Dumb Venting Questions

Growroom Design
#1

So my tent sits directly under an air return duct in the basement… I keep thinking: how bad of an idea is it to connect the two? Before you get too nervous let me explain, I’m talking no forced air in the tent aside from the HVAC fan. So very little concern of blowing into the furnace. The return duct goes to the three returns in the rooms above, which is fine. Except come flower time, and my eventual flower tent will make this more simple, the smell. Plant smell is fine, but full on flowering smell no way. A carbon filter would be put on the exhaust for that period, and eventually with a second tent I don’t need to worry about switching.
Either way, fresh air would be pulled through the tent for 15 mins every hour, that is the HVAC fan schedule, and would intake air in through the vents at the bottom of the tent, I thought about intake from the HVAC but then I realized how hot the tent would get every time the furnace runs…

Oh, importantly, I plan to run the light with an inline fan, the hood is nicely sealed, so it should just vent off the heat and not put much I to the tent?

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#2

Lets see if I got this pictured correctly. :thinking:

The heat generated by the light is vented separately. This ‘hookup’ would simply facilitate air exchange for the tent 15 mins every hour. As it is on the air return side it will be ‘negative’ air pressure, pulling air in through the tent.

In summer, do you keep the same schedule (15 min on 45 off)?

I’m not seeing any significant issues with that, maybe some way to balance the air flows.
Personally I’d think about making a filter box (sealed cardboard box with a furnace filter glued to the side) for filtering the air coming into the tent.

I don’t see any problems with that. I’d try to plan it so it was easily reversible.

Cheers
G

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#3

One thing to be aware of once the air is being scrubbed you may experience a carbon type smell still. Also Hvac pumping heat into the tent isn’t going to work but if you were to tie into the exhaust side without the heat would work ok.

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#4

Yep, spot on.

The schedule is that at minimum. It gets added to with heat and A/C. I did consider instead rigging some sort of automated shutter to cut off the ducting the the tent were there too much air flow? But I really can’t imagine that’s a thing to expect from my HVAC. Also what a pain in the ass the fabrication would be, and with sheet metal I always cut myself…

I’m going to start exhausting my HID hood separately from the tent; my lung room is my entire basement which is well circulated to the upstairs because it gets real hot during the day up here. I was under the assumption warmth was better but my lights on temp is 75, off is 65. I’ve also just learned this causes stretch, but I don’t mind. Just happy to keep them alive. But anyways, I can probably get away with just exhausting right out of the tent, vents for air and a inline duct shooting away from the air intake. But that means buying TWO fans! Oh the tragedy.

Filter box sounds good. Not sure why I didn’t think of it.

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