Intro
It’s all about sharing in details the cascading reasons that pushed me to rebuild entirely the space, it mostly concern the airflow optimization under unexpected parameters. I will split it in different dedicated chapters because it’s long to write it in thinking about four friends with different interests + the random fools and OGers finding these posts, at a time.
As an excuse i will give what i’m considering as a golden reference to all fools interested to dig the question for their own adaptation. I’ve used it to the bone as a guide : it’s the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Their docs are numerous and well-written, the potential of use is enormous for those that want to spend time on it.
Most of their production is a paying service as a subscription per year (over 200). But … some of their “hankbooks” from 2006 to 2019 can be coughing somewhere that has a logo with a boat.
Also a very inspiring practical video for empiric guys that want to test one million configuration per hour to find the best one.
It gave me also a lead to use the empiric method of the automotive designers for understanding what the fuck was happening in my tent.
Now the story, where the evil is in each fcking details actually. But i don’t regret the ride with backward.
The context : the previous flawed space
The goal during the building was to be the more dense possible, to make the more space possible around. Also very easy and fast to maintain/wash, with specific sense of the movement of things barely like a professional kitchen (dirty space, washing space, clean space, cooking space …).
Everything was good on the final blueprint, even the strange closet built with my experience on various spaces. I’ve just tryed to veg the Big Bud with a narrowed yellow/orange/red spectrum, in the hope to never switch my bulbs. Of course it was a bad idea with the neon tech, but at least i’ve the psychological proof of it now. Done.
The firestarter of a lot of cascading problems
After the first month of 18/6 and seeing the Big Bud not specially in hurry to show their sex, i’ve planned a switch to the 12/12 regime. Then, because i’m mostly addicted to seeds, the pollination of the first inbred generation + the zombie bonus.
I realized that i was so much focused on the plants (and happy of this fact), that i forgot to test the pollination space. And I’ve done it first with a young eucalyptus clone (i love it) then with a young plant of peony (my wife love it). Both vanished very fast, with excellent and sturdy genetic.
Then at this point i’m entering in panic mode.
This is the “lung closet”, planned also as a “pollination space”. A “porn room” in my slang.
It look like shit but the blueprints were fire and this is a lot of work overall, this space was fully hermetic and jointed/insulated. The torque in the tent was amazing and this, in a very low level of decibels.
But any plant inside was doomed to die, it was not at a vacuum state but the negative pressure was enough strong to don’t let plants breathe. Literally.
It was written from here, I’ve to rebuild something ASAP to can launch the flowering stage. Used to build porn room with pretty much high negative pressure, i took my lesson to have pushed too far and I’ve started to analyze more my overall airflow. To find a solution but also to check if I’ve not made another bullshit.
The secondary problem
And it was the case ^^ I pass on the wool thread aerodynamic test, but the tent wasn’t working as it was supposed to work. Even with certified maths.
Second panic attack : The Big Bud is (very) prone to mold in late stage of flowering, and is also a five stars hostel with mildew. Add the Critical Mass, tested and approved too.
And it’s where is really starting my journey in the real understanding of what is the static pressure. In being screwed with plants i can’t flower, until I’ve build something decent to pollinate them and also to flower them with high constraints on airflow. And the inherent constraints to grow fully with neon, from start to end.
Add to this equation that i’m stubborn and i don’t want a permanent (well,sized) active intake, no de-humidifier, no AC, and nothing more than the lamps and the plants inside the tent … well nothing more than a single RVK running 24 hours a day for this tent.
At this point i’m trying many things, not so to find a solution but to understand the problem and the leverages that are specific to my setup. And it’s when i’m opening for the first time since i’m using tents, the horizontal vents. All of them.
A magic happens then and i see the leafs of my plants dancing like I’ve placed a fan inside. Never saw that before with this kind of negative pressure.
Discovering a bonus function of something absolutely not planned for it
In viewing all these wool threads taped everywhere doing something i’m not understanding while i’m closing the horizontal vents, and opening them … i think about my reflector. And i tape it with wool too ^^
Now consider this :
And that the diameter cover almost the whole tent surface of the ground.
It’s when i finally got the “eureka” thing and that i understand that it’s useless to fight with parameters that depend on one big factor : the bad management of the static pressure.
Conclusion of this step :
- I’ve to rebuild everything with the good priority in mind : the static pressure over the speed of airflow
- In using the horizontal vents instead these awful duct ports i hate since ever, i can get a nice airflow that is venting the plants like a big fan and without a crazy negative pressure for them. And without any fan. And from the bottom.
- It was so useful many times but i’ve now to reform what i’ve learned from my indoor mentor : the old way to consider the airflow like a liquid. I’ve to consider the airflow more like the gas feeding the engine of a car : phenomenons of dilatation/compression, stratification of dense cold air and hot air, vapor restricting the compression etc …
- The tri-CFL parabolic reflector changed the rules of the game and break the standard calculations, I’ve to adapt fully to the wool lesson. Not adapting what is supposed to happens on the paper, on something that can’t happens ^^
It was for the context, the datas and to please the fantastic four on the details. Spoiler : next, it’s not an happy ending at all. But a long nightmare among 5 prototypes that failed miserably. Reforming habits and way of thinking is not easy. Don’t be afraid I will show only the 5th, because it was not that bad in fact.
See you later in the next chapter, more in depth on Static Pressure (SP) with a few draws.