Switching to Sealed Room Exp Growers HELP!

[markos11]

I have a 10x10x8 room that had passive air intake and now I'm switching to complely sealed environment.

I plan on keeping my room exhaust which is hooked up to a carbon filter so I can purge out air durning the dark cycle.

4K light is air cooled. Room is AC cooled via minisplit. Gas line installed and burner is all set.

My question for all: Given that the room is sealed to the best of my ability; do I need an additional carbon filter/fan that just sits in the room and dosen't exhaust?

My fear is that during the light cycle smell may be an issue for the neighbors (which are realativly close).

If the answer to above is yes, then I will have two scrubbers? 1 will be exahusting air during night cycle and #2 will be inside the room only going while light cycle is on with no exhaust.

Is there a better way to do it? Space is already tight and I would hate to add a second scrubber.

Thanks for your input in advance.

 

[kushtrees]

you need a scrubber, even a sealed room will stink

If you have a mini split why even exhaust at night? just seal it up use your fan and carbon filter for a scrubber and make it easy. If your concern is humidity, get a dehumidifier if you dont have one already. Sealed room was one of the best decisions Ive ever made

 

[opt1c]

no need to purge air during the dark cycle; plants breathe in co2 and breathe out oxygen so they regulate themselves... just set your cf filter to 24/7 recirculating in the room and you'll be fine... best thing is that with a sealed room you can seal in all the sounds as well; no more fan noise through windows all day

 

[tokinupon1]

You for sure need to scrub the air were you can. My room is a room built inside of a big room so I scrub the big room outside my grow. Last run I had a small cheap-o carbon running in my room too... I'm really kicking myself in the ass for giving that little carbon away, I have quite a funk on my hands. Too much scrub is better than too little that's for sure.

 

[1971]

I agree with the other posters about needing an in room scrubber. I wouldn't even bother having the exterior filter. if you are worried about humidity at night, just lower the temps. the RH will go up, but it is actually less actual water in the air because the air is colder. hence it being relative humidity. your mini should also have a dehumidify feature.

 

[markos11]

Much thanks for all the reply's gang. I've been getting hung up something I read in The Indoor Gardner's Bible by George Van Patten. Great book and he seems really knowledgeable. He claims that you need to purge out 'stale' air. Not sure I'm convinced since I'm creating optimal levels and have everything I need right in the room! Heat/cool/dehumidy/ co2......who need's outside air; right?

Kushtrees and others- do you do a complete sealed room with no venting? If yes I would love to hear a bit about the difference from when you were doing intake/exghaust.

 

[1971]

you will probably go in the room every day, so isn't that purging? you do need to add co2 in a sealed environment. beyond that, I'd just toss the book out. probably has lots of outdated viewpoints

 

[BlueBlood]

Stale air in this case is going to be air high in oxygen and low in carbon dioxide. If you have a CO2 supplement its moot.

I would also consider taking the extra time and doing a good job hanging and taping panda. This way you can vapor seal-ish your room as well. You'll probably still want a scrubber, but you wont need as big of one.

 

[hiboy]

An extra scrubber in the room is always awesome, try to hang it horiz with the ceiling and keep it out of the way. Put it on a timer if you want to keep costs down. I def. would vent that air out of the room when the c02 is off, mother nature air is always good
hb

 

[OilFreak]

I have a 10x10x8 room that had passive air intake and now I'm switching to complely sealed environment.

I plan on keeping my room exhaust which is hooked up to a carbon filter so I can purge out air durning the dark cycle.

4K light is air cooled. Room is AC cooled via minisplit. Gas line installed and burner is all set.

My question for all: Given that the room is sealed to the best of my ability; do I need an additional carbon filter/fan that just sits in the room and dosen't exhaust?

My fear is that during the light cycle smell may be an issue for the neighbors (which are realativly close).

If the answer to above is yes, then I will have two scrubbers? 1 will be exahusting air during night cycle and #2 will be inside the room only going while light cycle is on with no exhaust.

Is there a better way to do it? Space is already tight and I would hate to add a second scrubber.

Thanks for your input in advance.

YES you need a carbon filter that takes air from the room, thru the filter and exhausts back into the room. Plug it in. Turn on the AC and the lites. Turn on the dehumidifier. Enjoy! You dont need anything else. Let the AC cool those lites. Yes smell will attract unwanted attention. So keep it in the room. Forget venting anything.
Keep it simple, keep it sealed.
OilFreak

 

[ttystikk]

I agree with the other posters about needing an in room scrubber. I wouldn't even bother having the exterior filter. if you are worried about humidity at night, just lower the temps. the RH will go up, but it is actually less actual water in the air because the air is colder. hence it being relative humidity. your mini should also have a dehumidify feature.

NO! This guy's advice here is a recipe for fungal pathogens to attack your crop. Just because temperature falls doesn't mean you're safe from the problems associated with high RH. It's called relative humidity for a reason; it rises as temps fall. You will want to use a dehumidifier to actively manage this aspect of your indoor environment.

In general, if you feel the need for a scrubber in the room, then do it. Others say it's unnecessary, or it's a sign that your room isn't sealed well enough. You already have the CO2 supplemented; what is to be gained by pushing all that air through a carbon filter?

In a sealed room, you need to firmly control the temperature, humidity, CO2 content, and everything else. That's the whole point of a sealed room. External venting is useless at best, and a potential avenue of discovery at worst. so SEAL it, already... :cool:

 

[dankworth]

Plants emit gases other than O2.
So "stale air" ends up with gases that are full of chemical messages.
Many think it prudent to vent the room out during the night, even if it is like once for 15 minutes or something.
A certain degree of air exchange will occur when you enter and exit the room, but a complete air exchange 1x daily may be a good idea.
Incoming air should be hepa filtered if you can help it.

 

[serpent]

i use a can-filter 38-75,10 inch vortex(y split),hooked up to a two rows of three 600 watt lights.cools the hoods.cleans the air (only one filter needed).the warm air just dumps back into the sealed room.let the a/c run 24/7 to help control humidity.i do have a dehumidifer also.with co2 i would have a good dehumidifer.or grow sativas.

 

[Botanikos]

You have one scrubber that should be sufficient but it's a matter of preference on the second scrubber, but if it's truly sealed than how will the sent linger out?
Stale air... mmmm seems odd, plausible but think of it this way, you've created an environment within your room that is best for your plants and it's sealed from the world outside your room to an extent, why would you have to flush out your environment once a day just so you can start over again? It would seem redundant but that's my $.02

 

[WalterWhiteFire]

Depending on your climate you may need to use a humidifier to keep the daytime RH in balance with your temps and CO2...

 

[billybadazz]

Here's what I went through to get my room sealed and dialed in.
I have 4600 watts of lighting all bare bulb and it's 10x 12. So far I have needed to get both a dehumdifier for at night and a humidifier for the day time. The air handler in the room scrubs the room so dry, its like a desert so I need to put humidity back into the room during the day. I have a carbon filter with a ten inch fan pulling air from the room into the attic to help with smell and stale air. There is also a passive intake through the floor which is also carbon filtered so no smell goes through the floor when the exhaust fan is running. The fan is on a recycler timer fifteen on and fifteen off day and night.
I have a rather large air handler to help cool 4600 watts of lights. I don't remember how many tons it is , but its way to efficient for my room.
The room climate controller is set to run the day temps at 76-79 and the humidity at 50-60%.
I have a c02 burner to keep the room at 1450 ppms during the day.
I also put fans on each wall for circulation and one fan on the floor pointing upwards toward the c02 burner to keep the c02 up in the air since c02 is heavier air.
Where I messed up was I put in tile floor, and in the winter the floor never got above fifty degrees so the roots of the pots stayed wet and cold, causing fungus nats to thrive. So I made wooden frames to raise the pots off the floor four inches and the pots were able to dry up and get rid of the fungus nats.
So now no more fungus nats, no more dry desert. Back to Paradise again.:cool:
Well that's my experience if it helps.

 

[G Star]

I never understood why you would go to the trouble of sealing a grow space, adding co2, and then exhausting all the gas outside....isn't that just straight polluting by putting co2 directly into the atmosphere?

 

[monkeymun]

NO! This guy's advice here is a recipe for fungal pathogens to attack your crop. Just because temperature falls doesn't mean you're safe from the problems associated with high RH. It's called relative humidity for a reason; it rises as temps fall. You will want to use a dehumidifier to actively manage this aspect of your indoor environment.

You mean the other way around, right? The warmer air is, the more water it can hold.

 

[SAMCRO]

i run a sealed room enviroment. running can 150,s , co2 LP burner at 1500 ppm, 5 tons of air cond. and dehumidifiers going 24/7. no air out ever. but so you know when you enter and exit the rooms the pure funk smell of budding plants will get out no matter how many scrubbers you got. and no matter matter how fast you make your door open and close. once you get into the later weeks of flower your job will be to contain the smell or mask the smell that escapes from you doing your thing in and out of the room. so i have other scrubbers outside the rooms, uv lights, and ona gel going in the building to make sure about escaping odors for pesky neighbors. i have growing problems and challanges but they are not from my sealed room enviroment. if nothing fails.

 

[ttystikk]

You mean the other way around, right? The warmer air is, the more water it can hold.

No- I meant it exactly as I said it; if temperature falls with a constant amount of moisture (think about it; in a sealed room, where's it going?), relative humidity rises. FAST. What's 55% at 80 quickly becomes 80%+ at 65. This is why you need a dehumidifier in a sealed room and when you'll need it the most.

Your quotation above is correct, but not the right application for describing what happens as the room cools overnight. What that saying means is that relative humidity will fall as temperature rises, with a constant amount of moisture suspended in it. Relative humidity is an expression of the percentage moisture in the air relative to its capacity. So if temperature rises, and the air increases its ability to hold moisture, then the relative humidity falls... follow me?

Those who actively cool their nighttime environment can inadvertently accelerate this process, by pushing humidity up before their dehuey has time to work. This leads to high RH, ideal conditions for the spread of mildew and others.