Sealed Room Questions

AbusiveOGK · Jul 14, 2010

Hey everyone I'm gonna try and be as clear as possible with my questions. Been smokin kinda heavy today :cool0044:

I am in the process of building my first sealed room. It's 10x10x8. One wall will have a cutout and framed section for a window AC to sit in permanently. The AC is 24,500 BTUs.

The reflectors I'm using are Magnum XXXLs (6 inch aircooled).

Do I have to pull fresh air in from another room, and over the lights to get rid of the heat from them? Or will the AC do the trick by itself? I've read a few different articles that say a couple of different scenarios, and I wanna get the scoop from the pros.

Should I ditch the glass on the hoods and gain a few extra lumens?

Or should I run a closed fan system inside the room that just pushes the hot air out of the hoods but doesn't vent anywhere out of the room itself?

Smack me if I don't make any sense right now. And thanks in advance for the advice!

culdaria · Jul 14, 2010

Nice size room. Keep the glass on the hoods,the lumens lost are minimal, they most likely seal air tight. Vent the hoods with fresh air coming in from one end and going out the other, intake needs to be from outside the room, either from a cooled room within the house or from outside. The exhaust side typically go's outside or into the attic, or out a vent but there are options that are more stealthy, use your imagination. Using Magnum XXXLs it sounds like your running 1000s, you'll need to cool those for the most part, heat buildup is an issue many find they have to deal with. Use the A/C unit for room climate control, connect it to a plug-in programmable thermostat where you can set it for your desired temps and forget it. The A/C unit will turn on and off when certain temps are reached, saving it from running 24/7 on low. Most likely in the long run{or short} you will do Co2 enrichment for your grow, when you do, you will be all ready.

AbusiveOGK · Jul 14, 2010

Thanks for the info man. Yeah I'm running 1ks in the Magnums.

culdaria said:
Use the A/C unit for room climate control, connect it to a plug-in programmable thermostat where you can set it for your desired temps and forget it. The A/C unit will turn on and off when certain temps are reached, saving it from running 24/7 on low.

I have a Sentinel EVC-2, which controls separate programmable day and night humidity and temp. But it's rated at 15 amps. My A/C alone needs a dedicated 20amp circuit. But luckily it's digital so I can set the thermostat on the unit itself. The only need for the Sentinel controller would be for the dehumidifier, but that's also digital so I'm thinking maybe no need for the Sentinel in this room.

I'll be running C02 in this room, tank and regulator...no controller.

Goatmasterson · Jul 14, 2010

sounds like ur gonna have some goodness soon there abusive.check out my mini fridge should i run co2 in that ?

thetreegrowerrr · Jul 14, 2010

and aircooled room is not a sealed room in my opinion

AbusiveOGK · Jul 15, 2010

Hey treegrower are you currently running a sealed room? If so what are your temps like without air cooling the lights? Do you think things would run smooth in my situation?

Papa · Jul 15, 2010

AbusiveOGK said:
Hey treegrower are you currently running a sealed room? If so what are your temps like without air cooling the lights? Do you think things would run smooth in my situation?

ogk, you haven't told us how many lights you're running (heat your generating).

Papa

420Gator · Jul 15, 2010

if hes running say 4 lights (judging by room dimensions) that AC will be fine, especially if the lights are air cooled. No reason not to with the hoods

mrdizzle · Jul 15, 2010

your fine either way, assuming your running 4lights, if you vent them your AC will run less, if you dont vent them it will run more

burnedout · Jul 15, 2010

dizzle's right on..

treegrower.. if you aircool the lights via separate supply that never touches the room and that's the only thing that's vented, i don't see why you wouldn't consider it a sealed room. The room itself is still sealed, which is what matters. semantics perhaps, i dunno.

AbusiveOGK · Jul 15, 2010

Hey thanks for all the advice everyone! Yeah, I forgot to mention I'm running 4 1ks. The room is also being insulated with r-13, not sure how much of a difference that will make.

So basically, by venting the lights straight through, I'm gonna end up saving on energy costs. Between venting and the insulation hopefully it will keep the A/C running as little as possible.

Should I run the fans for the lights 24/7? Or hook them to the Sentinel and have them kick on only if it gets into the 80s?

Thanks again everyone. +rep for everyone who responded.

P.S. - Garden Of Dreams, that is an amazing looking room. I'm looking to setup up something along the same lines after I relocate to a safer state.

djstiks · Jul 15, 2010

you got most of it covered.... the insulation is a big help keeping your temps stable. one thing i would do also, is tape the hoods up. there will be leaking from the glass.

AbusiveOGK · Jul 15, 2010

Thanks djstiks I do tape my hoods just for that reason. Don't want any smell getting out.

Xceptional · Jul 15, 2010

did i miss a post where you said how many lights you are running because that is the one veritable that controls if you need additional heat removal since they create the heat, that's the biggest question. got a buddy running 3600w sealed no air cool with a 12k btu and temps are fine. you could try without and if you end up needing to it's no that hard to add it in (unless you have to order the fans online and have concrete walls to pound holes in or something like that).

i think air cooling the lights by pulling air form elsewhere and exhausting elsewhere is still a sealed room!!!!!

sealed may have two different objectives

#1 stealth - nothing comes in or out
#2 becasue you have more control and can utilize this control to increase the plants environment (permitting you use this control). I'd air cool my hoods in that room if i could its cheaper then running the AC all the time and SEALED ROOM in my humble opinion (no guru just applying logic here) is regarding the plants environment and if the air comes from elsewhere runs past the bulbs and then exhausts elsewhere the plant environment is still sealed off!

to not call that room sealed to me is like saying a sandblasting box isn't sealed because of the gloves! items within may get some control from outside but everything inside stays in and everything out stays out!

deezy · Jul 15, 2010

I know this is only my second post, but I am just finishing up my 1st run in a sealed a/c 3k on movers...one thing I have learned is a neccesity in running sealed rooms w/ co2 is a co2 ppm controller, they are absolutely needed, plants uptake co2 on a bell curve meaning that the co2 is effectively entering the plant through the stomata up to a level of about 1500ppm's, any greater and the co2 begins to make the plant close its stomata ( at which point photosynthesis stops) so not only will your plants not uptake the co2 that is being pumped in, they will be stressed. just my honest opinion. it would also make more sense to me to air cool the lights, as a fan is much cheaper to run than an a/c.

noone88 · Jul 15, 2010

From experienced grow room builders..

If you have that much tonnage in AC, don't even bother air cooling your hoods. Swap them out for parabolics or remove the glass from the reflectors.

No matter how well you duct, you will be pulling air from the grow room if you air-cool the hoods. Most reflectors are not totally sealed or not one-piece. The gasket for the glass is never perfect. Your biggest culprit is the flex ducting. It rips easily and overall annoying as hell to deal with. Eff worm drives and I hope the inventor dies a painful death!!! Every time you connect a piece of ducting to any flange, it will leak. Every time you drill a hole in the wall that size and attach a flange, you will have a leak. Sometimes the intake/exhaust fan will pull enough force to rip the flex duct. Of course, this always happens when you're not there and you won't find out until the next day. Happened to me more than once.

My best sealed room to date, my CO2 fires 4-5 times during lights on. 40lbs of propane lasted me 10 days of veg + 60ish days of flower. And i'm sure I still had some propane left. I have longed ditched air cooling any hoods and am grateful because I have saved myself HOURS of work, plus hours of maintenance and inspection of the ducting.

AbusiveOGK · Jul 15, 2010

Thanks for the advice noone. I think I am gonna ditch the glass for now and run it completely sealed. If I run into any problems, which I'm getting more and more positive that I won't, then I can always add vents and air cool at a later date.

Strain Stalker · Jul 15, 2010

...I have grow with an airtight room. In my situation, I designed a 2 seperate room setup. I put a carbon filter in my veg room, attached to my airtight hoods, then exausted out the chimney by a vortex inline fan....or in more dept... I pulled freash air from another room in the house, through my veg, into my carbon filter, through the lights, out the chimney.

Sealed Room Questions

Sealed Room Questions

AbusiveOGK

culdaria

AbusiveOGK

Goatmasterson

thetreegrowerrr

AbusiveOGK

Papa

420Gator

mrdizzle

burnedout

AbusiveOGK

djstiks

AbusiveOGK

Xceptional

deezy

noone88

AbusiveOGK

Strain Stalker

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