How often should I exhaust my grow room? Guide for Weed Growers
INLINE DUCT FAN (ACTIVE EXHAUST FAN)
Also called an extractor fan, an active exhaust fan is used to expel the hot and humid air from inside your grow room or tent. Slight changes in temperature and humidity can greatly affect your chances of producing a successful yield. Furthermore, unchecked heat and humidity create poor growing conditions where your plants are unable to absorb water or simply cannot survive. So, it’s important to have a way to manage your grow space’s climate in the form of an inline duct fan.
Because you will be growing in an enclosed space, it will be hotter than the environment outside. Using an active exhaust fan to bring in cooler air will help you regulate the internal temperature. The location of your grow space will affect how hard your inline duct fan will work, which is largely dependent on how well your grow space is insulated.
In ventilation systems using passive intake, inline duct fans also act as a vacuum that brings in air carrying fresh CO2.
Take a look at your garden outdoor, or the local park. You’ll see how perfectly mother nature ensures an abundance of natural winds for plants. And as an indoor grower, you’ve to play the same role for your plants. At least, as much as you can.
To keep the airflow on, it’s important to buy the right fan, set it on the right power and to learn how long to keep the inline fan for grow tent.
Why Your Grow Tent’s Ventilation Matters?
As mentioned, having a good ventilation setup matters as this is important to your plant’s survival and even the quality of your crops.
Helps You Control The Humidity Level In Your Grow Room
If you’ve previously worked on an indoor grow setup and had crops or plants that grew not the way you want them to, then it might have been the uncontrolled humidity in your grow room.
Another reason why controlling the humidity level in your grow room is important is because poor ventilation may lead to diseases or pest that you don’t want your plants to get.
How to choose a fan for a basic ventilation system?
For beginners, a simple in-line duct fan is the best option. To find the perfect fit for your grows room, find the CFM rating for the room.
CFM stands for “cubic feet per minute.’ It is a common ratio used for all fans sold in the US and shows how much air the fan can move in a minute.
Calculate the volume of your grow room in cubic feet by multiplying its length, width, and height. For a simple system, the CFM of your fan should be greater than this number.
The guiding principle here is the idea that the exhaust fan should be able to completely replace the air inside your grow room in one minute or thereabouts.
This is mainly because inside a grow tent, many other factors begin to play a role, which I have discussed below. These factors affect ventilation in a grow tent. Therefore, using an exhaust with slightly higher CFM is preferred as it really helps in maintaining that perfect ventilation your plants are literally dying for.
Ideal running time for an exhaust fan
To calculate the ideal duration of which an exhaust fan should be turned on inside a grow tent, we must first take the measurement of the grow tent. Different grow tents require different amounts of ventilation.
The analysis of an indoor grow tent should be done in cubic feet. After we have taken the proper measurement of the room, we simply need to divide it by three to get the ideal exhaust fan running time inside a grow tent.
Example:
Suppose that you possess a grow tent, which is about 720 cubic feet in size.
If that is the case, you simply have to divide 720 by three. By doing this, you get your CFM, which is the unit of the ideal time for running an exhaust. In this case, the CFM that is calculated equals to 240.
720 / 3 = 240 CFM
This is the ideal time of how much an exhaust fan should run inside a grow tent of a specific volume. However, it is always advised to use an exhaust with more CFM.
Using CFM ratings is a good way to figure out how much power your exhaust system will need to create negative pressure in the grow area. However, finding hardware that will give the exact output you’re looking for may be difficult.
Fan speed controllers allow for minute changes in airflow, letting the grower fine-tune the exhaust system while providing a margin of error that allows for inefficiencies in hardware.
Furthermore, hotter and more humid grow environments will need a higher CFM, and having the ability to adjust fans can save a lot of time, energy, and money.
ECO FARM IN-LINE FANS 4″/6″/8″/10″/12″
Perfect for large-scale applications. If you are a commercial grower or a hobbyist, this is an ideal choice.
The inline fan is made of steel with powder coating. With this, you can be confident that it will be impressive in terms of durability.
Mounting brackets are already included in the kit, as well as comprehensive instructions. With the latter, the installation can be completed in just a few minutes.