.
 
Kraken.headz

Kraken.headz

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I've known people to build a box for the exhaust vent to dump in to, which they then exhaust through a filter. Maybe they even add something like ozone or ONA in the box, but mostly they end up chasing their tail.
 
detroitjoe

detroitjoe

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Break the exhaust line and attach a trap with water. Re connect line and if u can , take it as high up as possible.
Depending on structure, if residential house, connect exhaust to furnace exhaust line.
Image
 
BigCube

BigCube

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Yeah, you're not gonna be able to put a filter on it unless you also put an inline fan with a cfm that can keep up with the ac. The ac unit alone doesnt have enough umph to push through a filter.

So, what I propose is:

Ac to duct fan that has a higher cfm than the ac, duct fan to filter.

Or as stated above, build a small box that you exhaust the ac in to. In that box will be a filter connected to a duct fan that is a higher cfm than the ac.
 
detroitjoe

detroitjoe

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It’s dusty but that’s one of my very first Oder control experiments. I use the power of the furnace to my advantage... u can add an in-line fan for better efficiency
 
TheBioMaster

TheBioMaster

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What the guys above said, build a box to dump your exhaust into......in the box you can use ONA or any super stinky odor removing liquid with moisture absorbing polymer crystals.

Also stated above is that Your going to need the proper CFM levels to push that air through a carbon filter forcefully for the carbon to scrub the air clean.

Ozone generator running on a timer.....

None will work if your room is not sealed properly to begin with.

Start there, gotta get some tape or something to seal up the leaks.
 
Anthem

Anthem

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I would start out with changing the carbon filter inside the grow area. I only get about 2 runs off them before the smell starts to increase. You could start out by changing the filter in the grow room and use the changed filter at the box for the exhaust coming out of the A/C. Another thought would be to run the line off the A/C into another room and try scrubbing that room before the air goes outside. Portable A/C's kind of create some issues. If you go the ozone or ONA route make sure to keep that stuff well away from the plants. I have been told by multiple people it can mess with the smell and taste of the flowers.
 
AnimalHouse

AnimalHouse

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I use ozone on outgoing exhaust and it works wonders. Gotta make sure it's sealed within the duct and cannot enter back into the room as ozone concentrated like that is not good for any living thing but it does kill odor way better than many carbon filter options.
I'm using a Big Blue Generator bought used off ebay and has worked great. No more dead skunk aroma coming from my house 😇
 
visajoe1

visajoe1

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I use ozone on outgoing exhaust and it works wonders. Gotta make sure it's sealed within the duct and cannot enter back into the room as ozone concentrated like that is not good for any living thing but it does kill odor way better than many carbon filter options.
I'm using a Big Blue Generator bought used off ebay and has worked great. No more dead skunk aroma coming from my house 😇
You had me intrigued, I scoped out that Big Blue. Its just UVC light? Is there anything else to it?
$325 seems a bit steep for a 6", dang! Got me wondering if I could build one for under $60. 15 minutes later I think I got it. Closer to $100 for similar (more?) UVC exposure compared to Big Blue 6", not including tube. Looks like they just rolled a piece of SS sheet and stuffed lights in it. Project for next run! lol

The Big Blue 6" has (4) 17" UVC bulbs in it. 68" inches of UVC
My SmokinJoe UVC 6" would have (2) 21" twin tube UVC bulbs. 84" total UVC

To be fair, and know actual effectiveness, we need to know the actual UVC wattage output (strength) of these bulbs. I cant find that information yet.

1590776401106
 
markyd

markyd

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I use ozone on outgoing exhaust and it works wonders. Gotta make sure it's sealed within the duct and cannot enter back into the room as ozone concentrated like that is not good for any living thing but it does kill odor way better than many carbon filter options.
I'm using a Big Blue Generator bought used off ebay and has worked great. No more dead skunk aroma coming from my house 😇

Woah, this is rad! This might be my answer. I'm also going to look into building a box to exhaust the air into like was mentioned, but space is in short supply in this room. I've got it crammed full.
 
AnimalHouse

AnimalHouse

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You had me intrigued, I scoped out that Big Blue. Its just UVC light? Is there anything else to it?
$325 seems a bit steep for a 6", dang! Got me wondering if I could build one for under $60. 15 minutes later I think I got it. Closer to $100 for similar (more?) UVC exposure compared to Big Blue 6", not including tube. Looks like they just rolled a piece of SS sheet and stuffed lights in it. Project for next run! lol

The Big Blue 6" has (4) 17" UVC bulbs in it. 68" inches of UVC
My SmokinJoe UVC 6" would have (2) 21" twin tube UVC bulbs. 84" total UVC

To be fair, and know actual effectiveness, we need to know the actual UVC wattage output (strength) of these bulbs. I cant find that information yet.

View attachment 979199

It's a bit different from a regular UV germ killer lamp but could be DIY'ed very ez
UV germ killer lamps operate at around 300NM and the UV you want that will compress the air around it into ozone operates at around 185nm.
They operate off a small magnetic ballast and have an ignitor at the bulb plug that has a small light bulb wired in.
The main thing to know you're getting ozone from the bulb is by smell..It will have a bleach like, swimming pool type aroma.

What I did was buy used off ebay and got an 8" but I only needed the 6". These things are fairly basic and last a long time so buying used is a great way to save cash. I only paid $120 for mine and I think it retails new around $350.
When mine got here I took it apart, removing one of the ballasts and a bulb with it's ignitor to make second 4" gen for portable use and the 8" with only two lamps is for the g/room.
The 4" DIY I made is just a 4" x 24" stove pipe duct with the bulb mounted inside and the ballast and power cord mounted on the outside. It's kinda crude but works great either plugged into duct or just sitting in a space like my car to deodorize it
 
Madbud

Madbud

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Tried masking it? Shove acouple dryer sheets in the exhaust vent, or paper towels soaked with cheap perfume. My neighbor uses a softener in her laundry that overpowers my outdoor grow in late summer. Smells like prom night, bubble gum and Avon.
 
visajoe1

visajoe1

807
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It's a bit different from a regular UV germ killer lamp but could be DIY'ed very ez
UV germ killer lamps operate at around 300NM and the UV you want that will compress the air around it into ozone operates at around 185nm.
They operate off a small magnetic ballast and have an ignitor at the bulb plug that has a small light bulb wired in.
The main thing to know you're getting ozone from the bulb is by smell..It will have a bleach like, swimming pool type aroma.

What I did was buy used off ebay and got an 8" but I only needed the 6". These things are fairly basic and last a long time so buying used is a great way to save cash. I only paid $120 for mine and I think it retails new around $350.
When mine got here I took it apart, removing one of the ballasts and a bulb with it's ignitor to make second 4" gen for portable use and the 8" with only two lamps is for the g/room.
The 4" DIY I made is just a 4" x 24" stove pipe duct with the bulb mounted inside and the ballast and power cord mounted on the outside. It's kinda crude but works great either plugged into duct or just sitting in a space like my car to deodorize it
Nice! The bulbs above did say they were 235nm, but I can keep looking for something closer to 185. As I'm looking a lot of these are saying the glass filters out 185nm, also terming them "ozone-free". Definitely not what we need. Search continues
 
wtfdaemon

wtfdaemon

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Google for "185nm ozone lamp" and lots of results come up, including the above.
 
AnimalHouse

AnimalHouse

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Nice! The bulbs above did say they were 235nm, but I can keep looking for something closer to 185. As I'm looking a lot of these are saying the glass filters out 185nm, also terming them "ozone-free". Definitely not what we need. Search continues

I took a couple videos of my DIY in action.
At one end I have the ballast for the lamp and the other is a 4" duct booster fan. I wired in the ballast to the fan power so it would only have one power cord.
The fan is in there to make it portable but for a g/room an inline fan on the exhaust would replace the built in fan.
After about ten seconds being on is when the smell starts getting stronger and stronger. It's toxic so it's not something you want running in a sealed room with people, pets, or plants so it's very important to keep the ozone contained in the duct work and make sure the duct has no leaks.
When the ozone gets back out into open air it breaks down to molecular oxygen and is no longer a danger

This first video shows that ignitor bulb. I've never seen an ignitor be another light bulb until using one of these things but yeah it's a small bulb like what ya might find in a car dash light but I'm assuming it's 120volt



















And here it's just blowing a ton of ozone and smelling like it's bleaching the air.
I use this portable in my car to get rid of wet dog & weed odors, in my shed when a rat died it neutralized the stink, and in between grows I set it up in my g/room, shut the door, turn off all fans, and let it run for a day or two. It will sterlize the g/room to near hospital grade so there's no worries of bugs or molds during the grow.



















The other gen I use on my duct is up in my attic crawlspace. Exhaust fan sucks the stinky air out of the room and at the end of the duct is two ozone lamps just destroying any odor so well my crawlspace does'nt even get that musty attic smell. Another good side effect using it up there is pests like squirrels want nothing to do with my attic space. 😜
I control the gen up there with a smart plug so I can turn it on/off with my ipad anywhere or when I'm home I just tell Alexa to turn on the odor control so I dont have to set a timer or plug it in
 
visajoe1

visajoe1

807
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@AnimalHouse I dig the level you're operating on with your setups 😎. Thanks for sharing that. I probably spent 90 minutes searching for parts and reading about UVC types yesterday lol. Similar to the UVB bulb in the tent, now I understand quartz glass is required on the Ozone bulbs needed. So far it appears it is much more challenging and costly to DIY from scratch vs buying used on ebay/craigslist.

I do know, whenever I get a house, I want to install a germicidal light in HVAC system. Non-ozone.
 
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