My new grow area

Equanimity

New Member
Greetings :)

I have created a new grow space out of a pair of old wardrobes.

They have two of their doors removed, placed facing each other with a big gap between.

Next, the two remaining doors are opened and then screwed to each other to form the back wall and the removed doors placed down to create an even floor surface.

I have used one of the rails from inside one of the wardrobes as a cross bar for hanging lights on, this is fastened to the top of both wardrobes using pci backplates drilled in with screws.

So, this leaves a gap at the top and the front. The top will be covered with a folded fire blanket. The fire blanket will have a hole cut in it big enough to shove a 5" vent tube through. A further two fire blankets will comprise the door. These will be put on in a similar fashion to the flap doors on a walk in fridge (but not the strips type). i might even go mad and sew some velcro into the mix.

The inside of the unit is painted with flat white paint. It is believed to be good for light reflection.

The floor is not painted but will be covered in a white fire blanket before planting.

For lighting I'm going for a bit of a mixed bag.
For side lighting I'm using:
2 x 300W dual spectrum CFLs on euro reflectors; the reflectors have been placed vertically in the two back corners of the grow area and have been drilled down with 8 screws each. I made sure to have the lamp dangle rather than get the lamp base to support all the weight (large cfls are heavy!)
I also have:
9 x 35W CFLs; these are placed in rows of three in the front corners and in the middle of the back wall. I've used these same bulbs previously and can vouch for them.
So basically 9 small cfls and 2 big ones for side lighting.

Top lighting is going to be a 600w dual spec hps in a cool tube and a chinese LED comprising 50 3w LEDs in 6 bands. There's a white one on it which i wasn't terribly enamoured by. who wants white.


Ventilation will be handled by a 5" vent kit i found online.
120cm PC fans handle the intake at the bottom of the unit.
a 7" desk fan screwed upside down to the unit's ceiling will help move things along.

The total area is 6 feet wide, 3 feet deep, 5 feet high.

Actual growing area is a little less. the highest I'll want to let the plants get is 2 feet. especially if the distance between the led and the canopy matters as much as people say.



Below are some pics.

Please have a look and tell me if I've screwed up lol


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I plan to start 12 plants in this, of which 4 will be leaving for breeding purposes in another area.

I have a couple of questions though..

Like, how much heat will the cool tube remove?

Will suspending the fan, filter & ballast from wire create less noise than if these things were attached to wood?

Can i put all the lights on the same circuit? The 6 way plug adapter is supposedly rated to handle 3120 watts, the 9 35w cfls, 2 300w cfls, the 600w hps and the 150w led want 1365 watts.

Should i put the filter/extractor on the same circuit as the lights (and so on the same time cycle)?

Ty :)
 
Wowsa, boy. I got me a pencil and paper. 12 girls in a 90 foot cubic area. 18 foot square. Wait a second---have you always measured in feet? I thought you were one of those meter guys.

Sorry, back into my ratio mode. 12 girls sharing 18 feet. That's a foot and a half square pot.

OK, I finally got a question. How big are your pots? Another question, where are your fans? I keep scrolling up and reading, but I forget by the time I take another sip of cheap wine. Then I remember something about a walk in fridge and scroll up again, sip more wine...you get the picture?

This is so exciting, dude! So glad you figured out how to post pictures.
 
haven't got pots yet, gotta hit the local hydro shop for some more of those cheap coir bricks. i'll grab the pots while i'm there.

the intake fans are screwed onto vents i drilled near the bottom of the unit.
the circulation fan is screwed into a corner up top.
the extraction equipment is still in the post.
a few more little days and i can get started.. i'm thinking saturday :)
 
Come on, Saturday. I vote for square pots.

Gonna go get the pots today. if they have square I'd take em, they're so much more economical with the space.

Got the extractor fan today, big black 5" one it is LOL sounds quiet enough, just waiting for the ducting and the fire blankets which won't arrive til monday.
 
couldn't get coir bricks :( all they had was a 50 litre bag that i wasn't carrying home lol so i found the coir bricks online for twjce the price (grr) and now i have to wait for those. I did, however, get square pots of the perfect size to go from seed to harvest with no root binding issues. they were ridiculously expensive though :(

so i can't start until the last items trickle in.
 
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you read and read and measure and mark but still, nothing prepares you for how large some of this stuff is lol

This is an HPS bulb, correct? This is what is going into the top lighting? Rumour has it HPS can increase yield, and I'm thinking the place for it is on the top because that's where you are putting it after careful study and all that. These bulbs are going to be stationary, right? I'm only asking all these particular questions because in our world of smallish plants we should not have to worry about the difference between 12" and .30 of a meter unless it is light penetration or heat.

I'm so excited about your new room. :high-five::party:
 
This is an HPS bulb, correct? This is what is going into the top lighting? Rumour has it HPS can increase yield, and I'm thinking the place for it is on the top because that's where you are putting it after careful study and all that. These bulbs are going to be stationary, right? I'm only asking all these particular questions because in our world of smallish plants we should not have to worry about the difference between 12" and .30 of a meter unless it is light penetration or heat.

I'm so excited about your new room. :high-five::party:


I'm excited about it too. I've decided to start 14 plants or as many as i can get out of six and a quarter coir bricks (they expand when soaked see) and then when i take the 5 out for breeding I'll have 9 left in there for fruiting. mmmmm cannabis fruit lol

Yeah the HPS will be stationary, in the cool tube, with the LED dangling beside it. all the lamps from my previous grow are making an appearance too, including the two big 300w dual spectrum cfls; these will be as side lighting.

I've still got a few more things to get though, hinges for the doors, the ducting hasn't arrived yet either :(

The colloidal silver arrived though; 45ppm which i believe is 15ppm more than is necessary. got a tonne of this stuff too, 1.2 litres, which should be more than enough for two father plants
 
What size wire is your house wired with?

And it doesn't matter about watts, just amps. Right now just your lights are pulling around 12 amps. If your house is wired in 12g wire then your circuits should have an ampacity of 20 amps. 14g wire has an ampacity of 15 amps.

Your fan shouldn't pull more than about 3 amps on start up so you should be fine if your on a dedicated circuit ran in 12g wire.

And btw, for safety's sake you should only load a circuit to 80% of its ampacity. So for 12 wire on a 20 amp breaker, you can put up to 16 amps on it.
 
What size wire is your house wired with?

And it doesn't matter about watts, just amps. Right now just your lights are pulling around 12 amps. If your house is wired in 12g wire then your circuits should have an ampacity of 20 amps. 14g wire has an ampacity of 15 amps.

Your fan shouldn't pull more than about 3 amps on start up so you should be fine if your on a dedicated circuit ran in 12g wire.

And btw, for safety's sake you should only load a circuit to 80% of its ampacity. So for 12 wire on a 20 amp breaker, you can put up to 16 amps on it.

The lights are plugged into a 6 way surge protected extension from a single 13a fused wall socket.
The lights are are split into 5 groups, the first has one 300W cfl and three 35w cfls. the second group contains the same. the third group is just three 35w cfls. the LED and the HPS are plugged in seperately with the ballast located on the floor behind the back wall. all of the cables are placed in an enclosed area unxer the grow area floor.

The in-line extractor fan, desk fan and intake fans are plugged in on a seperate 6 way extension (sharing with a PC taking 3a max)

I'm currently testing everything whilst waiting for the last few items so any issues should arise before i plant.
 
I just did some calculations and it turns out that I'll pull a burst of about 12 amps and then 6.4 continuous. i think I'm pretty safe with that.
 
I just did some calculations and it turns out that I'll pull a burst of about 12 amps and then 6.4 continuous. i think I'm pretty safe with that.

Nice! As an electrician by trade you would not believe how many people just want to "plug and play". Glad to see your going about this in a professional way. I'm sure your wallet will thank you lol.

And that's a good setup you have, forgot to give you kudos on that earlier. Just out of curiosity, are you going to be able to adjust height on your overhead light?
 
Nice! As an electrician by trade you would not believe how many people just want to "plug and play". Glad to see your going about this in a professional way. I'm sure your wallet will thank you lol.

And that's a good setup you have, forgot to give you kudos on that earlier. Just out of curiosity, are you going to be able to adjust height on your overhead light?

The light is adjustable by way of being dangled over a metal bar with a rope of braided electrical cable (not plugged in lol), it can be raised and lowered and moved a little in either direction, held in place by nodules I've added to the metal cross bar.
 
Nice! As an electrician by trade you would not believe how many people just want to "plug and play". Glad to see your going about this in a professional way. I'm sure your wallet will thank you lol.

And that's a good setup you have, forgot to give you kudos on that earlier. Just out of curiosity, are you going to be able to adjust height on your overhead light?
Equa is real good with math.
 
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