Ventilation recommendation

future_man

future_man

Can we have a thread about ventilation for indoor growers? What setups do you use? What fans should I buy? Can you recommend any systems to buy online? I need a small vent for my cupboard setup. I am thinking to provide some air flow from the front and holes for outtake are in the back. Place is small granted but plants will only mature here from seedlings. Pic from last year:
 
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Pretty much everything you'll ever need is right here.
 
Powered out-take sized for around 1 air exchange per minute, passive intakes with double out-take sizing (4 inch out-take fan, two 4 inch holes for passive intake) is pretty much the standard.
 
Oscilatting small clip on fan probably work. Interesting thread but we don't care much about the positive pressure / smell issue.
 
Then don't?
 
That forum is a great resource for anyone that can look past the obvious.
 
I provided the link for anyone interested in proper ventilation of a sealed growing chamber, like the one pictured by future_man, not how to cover up the smell of cannabis. There is more to double intake size beyond negative pressure re: not putting unnecessary load on the fan. Powered out-takes are preferable to powered intakes, as any fan is more efficient pulling than pushing.
 
Clip on fans are great, not entirely sure what it's going to do to provide ventilation though?
 
I wouldn't really shoot down the usefulness of the link. In my case I have an indoor hydro grow setup for which I do care about positive pressure. Since my setup is in a box on the floor there tends to be a lot of dust. The positive pressure helps to keep said dust from getting inside my grow space and accumulation on and around my pepper plants. Same method is applied on computer cases to prevent dust from clogging up your PC components.
 
This is all too advanced, I was simply thinking to get some small fan and mount it in the front so that the air keeps circulating and seedlings get stronger
 
future_man said:
This is all too advanced, I was simply thinking to get some small fan and mount it in the front so that the air keeps circulating and seedlings get stronger
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LOL. Juanito was spot on then, just grab a small oscillator or put a larger one nearby
 
willard3 said:
A check of basic physics will show that any load takes the same hp to move whether you are pushing or pulling. The same goes for fans.
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Hayo, thanks for the correction. I hate passing along stoner science. Clearly I've not taken any physics courses. There is something to it, but it entirely concerns carbon filtres, pre-filtre surface area and orientating fixtures to avoid dust/grime build up on fan blade (resistance). Even then efficiency loss appears minimal (easily solved, clean the pre-filtre regularly) and only of concern to the anal retentive.
 
Oscilatting small clip on fan? I am sorry but I don't know what you mean by that, english is not my primary language. I was looking in stores for simple fans yesterday. Suprisingly they are hard to find, everyone just sells those big fans for air cooling and I can't get my hands on a simple small fan with a basic electromagnetic motor to mount on my cupboard door. I am thinking of buying online, what should I search for though?
 
Dual ball bearing 12V, 12cm computer fans powered by 5V cell phone charger(s) to reduce RPM/noise/turbulence.
 
I find intake fans superior to exhaust because it jiggles the plants a little more for hardy stems, but it depends on where you place the fan too.  I have a couple pointed at opposite walls of the grow enclosure, so the breeze flows along the walls around them all rather than pointed at the middle of the group of plants.
 
Dave2000 said:
Dual ball bearing 12V, 12cm computer fans powered by 5V cell phone charger(s) to reduce RPM/noise/turbulence.
 
I find intake fans superior to exhaust because it jiggles the plants a little more for hardy stems, but it depends on where you place the fan too.  I have a couple pointed at opposite walls of the grow enclosure, so the breeze flows along the walls around them all rather than pointed at the middle of the group of plants.
Click to expand...
 
I have computer fans but I don't know how to power those up since they plug in the motherboard ...
 
future_man said:
 
I have computer fans but I don't know how to power those up since they plug in the motherboard ...
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I took a blow torch and cannibalized fan pin headers (among other useful parts) off of an old motherboard, cut the connector off a cell phone charger, stripped and soldered the wires onto the connector with heatshrink tubing over it for insulation and mechanical fortification.
 
You could skip half that and solder the cell phone charger wires directly to the fan wires.  It helps to have a multimeter so you can check the wire polarity, though on some the negative lead has a stripe on it.  Without a multimeter you could just touch the wires together for a brief moment to see if the fan starts spinning.  If it doesn't then switch the wires around. 
 
Generally speaking you'd want an "average" fan.  Thick, high torque fans may not be able to run off a voltage as low as 5V, and might create too much airflow and noise at a voltage high enough to spin reliably.
 
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