Help To Design My Grow Room

[Bsw9090]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help make suggestions and view other point of views of the "pros" so to speak.

I have 5 rooms, all rooms are roughly 12x12 and connected to each other, and what I was planning on going was having 4 of the rooms for growing only, and one room for storage/harvesting/curing and having a few quick dry totes in that room.

As far as what I want to have in the rooms, I have no clue, I was thinking of having one room split in half, and half for mothers, and half for clones and the other 3 for a perpetual grow, and I'm leaning towards aeromist setups, but I don't know how to have those setup for a large scale grow like I will be doing.

If you have any suggestions I welcome you to post, and thanks in advance..

 

[massah]

Lots of options for this megagrow you are suggesting...

But here are a few things to be careful of:

1) Smell, do you have neighbors? That much weed is going to make your house stick out like a sore thumb in any type of populated area unless you invest quite a bit in an air cleaning system. You will need to seal off every room to make sure the smell goes through an exhaust system and filter before being expelled.

2) Electricty, to fully outfit a system like this you are talking about using probably 6-10k watts of lighting...so you are looking at a pretty damn high electricity bill, that the electric company WILL notice since they do watch that stuff and will tip off police. They will see historical data of the previous years and see your 3-4x electricity usage and raise a flag...

3) Light, Again this is a do you have neighbors question? Blocking off all the windows looks kinda fishy, but seeing shittons of high powered lights on projecting from a house is also fishy as hell...

4) HEAT, even if you live in the middle of nowhere the police do have helicopters with infrared lights mounted on the bottom of them to find situations like this, so you have to heat block the cealings with reflective insulation and pump all that heat out the exhaust to one or two exit points so they look like dryer vents or a chimney would look best if its cold outside.

Before even remotely attempting to do this you need to make sure nobody knows about this, you won't have any visitors to the house, you wont have any neighbors seeing anything, you live in such a remote area that FLIR drive bys or fly overs will not detect you. Just be very careful man...

 

[Bsw9090]

Massah, thanks for the reply..

I guess I should have put this is the first post, but didn't think about it, I'll be starting out with roughly 1 room in the beginning and re-investing over time but not starting it all in one sweep so to speak, but I'd imagine I'd have all the rooms outfitted in under 6-8 months.

For answers,

1) The house I'll be growing at, yes they do have neighbors, and the majority of the neighbors just don't really care what anybody does, but either way I'll be getting a carbon filter shortly after the grow has started.

2) It has slowly started being raised and like I said it isn't just going to jump up 6-8k watts all at once, I have 1 1k watt and a 400 watt right now, but I will be gradually raising the usage and not being drastic all at once..

3) There are no windows so that is fortunate for me, and the door is blocked off from where the rooms are at from multiple other doors so no light seeps out.

4) Its not out in the country, its a maze to get to, but its not in a highly populated neighborhood or anything like that but its a safe area.

Oh yeah, its a completely off-limits area to anybody.. But I definitely appreciate it man.

 

[Bsw9090]

anyone else have suggestions for this grow room setup? I'm trying to plan it out so I can know what I need to plan on getting over the next few months for this whole setup.

 

[SirLancelot]

what are you doing for fresh air intake since you don't have any windows?

 

[4tatude]

you will need a good electrician first...second you will need environmental controllers, scrubbers, fans,timers, pumps, ac etc. the size area your talking about will be 1152 sq ft per room with 144 serface feet per. requires a 12 in vortex n scrubber per room to exchange air, 4 1k lights with a 6" cooling them in the 3 flower rooms, wall mounted or floor mounted fans for circulation, n we havent even started talking on what grow medium you plan on using. if its hydro it will need chillers res pumps etc. the electric bill on a set up like that will be 4k or real close per month. that will include the t5s used for moms n clones. its a very doable set up n for perpetual the 3 flower rooms are easier than one big imo. for a real design you will need to figure all aspects of the grow n figure out what you want it to do then you can fine tune it to completion. do everything on paper before you initiate, it will save you a ton of money n frustration

 

[Bsw9090]

what are you doing for fresh air intake since you don't have any windows?

There is already ducting installed in the area that I will be pulling outside air in from.

you will need a good electrician first...second you will need environmental controllers, scrubbers, fans,timers, pumps, ac etc. the size area your talking about will be 1152 sq ft per room with 144 serface feet per. requires a 12 in vortex n scrubber per room to exchange air, 4 1k lights with a 6" cooling them in the 3 flower rooms, wall mounted or floor mounted fans for circulation, n we havent even started talking on what grow medium you plan on using. if its hydro it will need chillers res pumps etc. the electric bill on a set up like that will be 4k or real close per month. that will include the t5s used for moms n clones. its a very doable set up n for perpetual the 3 flower rooms are easier than one big imo. for a real design you will need to figure all aspects of the grow n figure out what you want it to do then you can fine tune it to completion. do everything on paper before you initiate, it will save you a ton of money n frustration

Thank you for your post, I would like to break it up into different parts and see a rough estimate of what I will need to have before I start getting everything setup and then find out I'm missing something or something doesn't work.

Electricity - About how much electricity would I need to have run? Could I be looking at potentially just wiring 4 new 20-25 amp breakers and making a few more outlets in the rooms?

Environmental - I plan on getting around a 8000/10000 BTU AC/heat unit although more so looking at the AC as it really doesn't get cold enough around here and when this would all be setup, the exhaust and heat from the lights could be potentially used for heat for the grow rooms (Let me know what you think about this)

Scrubbers - How do you "calculate" what type/size fan you should use for a room? I know these sound like stupid noob questions, but hey everybody starts somewhere, I'm still learning and its better to ask.. But I'll be creating a list of what all I need before hand and this is where I really appreciate everyone's help.

Lights - How are you thinking of having the lights? I see 4 1k but 1 in each room and 2 in mother room? I'm sorry it just doesn't make sense how you said that because I could see 4 in 1 room being complete overkill.
Where would you route the exhaust of the cooltube? Just route it to the scrubber I'm guessing?

Wall/Floor Mounted Fans - Check.

Grow Medium - I plan on using a setup that DrGreenFinger had posted a DIY for. The link for his setup is https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/156863-grow-2-lbs-2-x.html

I would be using rockwool and Hydroton as a medium.

Mothers/Clones - I currently have a t5 light that I can use for my mothers/clones currently but I will be upgrading when I'm going to be getting the rest of the stuff mentioned here. I can then use the t5 I have now for the clones at that point and have a new light for the mothers.


What I am hoping to do with the grow is grow as large of an amount as possible, and have it somewhat perpetual to where I can get a harvest either every 2 weeks or 3 weeks. Basically as often as possible. I'll check on my seeds later today and possibly just do a sketch of the layout and what I am thinking for rooms and post that up here so I could potentially get ideas/suggestions.

 

[4tatude]

There is already ducting installed in the area that I will be pulling outside air in from.



Thank you for your post, I would like to break it up into different parts and see a rough estimate of what I will need to have before I start getting everything setup and then find out I'm missing something or something doesn't work.

Electricity - About how much electricity would I need to have run? Could I be looking at potentially just wiring 4 new 20-25 amp breakers and making a few more outlets in the rooms?

Environmental - I plan on getting around a 8000/10000 BTU AC/heat unit although more so looking at the AC as it really doesn't get cold enough around here and when this would all be setup, the exhaust and heat from the lights could be potentially used for heat for the grow rooms (Let me know what you think about this)

Scrubbers - How do you "calculate" what type/size fan you should use for a room? I know these sound like stupid noob questions, but hey everybody starts somewhere, I'm still learning and its better to ask.. But I'll be creating a list of what all I need before hand and this is where I really appreciate everyone's help.

Lights - How are you thinking of having the lights? I see 4 1k but 1 in each room and 2 in mother room? I'm sorry it just doesn't make sense how you said that because I could see 4 in 1 room being complete overkill.
Where would you route the exhaust of the cooltube? Just route it to the scrubber I'm guessing?

Wall/Floor Mounted Fans - Check.

Grow Medium - I plan on using a setup that DrGreenFinger had posted a DIY for. The link for his setup is https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/156863-grow-2-lbs-2-x.html

I would be using rockwool and Hydroton as a medium.

Mothers/Clones - I currently have a t5 light that I can use for my mothers/clones currently but I will be upgrading when I'm going to be getting the rest of the stuff mentioned here. I can then use the t5 I have now for the clones at that point and have a new light for the mothers.


What I am hoping to do with the grow is grow as large of an amount as possible, and have it somewhat perpetual to where I can get a harvest either every 2 weeks or 3 weeks. Basically as often as possible. I'll check on my seeds later today and possibly just do a sketch of the layout and what I am thinking for rooms and post that up here so I could potentially get ideas/suggestions.

are you just wanting to grow something in each room or make grow rooms?
overkill... 4 1k lights per room is conservative with a 5x5 footprint. 9 is utilizing it propperly with a good return at finish.
no you can not exaust through filter lol you pull through it n exaust outside or in another room. i recomend an independent draw n exaust port for cooling lights with a 6 in inline per room for that.
exchange fan size, double the room vollume with controller to manipulate as needed.
it looks like you need to do some more research or at least have an objective in mind so we can help you shoot for it. generalities are not good enough, be more spacific with what you want to do.

 

[Bsw9090]

I'm just wanting to do different times for the different grow rooms, such as having one room at 1 week one at 4 weeks and one at 7 weeks about to harvest all of those numbers are hypothetical.

I'm saying overkill for lights as everyone I've talked to has said that a 1k light is sufficient for the entire room.

Here is the layout that I had mentioned I was going to upload. As far as the objective, I just want to make use of the rooms as best as possible and be able to harvest the largest amount possible with the area I have. I just need to make sure I have room to be able to check the plants and when its time to harvest, room to be able to pull the plants out and bring them to the room in the back. I just know the hydro setups that I would like to do are aeroponic setups DrGreenFinger wrote a DIY about. They have 32 2" sites on a 2x4 area so there would be a potential of having 12 per room with 2' walkway in between the totes. That is just the idea that I've currently been wondering but I am just wanting to get more input and suggestions if there would be any other room setups that would be more efficient than what I have been thinking about.

As far as the layout goes, I can use any room in the picture, also the doorway in the bottom left goes outside

 

[Bsw9090]

I'd really like to know what everyone would do with the space if they were going to use it for themselves, I'm thinking about blocking off the rooms partially as seen in the See More Buds movies and creating grows such as those after a little bit..

But really another question of mine still stands. What would you do if you had the area and rooms like I do?

 

[4tatude]

first of all whoever told tou 1k will do the whole room dont know jack shit n you can tell them i said so
so you want to know what i would do?
i would put 4 1k lights in each room that will give you 4 -5x5= 100sqft of grow area with a walk through
in each corner of each room i would put a undercurrent system just like im running with a 5x5 footprint with 8 plants each.
i would install a 8in vortex fan and ducting to cool lights with suction and discharge run through the attic.
i would install a 12in filter and fan to scrubb the air with its discharge also vented outside via the attic
i would install 2 wall mounted 16in oscilating fans per set up so 8 per room
i would use a sentinal controller n cap trigger for the lights
that would be the start for the environment, unless it gets hot where you live n if thats the case an ac unit is in order
this is a basic set up you can get crazy with ph n ppm momitors n they are nice n save time n plants sometimes but arent absolutely necesary.
of course you have to have pumps and timers n such but thats a given, just like chillers on hydro.
with this set up you should be able to pull 5 to 6 lbs per run depending on strain n such.
i sugest if your new to growing which it sounds like you are to start with 1k n a set up of your choice n get a few runs under your belt before going big. i could easily pull 12lbs a month off this set up with 4 rooms. you could double the lights n double the weight even if you wanted to. again if i were to optimize the area it would hold 9 1k lights per room.
be prepared for a 4k per month electric bill with the 4 light set up in each room n lighting for moms n clones

 

[jdmcwestevo]

there is what i recomend 6k watt flower rooms or you can use 600s if you choose. each fan atleast a 6" 435 cfm if you went with 8" 735cfm you would have much cooler room and better air exchange. i would use 24 site green trees bucket system so that you can use a perpetual harvest schedule with that veg room. very easy to do large ops this way. check out my 20k watt journal to see how i set it up.

 

[collective gardener]

You're in way over your head. Slow down. Right off the bat, your limitting factor will be how much power you can draw. You can't draw enough power in a residence to light all those rooms.

How much growing experience do you have??? I HIGHLY suggest starting small and adding on as you get dialed in.

To give you an idea, my current warehouse grow is 20,000 watts. You can see it on the link in my sig. My A/C is 64,000 BTU's. My power bill is $2,000. The total cost to build the grow (including paying myself for my labor) was $80,000. I worked up to this size over many many years.

There is so much you need to learn before going big. Why don't you start with a veg room and 2 - 1000 watt lights in one room to bloom with.

 

[Bsw9090]

Oh yeah I'm definitely going to be starting with just 2 small grows right now, and as I grow, re-invest at each harvest, I just want to know what I can play with and modify so I can plan it out in the long run before I waste money on something that wont benefit me 6 months - 1 yr - 2 yrs down the road. I'm very effective and I'd rather spend a little more now if I can use it 1 yr from now too.. If that makes any sense.

 

[collective gardener]

How much experience?

 

[chasmtz]

You're in way over your head. Slow down. Right off the bat, your limitting factor will be how much power you can draw. You can't draw enough power in a residence to light all those rooms.

How much growing experience do you have??? I HIGHLY suggest starting small and adding on as you get dialed in.

To give you an idea, my current warehouse grow is 20,000 watts. You can see it on the link in my sig. My A/C is 64,000 BTU's. My power bill is $2,000. The total cost to build the grow (including paying myself for my labor) was $80,000. I worked up to this size over many many years.

There is so much you need to learn before going big. Why don't you start with a veg room and 2 - 1000 watt lights in one room to bloom with.

I agree with him.

You asked "What would we do with this space?"

I would assess the budget and go from there. I would start with one veg room and one flower room and one room to dry/cure with. I would work on independent air flow for each room and do dry runs, making adjustments to get pressures/temp/humidity dialed in, for each room independently. I would start with 600watts to veg and 1200 to flower with every intention doubling that. Having LARGE fans and planning for expansion is key, but so is starting smaller, keeping costs down, and dialing in the environment.

 

[Bsw9090]

I've only had a few plants just soil and didn't know as much knowledge as I do now, I just used to have those for me to smoke and that was a few years back and had four plants back in feb..

I completely intend on starting small (as in about 10 plants, because thats how many I've got cloned and growing right now) for right now, and then upgrading as I have the money to re-invest into this project. But thats about exactly what I was looking for Chasmtz. Starting out with a 600w for veg and 1200 for flower.

Now one thing though, I've already got a 1kw HPS and a 400w MH bulb with a 1kw ballast and misc other items. But I'm thinking of having the 1kw for blooms and right now using a t5 flouro until I get the ballast for the MH.

But thats definitely what I was wanting to see how someone else would start out and how they would end up upgrading it until the final finished project is here (although it never comes as there will always be ways to upgrade/increase yield)

So I'm gonna end up making all of my rooms and when I start to really build and invest money I'll probably start up a journal and everything.

I would still like to see more input and ideas of how others would start with and upgrade after a bit with a potential finished project/grow rooms fully upgraded.

 

[4tatude]

I've only had a few plants just soil and didn't know as much knowledge as I do now, I just used to have those for me to smoke and that was a few years back and had four plants back in feb..

I completely intend on starting small (as in about 10 plants, because thats how many I've got cloned and growing right now) for right now, and then upgrading as I have the money to re-invest into this project. But thats about exactly what I was looking for Chasmtz. Starting out with a 600w for veg and 1200 for flower.

Now one thing though, I've already got a 1kw HPS and a 400w MH bulb with a 1kw ballast and misc other items. But I'm thinking of having the 1kw for blooms and right now using a t5 flouro until I get the ballast for the MH.

But thats definitely what I was wanting to see how someone else would start out and how they would end up upgrading it until the final finished project is here (although it never comes as there will always be ways to upgrade/increase yield)

So I'm gonna end up making all of my rooms and when I start to really build and invest money I'll probably start up a journal and everything.

I would still like to see more input and ideas of how others would start with and upgrade after a bit with a potential finished project/grow rooms fully upgraded.

sounds like you hasve the right idea. more potential great growers have been lost from bad experiences starting out than need be. its a learning curve, one some never will get n others thrive. start small n experience the growing pains so when you get bigger its old hat n not a crises. i would be interested in following along as you grow so do keep posting n if i can ill help all i can.
i see you are interesded in growing n seem to have a goal in mind n not someone that starts out wanting to concor the world on the first grow. it takes dedication n diligence but is very doable. if i came on a bit harsh at first i appologize, just seemed you were wanting to be another overnight sensation n that bothers me lol. good luck n askif you want more ideas. spacific goals are nice to have then we know how to respond. peace

 

[jdmcwestevo]

go big or go home for that amount of lights there should be enough power if you run the rooms on flip flop boxes easily.

 

[Bsw9090]

sounds like you hasve the right idea. more potential great growers have been lost from bad experiences starting out than need be. its a learning curve, one some never will get n others thrive. start small n experience the growing pains so when you get bigger its old hat n not a crises. i would be interested in following along as you grow so do keep posting n if i can ill help all i can.
i see you are interesded in growing n seem to have a goal in mind n not someone that starts out wanting to concor the world on the first grow. it takes dedication n diligence but is very doable. if i came on a bit harsh at first i appologize, just seemed you were wanting to be another overnight sensation n that bothers me lol. good luck n askif you want more ideas. spacific goals are nice to have then we know how to respond. peace

Thanks a lot man, yeah I use it as a medicine and honestly I really support legalization and have been following Ron Pauls bill along with attending hearings throughout my state. It is definitely a large learning curve, but I've been reading since about feb, but just recently got into a stable enough position to grow a few plants and help a lot of other people and everything...

I definitely love this forum, I've looked through a lot of the posts and see theres a lot of knowledge on here and can't wait to get to a point of helping others when they are in my current position. But I think I have the dry room basically planned out. I just wish I could see actual rooms in person to see the full grow from start to finish with the setup I am hoping to accomplish.

Oh and Jdm (jdm parts are awesome) I'll definitely goin big but I'll be getting there over time and yeah I will probably end up having a electrician come in and see what all I would need but I'd have that I get some more money to invest and all to have the proper amount of watts.. but does anybody know about how many amps I would need, because the breaker box is right next to the grow and I know how to wire it, but I just don't know how to convert to amps..

Oh and after looking at the grow rooms, I noticed there were tons of outlets and looks like the last person that lived here used to grow, especially because I was cleaning it up and in one of the rooms I smelt marijuana and just the whole setup is perfect for it in the first place.. and yeah I know this is a really long post and really off topic but I'm high as hell right now.