G.K. I Want Your Suggestions On Designing A Commercial Grow Room.

Useless is the man


I would run an AC big enough to handle the heat from the lights and forget the air cooled hoods


AND YES USELESS, I CAN TASTE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HYDRO AND ORGANIC I CAN NOW TELL IF YOU USED FOXFARM OR SUPERNATURAL BAT GUANNO AND SO ON. THIS IS NOW THAT IVE SEEN WHO USES WHAT.THE BEST FLAVOUR HYDRO SO FAR TO ME IS ADVANCEDNUTRIENTS. BUT NOT ALL CAN AFFORD THAT:thumbs-up:

 

Mt. King, that's what a lot of people say. No-one has ever done it though. The patients, dispensaries and all my grower friends can't tell the difference.


I hear what you are saying though. Bat guano leaves a residual flavor, if it's not flushed properly. I hate weed that tastes like bat shit. LOL


I use the "sweat" analogy. Look at it like this, a person from Greece who eats a lot of garlic, or a person from say India who eats a lot of curry, has sweat that smells like garlic or curry. However, if you stop giving them galric or curry for a few weeks, and flush out their system with water, the sweat is gonna smell like their natural B.O., not a garlic or curry stank.


So, sure, if the plants are not flushed properly, then you would be able to note differences. However, if the plants are flushed properly, and have no traces of the nutrients, then only the plants natural terpene profile is present.


Shame your not Cali resident. I'd send you 3 different buds for a blind taste test. Bet you couldn't tell me which was grown in hydro, which was grown in soil with synthetic nutes, or which was grown in soil with pure organics.

 

I plan on getting a window A/C as many BTU as I can safely run on a 15 Amp 120v circuit. I figured that using air cooled hoods would just increase the efficiency of my A/C by not making it work so hard to maintain the temps. I want to seal the room and do Co2 enrichment so the ducting to the hoods would be pulling air from inside my house in the hallway outside the room for cooling the lights and all the Co2 enriched A/C cooled air inside the room will be contained. I know it's a lot cheaper to run a big inline fan to cool the lights as apposed to running an A/C unit constantly. I'm already anticipating an exorbitant Electric Bill once I'm running up to 7K watts in my house, so I figured that air cooled hoods would help to lower my energy consumption a little.

 

I just assembled a 4x8 ebb and flow systems with can support 60 plants. I used 2x4s and 2 4x4s to build the tray stand. it will be close quarters at the ends, but will give you enought room on the sides for maintanance. I just purchased 2 360w advanced LED light which covers the complete area. There is no need for cooling fans and ducts, which greatly reduces noise opens up the room. Also, power consumption is greatly reduced and very easy to maintain the temp. There's no need for ballists and the lights don't degrade lumins like HID bulbs. All said and done, the materials cost $2000 for the lights and $1500 the hydro equipment and wood for the frame. The ebb and flow system is easy to set up and maintain.


This is my second grow room I've built, the first was conventional with 2 1000w HID lights. Power bill astronomical, very loud and hot. I will be getting my new lights today and will take pics of my set up.

 

We just bought a Frigidaire 18.5k BTU. $400 New, ...... inflation is a bitch I guess! We haven't installed it yet but I think it will be more than adequate for the small room we are working with. We're gonna have 5k watts HPS in that room. I think since we'll have the vented reflectors, that the A/C unit will be pretty efficient, it's rated for up to a 30'x39' room or roughly 1100 square ft. My room is only about 130 square ft! LOL! So I hope it should be adequate!

I plan to build my own tables as well. I would like to see pics of your setup if you care to share. Right now we're not gonna go with the LEDs becuz they are so expensive to buy initially (plus I'm not fully convinced that they can compete with the yields produced by HPS). We are going to need 5 lights and I don't have an extra $5k around after we had the electrical done, patched my roof, bought the A/C unit and our collective paperwork, as well as paint too, we're already into it for almost $5k and we still need to buy lights, fans, timers, pumps, nutes, reservoirs, Co2 enrichment, hydroton, rockwool etc!.....Etc!...... Maybe later down the line we will see about adding some new equipment like LEDs after we recover some of our investment capital. For now we are going to utilize techniques and equipment that have a proven long term track record of success.

 

I don't know if i'm jumping in too late. 7x10 room


I would do 2 5'x5' chamber's side by side for flower and have a small 2'x3' chamber at the far end of the room for a few cfl's with the cloner up top and mom's down below. Each 5x5 chamber would have 2 1kw's 6 Rwdc 5 gal buckets in each.


As far as air circulation i would run a 8" inline Y'd to 2 6" lines with 450cfm filters in each chamber exhausting back into the room. I use small box fans for intakes on the chambers you could use 4" inlines if light leakage is a problem.


Use your AC to keep the room as a whole at your desired temp.


Don't forget a nice dehumidifier.


Grow some TREES you would be harvesting every 40-45 days. Harvest with the right strains and veg/training you could easily be in the 2-3 lb range.


I do not have much experience with Co2 but from what i read and see you could do either tank or water cooled burner.


One thing i have that i feel is the best Insurance for my money was a $200 Battery Back up for my air pumps i run 3 14 watt air pumps that could last for prolly 3-4 days no power. If you are running Rdwc and the power goes out the water doesn't circulate but atleast the plants won't die due to lack of D.O.


For EVERYTHING needed I would estimate $2500-3k wood and panda film and hydroton and buckets and fittings and hose and screws and ducting and tape for seams and timers and wire and expansion foam and....Steelcity

 

So our electrical is done. Initially we tried to use an inexpensive 4 station sprinkler timer to control all the lighting outlets. Unfortunately after we read the instructions we realized it would not support a 12/12 light cycle. So we set it up so that a standard digital appliance timer can control all 5 240v outlets. How you ask, well we used a 24v sprinkler transformer(power supply) run through a bridge rectifier and into a 30 amp DC relay that triggers the 2'nd breaker panel which houses al the breakers for the 5 240v outlets that will run the lights. There is also a toggle switch bypass. I may however go buy an intermatic mechanical type timer and wire that in in place of the relay and rectifier, as long as the mechanical timer can handle the 30 amp 240v circuit. We used the rectifier and DC relay becuz Home Depot didn't carry a 30 amp AC relay ( we needed the relay in order to use the sprinkler timer) I'm going to probably change over to the intermatic mechanical style timer eventually but for now we can use the regular timer to trigger the circuit by plugging the transformer into the appliance timer and when it turns on the transformer it triggers the relay and in turn activates all 5 outlets. It's safe and that was my main concern.

 

yeah hardwired intermatics are 40a.

 

the 240 volt is rated at 40 amps?