First Time Grower - Help With Sealed Room Heat

[Treebeard88]

Hello everybody,

I am a newbie to growing and currently have a sealed room set up. (may be a few gaps here and there.)

I have done a dry run and my issue is heat. I am using a maxibright daylight led 1030w pro & my temps have hit 33 celsius which is too high.

I think I have two options.
1 - split AC & vent out. If so what about the smell?
2 - ditch the sealed room plan and bring in cooler air from outside and vent out. - thus save buying an AC & the power needed. But have the heater on to compensate.

I will be doing an NFT system is matters for the decision.

What do you all think? I am open to ideas.

Treebeard

 

[GanjaFarmer24]

You can just rig up an exhaust vent, leave the intake passive from your CO2 rich interior air. And can you dim the light down any?

 

[Treebeard88]

You can just rig up an exhaust vent, leave the intake passive from your CO2 rich interior air. And can you dim the light down any?

Thank you, I will look into
Yes, at the moment it is at 100%.. do you think I ever need to go that high during flower? I can re test at 75% but I think I will run into heat issues
Treebeard

 

[CannaDana]

The easiest and best way to handle it is to have a recirculating air conditioner on a sensor or monitor that triggers it to come on when it reaches a particular temperature. In my own setup, I have a monitor that turns on the AC when it gets too warm, and turns on heat when it gets too cold, according to parameters I set. I also have the same thing with humidity, and a humidifier and dehumidifier that come on automatically when RH levels exceed parameters.

Here's a photo of my temp and humidity controllers. Inexpensive and reliable.

I don't know your lights. But I use 720 watt LED bar lights, and I never, ever have to have them at 100%. Indeed, unless I'm running supplemental CO2, the light they put out at 100% is too much for the plants. So, turning the lights down might alleviate some of your problem.

As for the smell, if you're venting out air from your room you can buy exhaust fans and air conditioners that hook up to activated carbon filters that filter out most of the smell. They do a great job, but cannot eliminate 100% of the odor when it really gets strong. I'd definitely have such a filter, even if your room remains sealed, as the smell has a way of finding those little cracks and getting out.

Here's a photo of my exhaust fan and carbon filter.

Hope you find your perfect solution!

 

[phxazcraig]

I agree with previous posts. You need to exhaust the air, and it will smell. A carbon filter helps a lot, but it also smells a bit peculiar. I'd try to isolate the output from the rest of the house, but that may mean venting outside, which might draw in too much cold or hot air for the house.

If you have an attic, you might just run duct work into it and dump it out there. Usually has a beneficial effect on air conditioning or heating of the house.

 

[Treebeard88]

The easiest and best way to handle it is to have a recirculating air conditioner on a sensor or monitor that triggers it to come on when it reaches a particular temperature. In my own setup, I have a monitor that turns on the AC when it gets too warm, and turns on heat when it gets too cold, according to parameters I set. I also have the same thing with humidity, and a humidifier and dehumidifier that come on automatically when RH levels exceed parameters.

Here's a photo of my temp and humidity controllers. Inexpensive and reliable.

View attachment 1224967

I don't know your lights. But I use 720 watt LED bar lights, and I never, ever have to have them at 100%. Indeed, unless I'm running supplemental CO2, the light they put out at 100% is too much for the plants. So, turning the lights down might alleviate some of your problem.

As for the smell, if you're venting out air from your room you can buy exhaust fans and air conditioners that hook up to activated carbon filters that filter out most of the smell. They do a great job, but cannot eliminate 100% of the odor when it really gets strong. I'd definitely have such a filter, even if your room remains sealed, as the smell has a way of finding those little cracks and getting out.

Here's a photo of my exhaust fan and carbon filter.

View attachment 1224966

Hope you find your perfect solution!

Hi CannaDana,

Sorry for my delayed reply, I am currently recovering from a shoulder arthroscopy.

Thank you for such a detailed reply.

I have the same inkbird set up, they are great. I have solved my heat issue with the extractor and intake. I was going to do a sealed room but after discovering I need a split AC unit - this wouldn't work due to the room I am in + plants I have. If I had a bigger space, I would but maybe in the future.

Another issue I ran into last night while doing my final dry run was humidity. I had my humidifier running on full which stabilised around 50%, my goal was 70% for fresh clones to thrive in the room, then switch to veg. This morning I checked and the humidity has dropped to 25%! My humidifier had been been running on full & ran out of water! Do I need a bigger or another humidifier? Or is there a different approach I can take?

Treebeard

EDIT - This is a loft grow in a fully insulated room I have created. I have an extractor fan, intake fan, and 2 fans blowing inside. Let me know if you guys need any more info.
EDIT 2 - I will be using an NFT system - I havent set this up yet as I waiting for the clones to have long enough roots, then put into this system. If I put my trays will of water in the room now, surely this would help?