Affordable Walls and Light-proofing

[ChemicalDependant]

Yeah… I’ve learned to quell my creativity to spare budget. But a lighting designer friend of mine put it a good way (in reference to stage lighting, but still): part of the cost is how much you want it. Would you rather get something you wouldn’t be as happy with for 10% less? 20% less? If I could buy a pre made LED I knew worked just as well, I wouldn’t. Because I want to build it, refine it, repair it…

I did decide for a second tent, I should just buy one… I only need a 2x4. I still want to close off the room though.

The walls, aluminum foil is out of the question, too expensive anymore, Panda film is kinda legit the best budget option, in my estimation. I don’t know how much heat insulation that gives, so I think behind that foam insulation still… or Panda on both sides. I haven’t decided in that one… 2” of dead air vs 1” foam.

[LilJonB]

Panda film is how I would go. My cousin wanted to make a tent. After after he added everything up it was just as much to just buy one. Unless you wanted to do something custom I don’t really see the point. Unless you can do a better job. My stich work isn’t that great so… I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[webeblzr]

Hey CD, I was looking for another pic of some on my old set ups, always chasing a better way on the cheap.
I hated to lose the space for an in room air conditioner, in my large tent. A 4’ x 8’ x 7’6" Hydropharm.
So using some foam, a few stove pipe fittings, and second hand in line fan, I was able to run during summer about 8-10 degrees cooler, keeping in that sweet spot temp

, getting tighter bud over airy ones from to high temps.
I built a plenum, with my in room BEHIND it, and using a wall duct fitting, formed a chute if you will, to funnel the cold air into the plenum.

This exhausts into a window box, yep made of foam.

The base of that had a 6" pipe running over to a foam box, that is basically a foam box that sends the cold air up to through the pipe to be dumped into the top of the tent on 2 sides of the 8" width of the tent.

I wish I had taken better photos, but it’s what I got. Top of tent piping sort of.

I also want to suggest getting a bag of POLYBATTING SHEET for intake filters. They will need changed once a year, and I even put some used ones in the wash, and reused them. But that became even to extreme for me to continue. That bag of $5.00 batting lasted 7-8 years.
It was all salvage stuff, or second hand, and even the stove pipe had been used previously for air handling.
One happy Kinky Cheese from then!

Wish the best for your grow!!

[ChemicalDependant]

That’s awesome man, appreciate it. Gives me some ideas… mainly the poly batting! I have some loose batting, I can use some screen material to form sheets. It’s easy to replace I just wasn’t sure the quality of filtration it would provide, so I planned to use a furnace filter.

I’ll have to throw up some pictures when I get to actually building it. I think it will consist of, much like yours, a foam board box with a poly batting screen on the intake end. How many sheets did you use, thickness wise? It looks like just one of two layers of 1/2”? That’s very affordable.

[webeblzr]

Hey CD, I choose to use a single layer, and change more often myself. I do not use fans inside my tents, and rely on intakes creating enough air changes, for a healthy girl camp.
That set up was just used in the summer, so I did not care about ugly, just it’s function. And, it was easy to set up and tear down.
I like to use 1 main extractor, to my 3 tents, by coming out the top of tents, and keeping my filter/ inline out of that room altogether, exhausting to another area, and getting some filtered supplemental heat from the exhaust, with a 6" Vortex inline, fastened to the filter. No tent space loss at all.
Just ideas man, always a better way than mine, but I do like cheap, when it does the same thing, as throwing bucks at it. But I’m a wee personal grower, so these ideas for the commercial guys, would not be interested.

[ChemicalDependant]

I have small plans myself, cheap works well.

I think I over thought my extraction, but it’s not so bad. I planned it out very similar to yours, air pulls from one tent into the other and then out the exhaust. Each tent has its own intakes; I have a circulating fan but it doesn’t seem to do much, my 8” extraction fan on the lowest speed still pulls enough air to keep things cool, under 70.

It looks like crap, but 90% of the time I’m the only one who sees it.