How to Ventilate a Grow Room
Proper ventilation is the key to a grow room’s success. Without access to fresh, circulating air, plants will not thrive. A grow room cannot rely on your home’s HVAC system and requires its own unique ventilation system to maintain proper temperature and humidity requirements. You can create your own grow room ventilation system with a few calculations and an exhaust fan.
Items Needed
- Measuring tape
- Calculator
- Exhaust fan
- Ladder
- Saw
- Metal duct material
- Screen material
Instructions
- Determine the proper sized exhaust fan for the room. Measure the volume of the grow room. Calculate volume by multiplying the room’s length by width by height. For example, a room that measures 10 feet x 10 feet x 8 feet will have a volume of 800 cubic feet.
- Calculate the minimum cubic feet per minute for air exchange in the room. Air should be exchanged by the exhaust fan at least once every three minutes. Take the room’s cubic feet and divide by three to determine the minimum CFM. In this example, the CFM is 800 divided by three, which equals 267.
- Rooms with carbon dioxide enrichment need to add 5 percent to the minimum CFM. For the calculation of 267 CFM add 13. The newly calculated CFM equals 280.
- Purchase an exhaust fan to match the grow room’s calculated CFM. Exhaust fans are available at hardware stores, garden supply stores and home improvement warehouses.
- Install the exhaust fan in an exterior wall of the grow room. Cut a hole in the top portion of the wall, near the ceiling. An exhaust fan positioned too low on the wall will not push out the rising hot air as efficiently as a fan positioned near the ceiling.
- Follow the directions included with the fan to secure and connect the electricity supply. You may need an electrician to help you hook up the fan if you are not familiar with electrical connections.
- Create an air intake vent on the wall opposite the exhaust fan. Cut a hole 1 ½ times the size of the exhaust fan in the wall. Position the fan near the bottom of the wall. Insert a length of duct from the interior to the exterior of the wall. Use screen material to cover the exterior of the duct and prevent insects or rodents from entering the grow room.
- Turn the fan on to circulate air through the grow room and supply the plants with fresh air. Ventilated air helps regulate the temperature and humidity of the room.