chez Posted September 21, 2002 Share Posted September 21, 2002 Hi all!! My room is almost complete!!! I've got my fans and ducting connected and running in the loft, I've covered the walls in mylar, everything looking good but I have hit upon 2 main problems - 1) The noise that the intake air makes as it leaves the ducting and enters the growroom. My intake is an RVK150A1 with a speed controller. If I turn the speed down, the noise decreases, but I might want to run it at full speed! Is there any way of quietening the "whooshing" noise? 2) My light orientation. I know that in an ideal world, my light would be perpendicular to the longest side of my room, but I only realised tonight that it just won't fit!!! My room is 4ft wide x 2ft deep x 8ft tall. I am using a home-made 400w coolshade. The problem is that the ducting on each end takes up over 12 inches of the depth (2 x 6" duct + an extra inch or so where the ducting is bent to fit onto the ends of the light) and the shade is 14" long. So, either I need to find a way of connecting the ducting to the light that doesn't take 6" of space (preferable) or I need to mount the light another way round! Help please!!!!!! I really want to get this room finished!!! Chez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chez Posted September 21, 2002 Author Share Posted September 21, 2002 A metal version of this might work Elbow Does anyone know if they make them in metal and where I might get one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OMH Posted September 21, 2002 Share Posted September 21, 2002 You can get plastic versions with rubber seals on them, that are 6" deep. I had to use them a few years ago, but they reduce the efficiency of your fans by a fair amount. You can get them at most DIY and plumbing shops, and they cost a couple of quid. Never seen them in metal though You could add a silencer to your fans, but they do not come cheap. You might be better off getting another 6" fan and having them both run at 75% speed. You would get better extraction, for around the same price as a silencer, which will reduce your airflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chip Posted September 21, 2002 Share Posted September 21, 2002 Hi chez Good to hear you are nearly there now... Not sure about the light orientation, offmehead seems to have given you a decent option there. I also run an rvk150a1. Do you have any ducting at both ends of the fan? because just having 12'' of duct helps reduce the noise. If you already have ducting at both ends, then the key is just to reduce turbulence somehow. So make the inlet and outlet smooth. Hope that helps, (not sure it does) but best to try a few different set ups to quieten it down. Also, you may find that you dont need to run the fans at full power. Set it up, turn everything on, and then keep an eye on the temperature and fine tune it with your speed adjuster. Chip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chez Posted September 21, 2002 Author Share Posted September 21, 2002 As far as the light goes, I cannot use plastic because of the heat (can I ???) I would have thought the heat of the bulb might be a bit much for plastic??? I'll see how the fans go when I've got everything set up and measured the temps!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chez Posted September 21, 2002 Author Share Posted September 21, 2002 No ideas on the light anyone?? I think I'll just mount the ducting further onto each end of the tube, this should save me a couple of inches! Will my ducting be OK if I squash it into an oval shape (i guess the internal capacity would stay the same, just a different shape), this would probably give me enough room??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlander Posted September 21, 2002 Share Posted September 21, 2002 Yeah you could squash it a bit but... if the noise of the intake is too much why not have passive intakes and use the fan as an extra out take. I'm guessing the other outtake is in the loft where it is not heard as much, or try running the grow with just the 1 fan for now, you might not need 2 especially with winter coming. As to the question of the shade I don't really understand. you have a 4' x 2' growroom the shade/bulb should be running lengthways it can't be 4' long!!!!! And you are attaching the ducting to the side of the shade, yes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chez Posted September 21, 2002 Author Share Posted September 21, 2002 The light should be mounted with it's length going across the depth of the cupboard (2ft) and is too long. I could mount it across the room, no problem, but from what I've heard this is wrong! This article pretty much sums it up - Light orientation The shade is pretty much a 4" diameter coolshade Coolshade The ducting connects onto each end of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highlander Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 Right, gotcha. However re;pos. of light if you look at all the growroom pics most lights are in length ways. Mine is. Might be worth starting a thread in "lighting req." IMO maybe you could just realigne your light and see how you go honestly don't think it will make much diff. Also a coolshade is designed to work off its distance values i.e. it is good/effective because it can get really close to the grow. But the people in the shops pointed out that there is very little reflection coming off the small shade. So maybe the pos. won't be that important also if you are gettin' really close to the plants for an even light spread over4' IMO lengthways. U could also think 'bout making an extra shade to sit on top of coolshade and helpm ref. (but then you will have more q's ) BTW what about the intake& noise? Is there space enough to use passives on u growroom? Will the coolshade have ducting on the intake side & bypassing the grow as manuf. rec. or will u leave it open and make use of the extra ventilation? ps. from what i can see u growroom loooks immaculate pps don't worry too much 'bout growroom coz within 2 or so months it will look like shit anyway with all the extra tweakin' an' fiddlin' around(mine does). What about the seedlings?How are they doin'??????????????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chez Posted September 22, 2002 Author Share Posted September 22, 2002 It's not an actual coolshade, I have made it myself, but it looks pretty similar and should work quite well. I will post some pics once it's all set up. I've put a reflector on the outside of the glass tube to enable it to be bigger. To explain the airflow a bit better - Exhaust - Growroom air is sucked through a carbon filter, through the light, then ducted to an RVK150A1 in the loft then out through a roof vent. Intake - Air is pulled from outside via a roof venton the other side of the house (to avoid sucking the exhaust air back in. might change this if humidity becomes an issue), through ducting and another RVk150A1 and then ducted to the bottom of my growroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chip Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 read your link chez and it does appear, if what they say is correct, that it best to have the light perpendicular to the long axis of the room. Thanks for that, will be changing my alignment. Tell us some more about your home made cool shade. How much the bits cost, how you had to modify them, how you fitted it all together.. It would be worthwhile to put a new post up for that. Chip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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