Attic Tent

[HowTheHell]

Hi, simple questions. Going to do a small tent in the attic. Would like to get the intake air from the eaves as I'm worried the air in the attic is will be too hot at times. So I guess I cant use those mesh covered vents on the bottom of the tent? I presume I need to run a duct to one of the spare vent sock type thingies? If so I presume the vent would need to come down close to the bottom of the tent inside. The duct would be about 6 meters long. Would this rule out passive intake and mean I would need an intake fan? Hope I'm making sense?, thanks.

[Toker1]

The tent itself is not a heat barrier. It’s not insulated enough, the walls are too thin. You should build a sealed room that has heavily insulated walls. Then place the tent inside that room if the attic is the only option.

[Gingerbeard]

If you can get supply air from your eaves, why not exhaust? I'm no fan expert, but I imagine you're going to need some good suck and blow for 6m of ducting.
Have some sort of filter at the point of intake. You can draw in bugs and dust and junk and stuff like that.

[vostok]

Hi, simple questions. Going to do a small tent in the attic. Would like to get the intake air from the eaves as I'm worried the air in the attic is will be too hot at times. So I guess I cant use those mesh covered vents on the bottom of the tent? I presume I need to run a duct to one of the spare vent sock type thingies? If so I presume the vent would need to come down close to the bottom of the tent inside. The duct would be about 6 meters long. Would this rule out passive intake and mean I would need an intake fan? Hope I'm making sense?, thanks.

the deal really is to suck the air from inside ya house and exit via the eaves
that way you get no smell in your house and the ac air in the house is used to cool the tent

good luck

[HowTheHell]

Thanks guys. Pulling air from inside the house is not an option for me unfortunately. If the ambient temp in the attic is high I have to assume the temp in the tent will be the same plus some extra from the lights (LED) if I'm relying on the passive air intakes on the tent. I was thinking that if I pull in cooler air from the eaves it could solve the temp problem during hot periods. It sounds like the extract would not be enough suction to pull the air in through 6m of ducting so may need another fan on intake. I will try to exhaust close to the eaves also as suggested to minimise heat build up. I think the fan is a little oversized for the tent 3x2x5 so hopefully that would allow the ducting vent to be relatively long and still exceed the min. I'm in Ireland so not as big a deal as others, but on a sunny summer's day it can get pretty hot up there. Avoiding grow in the middle of the summer is another option. Dont smoke too much, 3 plants a year would get me by so can pick and choose when I do it, all in one go. Maybe I just need to figure out the best window of opportunity when not too hot or cold. Will give it a go asap anyway and see what goes wrong I guess. If I cant keep the temp low enough I could try later in the year again.

[HowTheHell]

The tent itself is not a heat barrier. It’s not insulated enough, the walls are too thin. You should build a sealed room that has heavily insulated walls. Then place the tent inside that room if the attic is the only option.

I'm already taking the piss with the tent according to the wife, if I start doing construction up there I'll never hear the end of it! Want something simple I can pull down and box away when done till next time.

[Toker1]

If simplicity is the only goal, then go for it. I assumed you wanted to grow some plants up there. 🤔

[Toker1]

https://www.growweedeasy.com/how-to-grow-like-a-ninja

[homegrown]

I wouldnt even go that route..its gonna get WAY too hot up there! Unless you want to A/C your attic. Might not feel too bad right now but in a month or two it'll be unbearable. Do you have a basement? Much easier to maintain temps down there. I tried a tent grow in my insulated garage..by the end of june it was pushing 95 degrees. So i had to buy an A/C for the garage. Fook me! That was an expensive grow. I moved it into the basement and temps are always around 65-68, lights on,75-79 degrees. Oh ya, and you really dont want to have a watering can or bucket spill in your attic either..lol

[JDU]

$125 window mount AC, $20 flexible duct & $5 roll of ductape. I already had the 4inch inline fans. Incredible difference!

[homegrown]

how big of a room are you cooling JDU? I needed a 20000 BTU for my garage. and im thinking HowTheHell might need to go bigger yet for an attic. 120+degrees is gonna be hard to cool off with any A/C unit.

[JDU]

I'm only cooling the 4x6 & 4x4 tents with that one. Here's some shots that better shows what I've done.

[homegrown]

good idea..what kind of lights are you running? What temps were you getting before A/C? is the room the tent is in air conditioned? just wondering why its so warm in there? lol I'm lucky to hit 79 degrees

[JDU]

I have Mars Hydro lighting- a tsw 2000, an sp150 & 2 ts600 in the big tent with an old 150w blurple & a ts 1000 in the small. I was getting up to 85- 90 early in the day before the weather broke. It' got cold n wet as soon as I hooked it up so the jury isn't in for sure but I feel good about it. We keep the house about 75° & now with the AC both tents are always in the 70s - High or low 70s depending of course on how cold we git the living room. Note- the duct to the big tent is about 18ft long & it needed an inline fan.

[homegrown]

Nice! glad you got it sorted out. Fighting temps can be a real challenge for different grow set-ups... how you liking that Mars light??

[JDU]

Love em!!! I got the tsw2000 1st & I've bought 4 more various models/footprints since.

[HowTheHell]

Thanks again. No basement, attic is my only option I'm afraid. Think I'll try my best with passive then play it by ear, maybe order an ac if things start getting out of control. I'm not in a hot country, some years would be no problem but we could get a few weeks of a 'heatwave' in the summer where it would get too hot. Thanks for the info people.

[Toker1]

On an average home, when ambient outdoor temps reach 95-97 F, the attic space will be around 150-160F.

[Damngrower]

I'm facing a similar situation here in the UK, only have the attic to grow in. Its been too cold throughout winter under my 250w hps which has slowed my grow right down. I'm gonna solve that with a tube heater. I'm switching to 300w Led as soon as I can afford it and am just hoping that the temp stays below 30
I've run the intake from the eaves (which I'm assuming are the holes where the roof meets the walls) about 2m to the tent and I've built a cover to attach it to one of the velcro flaps at the bottom. I cut a cardboard cover with a hole for the tube in the centre and attached with velcro then sealed with gorilla tape 😂
The exhaust goes out a small hole near the top of the roof. I only have the
exhaust fan, no intake, but my tent is small, 60cmx90x160 I think and the fan is quite powerful. No way I can afford an A.C anytime soon so I'm hoping the loss of heat from switching from hps to Led will counter the summer sun!

[HowTheHell]

Toker, in my neck of the woods a day is considered a scorcher at about 80degf so wont get to those levels. There are a few minor benefits if having a crap climate!

Good tips on the vent attachment damngrower, it seems in an attic your either too hot or too cold basically. Thats why I'm thinking growing at the right time of the year would be the way to go, assuming you dont smoke an oz a week and can pick and choose. I guess spring or autumn would be best.

[Gingerbeard]

"... assuming you don't smoke an oz a week..." Huh? What do you mean? That's only four grams a day. It's hard to wrap my head around that, man. But hey, different smokes for different folks.

[Toker1]

I’m in the sf Bay Area. Summer is 50-80 typically. The attic space will flux 50-120 in a day easily.
Your mind is already made up and I am not trying to convince you to change it. Just saying these are not optimal growing conditions by any means. Environment is key to the plants success. My only point here is about expectations. If you harvest anything in the end, even 1 plant... I would consider that a huge win for this space. Keep us posted on how it goes.

[JDU]

HowTheHell I had a thought. I assume your attic has cross ventilation vents? I wonder if a big squirrel cage fan up against one & exhausting all that hot, stale air from the attic would help any?

[Toker1]

Somewhat. It’s still pulling in ambient air that is fairly warm. So it’s potential is limited. The biggest addition of heat will be from direct sunlight hitting the shingles. Now add some solar panels to the roof and remove the direct sunlight heat transfer... now we are talking larger cooling capabilities.

[JDU]

True....