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nmotion
Lando



Registered: 07/19/14
Posts: 27
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Flow Hood Construction
#20523836 - 09/05/14 10:42 AM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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Hey everybody. I've decided to begin growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms commercially, and so the necessity of a flow hood has arrived. My math skills are abysmal, and so I decided to contact Fungi Perfecti in Washington to help me match a blower to the 24x18 filter that I was interested in from them as well. They suggested this product:
Universal Blower It's rated at 1,040 CFM @ .8 SP
Now, as I said, I'm not math savvy at all so the explanation at Fungifun only makes general conceptual sense to me; I understand how a flow hood works, I am just not keen on how to pair a blower with filter accurately. That said, this blower seems very overpowered for this filter:
24x18 Micron Filter
2ftx1.5ft = 3ft² 100fpmx3ft²=300ft³/min or 300cfm Assuming the use of the above filter at .8" SP and a pre-filter of .2" SP, then I need a blower that provides for 300cfm(or w/20% more power than baseline it would be 360cfm) at 1" SP/approx. 250Pa.
If this math is sound, then that means they're trying to sell me a blower that is waaay too powerful. Is this math good?
Also, they wanted $100 to ship the blower and filter to me which seems silly. I'm prepared to spend $400-$500 for the blower and and filter, but $100 to ship it all just seems like a waste.
I would really appreciate any assistance the community can provide. Also, if there is a filter and blower combo that you really like, would you mind linking it?
Thanks, as always. The Shroomery has been an amazing resource to me as I've ventured into Mycology.
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tchyted
miestro
Registered: 09/03/01
Posts: 526
Loc: WA near seattle
Last seen: 9 years, 4 months
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: nmotion]
#20526810 - 09/06/14 01:02 AM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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blowers, like the ones you can get from granger, were originally intended for use on heating venting and air conditioning equipment. most of the motors come with between three and five speeds. there is one common wire, usually white, and several other ones, (one wire for each speed,) one of the other wires energized at a time, to get a different speed for each colored wire.
a laminar flow hood works by intercepting any contam particles before they have a chance to fall on your media. one of the slower speeds will produce this effect without stirring up the air in the room, actually making things worse.
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drake89
Mushroom Magnate



Registered: 06/26/11
Posts: 4,168
Loc: TN
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: tchyted]
#20528600 - 09/06/14 01:25 PM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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i'm gonna get flamed for this but you can use a 10-12" centrifugal fan (hydrofarm) for these purposes, which is far cheaper new than a squirrel cage fan from grainger. that said you could also go with a used blower. they make inline filters for the centrifugal fans if you want to get fancy with it.
to answer your question yes, the fan they recommended is way to powerful for your purposes.
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Uhurungus
Avoiderer of Bullshit


Registered: 04/20/13
Posts: 838
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: drake89]
#20532268 - 09/07/14 08:44 AM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.grainger.com/product/1TDT2?cm_sp=HIO-_-Home-_-VTV70300505&cm_vc=HPPVZ11&zoneId=HPBTZ11
snoop around this site. depending on the static pressure of the filter you choose you will need between a 300 and 500 cfm blower. they one they suggested would be enough to push a 2x3 filter and possibly a 2x4 if it had low enough resistance.
as for filters, i don't have a specific recommendation. go to ebay and search a bit, try using terms like "laminar" and "hepa" and "flow hood". try the word "flanders" and "astrocell". there are no definate answers to the question of what filter to buy. i know as i've been looking for them for a month straight. lots of people bought the astrocells, i just bought a flanders laminar flow grade filter.
also check out hepa.com.
also read up as many flow hood threads here as you can find. if you do decide to buy a FP filter, ask them for the newer "mini-pleat" version, these are made of a different material with larger folds and offer far less resistance and filter greater surface area. in fact they recommend the mini pleat as replacments in their own hoods whenever that time comes. they just build a bunch of them with the old style and have to get rid of them first. this comes from a FP employee i talked to on the phone.
-------------------- I'm never 100% on anything, just close enough to risk looking foolish.
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blindingleaf
blue collar underworld


Registered: 07/19/13
Posts: 22,008
Loc: sub-surface unseen
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: Uhurungus]
#20532406 - 09/07/14 09:31 AM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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i just got a replacement mini pleat from FP, it rocking  only problem is that because of less resistance, i have to block off blower in take more than before to achieve laminar flow, but nothing a small piece of cardboard cannot handle.
-------------------- A few thoughts on cultivation MICROBIAL HUSBANDRY!!!! The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
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MrGiraffe

Registered: 04/04/14
Posts: 3,149
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Check out zorotools.com. The dayton 1tdt8 (797cfm/549cfms) at grainger is $265.75 (before shipping and tax). At zoro it's listed at $220.57 and they have free shipping on orders over $25 until September 30th. Also coupon code VEGGIE (good until 9/30 too) gets you 20% off of $75+ purchase making the 1TDT8 $191.35. The 1TDT8 may not be powerful enough, but find a dayton model that is, and zoro probably has it for a better price than $289+shipping that fungi perfecti (especially with the free shipping an 20% off they have going on right not).
http://www.zoro.com/g/PSC%20Blower/00011669/?category=5000
You can select the required cfms by static pressure and it will filter out the blowers to the ones the will deliver the proper cfms at that pressure, it's a little bit of a clusterfuck though. For instance a blower that delivers 1040cfms @ .8" static pressure it lists 2 models ( the 1TDU2 and the 12G810) both are about $20 cheaper than the one fungi perfecti sells, and that's not even including the 20% discount (or factoring the the shipping charges from fungi perfecti)
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Edited by MrGiraffe (09/07/14 09:12 PM)
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nmotion
Lando



Registered: 07/19/14
Posts: 27
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: MrGiraffe]
#20547682 - 09/10/14 11:51 AM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thanks a lot for the input, guys. I'm going to settle on something and make a purchase today so I can get this project out of the way.
Thanks again!
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qrkid
Stranger


Registered: 04/14/14
Posts: 57
Last seen: 5 years, 8 months
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: nmotion]
#20583760 - 09/18/14 01:34 PM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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Not sure if you have got your hands on 1 yet, but I wold suggest looking on craigslist and ebay. I just picked this up on ebay. Not brand new, but still unused and I payed $50 and $30 to ship. So it was at my front door for $80
http://www.zoro.com/i/G1996635/?gclid=CjwKEAjwheqgBRD5vOfR45az5AESJABy4m8-fRKWgnYCAGD6ZGPpMEG-UxF0_JY-gmA5wTwfLM_OahoCz2nw_wcB
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nmotion
Lando



Registered: 07/19/14
Posts: 27
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Re: Flow Hood Construction [Re: qrkid]
#20583911 - 09/18/14 02:09 PM (9 years, 4 months ago) |
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Dude! What a freggin' buy! Congrats on finding a great deal.
I went ahead and purchased the components I sited in my original post, so I spent way too much money, haha. I figure I can use a hardcore pre filter (or even two) to extend the HEPA filter's life a bit, and also be able to upgrade filter sizes somewhere down the line if I choose. I'll post some pictures when I get done building the thing.
I can't lie, I'm a little jelly; you really did find a great piece of equipment for a killer price I think.
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