Skip to Content

How to Install a Carbon Filter in Grow Room? 4 Step-by-Step Methods

Sharing is caring!

As gardeners, we all know how important it is to provide a healthy environment for your plants to help them grow and thrive.

Providing a clean environment for indoor cultivation can be challenging as it is a closed system. The air must be purified to eliminate pollutants, pathogens, pollen, moisture, and mold.

Carbon filters are an excellent solution for providing plants fresh and clean air.

In our article, we have covered 4 incredible methods on how to install a carbon filter in grow room so you can choose a setup that suits you best.

With that said, let’s head towards the topic.

Plant pots in a grow room—how to install a carbon filter in grow room
How to install a carbon filter in grow room? – Image via Anna Shvets.

How to Install a Carbon Filter in Grow Room? | An Introduction

Before getting into the main business, let’s see what carbon filters are and how they work. However, you can directly jump to the methods of installing them in grow rooms via the content table presented above.

What are Carbon Filters?

Carbon filters are a form of air filters that play a critical role in maintaining and regulating a clean and healthy environment for indoor cultivation.

Carbon filters absorb and remove airborne contaminants while allowing clean air to pass through.

  • The contaminants and pollutants from a grow room include spores, pollen, dirt, odors, mold, bacteria, and other gaseous pollutants.
  • All these contaminants contribute to an unhealthy environment for plants, making them more susceptible to diseases.
  • These pollutants can also affect your health and lungs, especially if you have any respiratory disease.
  • They can cause allergies when inhaled and make gardening difficult while being in the grow room.

The filters in a carbon filter consist of multiple layers of activated carbon which is processed in a form to feature tiny pores.

These pores relatively increase the surface area of the filters, allowing more space for the chemical reactions to occur, thus increasing their efficiency.

These pores absorb, filter, and eliminate all airborne pollutants and contaminants.

How Does a Carbon Filter Work?

The carbon filters work on the principle of adsorption.

Adsorption is a process in which various ions, atoms, or molecules adhere to a particular surface.

As discussed earlier, activated carbon—a processed form of carbon—is an excellent adsorbent as it provides a lot of surface area for adsorption. A single gram of activated carbon has a surface area of about 3000 m2.

Carbon filters work by sucking out the polluted air from the grow room and supplying fresh and clean air back inside the grow room.

You can use a set of exhaust fans to do this job. As the contaminated air passes through the carbon filter, the contaminant molecules adhere to the surface of carbon films.

Hence, the activated carbon absorbs all the odor, pollen, dirt, and pathogens.

This air is then expelled using exhaust fans that open in the ventilation shaft. The working of carbon filters is very simple, and so is their installation.

Follow the instructions to learn how to install a carbon filter in grow room.

Related Article: Cheap Indoor Grow Setup – How to Build One?

How to Install a Carbon Filter in Grow Room? | The Methods

There are four different ways to install a carbon filter.

Follow these methods to learn how to install a carbon filter in grow room and everything you need to know about the installation process:

Method 1: Installing the Carbon Filter and Fan Inside the Grow Room

The first method includes the installation of both the carbon filters and the fan inside the grow room.

This method is most preferred and is highly recommended over others as it offers much greater efficiency than other installation methods.

Follow these steps to learn how to install a carbon filter in grow room:

  • Attach your carbon filter to one side of your grow room and connect it with a fan located on the other end. This fan should be near the exhaust port.
  • Connect your aluminum duct from the end of the filter to the face of the fan. Continue this duct after the fan to the outside of your grow room.

The key here is to ensure that the fan is sucking air from the grow room and expelling it outside.

Method 2: Installing the Filter Inside and the Fan Outside the Grow Room

In this method, only the carbon filter is placed inside the grow room, while the fan and exhaust system are outside the grow room.

  • Attach the carbon filter inside the grow room.
  • Run your duct from the filter’s end to the outside of your grow room, connecting it with the exhaust fan.
  • Seal the area properly and ensure that the fan is sucking air outside.

Method 3: Installing the Fan Inside and the Filter Outside of the Grow Room

This method is the complete opposite of the other methods. The fan is placed inside the grow room, and the carbon filter is located outside.

  • Attach your fan inside your growing room and connect it to the exhaust port.
  • Attach the fan’s end with the duct and run the duct outside the growing room through the exhaust port.
  • Attach your carbon filter on the other end of the duct, outside the growing room.
  • The mechanism should be pulling air from the inside of the growing room to the outside into the filter.

One benefit of this method is that it makes maintenance and changing the carbon filter relatively easier.

Method 4: Installing Both the Filter and the Fan Outside the Growing Room

You can also install your carbon filter and fan outside the growing room.

Follow these directions to learn how it works:

  • Fix your ducting inside the growing room. Then run it through the exhaust port to the outside of the room.
  • On the outer end of the ducting, attach your exhaust fan to suck out the air from the growing room.
  • Then connect the carbon filter next to the fan so it cleans the air that passes through it.

You should pull the air out of the growing room into the filter.

When to Change the Carbon Filters?

Like any other filters, the carbon filters come with a certain lifespan.

If the filter is kept for too long, the adsorbent film will keep accumulating over the carbon films, which will decrease the efficiency of the filters.

Hence the carbon filters need to be changed every once to ensure the system works smoothly.

If the filters get clogged and get covered with buildup, the carbon will not be able to absorb the pollutants. So, change your filters every year to ensure that your growing room gets clean and fresh air.

For visual guide:

How to install a carbon filter in grow room—The Best Way to Set Up a Carbon Filter and Fan in Your Grow Tent – YouTube

Let’s conclude the talk here.


Conclusion

That was all about the carbon filters. We’ve covered “What are carbon filters?” “How does a carbon filter work?” and “How to install a carbon filter in grow room?”

A summary:

  • A carbon filter is an air filter that contains an activated carbon medium that filters out the air in your grow room, thus, protecting your lungs and your plants.
  • The most crucial constituent of a carbon filter is the activated carbon that absorbs and removes all the impurities and odors.
  • Carbon filters remove and absorb the air pollutants, excess pollen, dust, bacteria, mold, odorous, and gaseous pollutants.
  • Carbon filters come in various sizes and are often paired with ducts and fans that expel pathogens and other pollutants from the grow rooms.

This article has covered some helpful methods for installing carbon filters in grow room.

For any queries, leave us a comment, and our experts will get back to you!

Regards.