DirtHawkers first indoor aero/nft "stinkbud design" medical grow

Thanks Jgreen.

Any one with info?

Im trying to find the most efficient way to run my lights. As of now my E bill is very expensive. $650 bucks a month, and thats only running 4 600 watt hps, an AC unit, fans timers etc, along with the rest of the house. ( the ac unit is alot this time of year)

My 4 switchable (120 or 240) 600 watt hps ballasts are set at 120 and plugged into common outlets (2 per outlet). Is this not ideal?

would buying one of these ,, i would rather just buy one instead of trying to build one.
http://www.growlights.net/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=669

and plugging into the dryer outlet, also switching the 120 volt plugs from the ballasts for 240volt plugs be more safe and efficient? would it draw less amps and save on the electricity costs?
 
absolutely not there are many people to argue the fact but the truth is volts x amps= watts as for 120 x ? = 600w and then you will change the equation a little but 240x ?= 600w its the same draw no matter what. I would run a big chiller and 4 ice boxes and see if it is better it'll run ya about $1000.00 or a bit more but could save it in this summers bills at that rate.
 
Or run two lights on movers with a pause on the oldest girls at the end. I've read they consume most of light photosynthesis in the first 6 hours of light. like 80 or 90%. that would cut your cooling and light and fan power costs by half. i bet you can run each light on different timers so the middle is on 12/12 and then the outers are on 16/8 that would cut Ac and light wattage and if the photosynthesis theory is true it would be like a slightly shaded outdoor grow. my 2 cents.. may not be worth much but a suggestion.
 
how much was your ebill before? i did a calculation and it seems that an op like yours would use about $275-300 per month @ .14kwh.
 
Gotta remember the electric rates change when summer comes, so your high bill could be a reflection of raised rates, more of a reason to go solar :o
 
My electric co runs on a tier system with 4 levels.. the higher tiers you reach the cost dramaticly increases.. of course i am on the top tier so im screwed no matter what! I thought using the 600 would save my ass...but lifes a bitch aint it!!!

my E bill before was only $125 a month.

After summer it will go back down to around $500...oh well
 
Hey Dirt, how often do you vent out your co2 and refill the room? I got a sealed room with a/c and air cooled hood so I don't have to vent from any heat issues, but I heard it's still good to vent at least every 3 hours to bring in fresh air. Your thoughts?

I'm using a recycle timer for my tank/reg, 5 minutes on, 60 minutes off. And then maybe turn off the a/c & co2 every 3 hours to vent out all the co2/stagnant air to bring in fresh air for like 15 minutes, then resume A/C & Co2 injection and kill the vent? Repeat every 3 hours during lights on...

*scratches head*
 
I dont vent at all during lights on, my controller keeps the co2 at 1500 ppm and my AC keeps the room below 83. I have my dehumi set at 50%, and oscillating fans are on at all times, even 3 small ones on the floor blowing up. I used to have my vent fan come on for the whole lights off cycle, but i turned it off beacuse of the hotass weather were havin, was just sukin hot air in and my AC was over workin. Now i just leave it off until summers over.

From what i understand, the plants dont need fresh air they need c02, the only reason to vent is heat and to discharge humidity, in your case heat isnt a problem so if you are getting high humidity it can be solved with a dehumidifier. But if one doesnt have a dehumi, then its probably a good idea to vent every 3 hours. Unless of course you are drawing in humid air from outside.
 
Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I guess fresh air isn't important when they got cool temps + co2.

How's the OG Kush doing man? Gotta know the final weight on those girls :weed:
 
OG kush is looking SWEET!!! Hey robot,,, seriously? how did the drought flush work?

I want to try it but just cant pull the trigger.
 
The drought flush worked perfectly. However, the taste/flavor didn't really come through when smoking a bowl/joint, but through a vaporizer... holy crap, just an explosion of flavor.

The vape really brings out the "sweet" for sure. Very tasty, no complaints.

I will be doing the same thing when I flush my BBK.
 
Very nice thread dirt,reps and subscribing was very informative,and I see it helping me down the line in the future.


Just a thought a maybe something to think about ,How much did your temp go up when you added the dehumidifier ?when you're running a air conditioner are you still running the dehumidifier?(lot of heat there )and do you really need it if your running the air conditioner it removes moisture also.I'm thinking of kind of the same setup but insulating all of the walls, ceiling and floor so it would be a little more stable year round .Am I way off base?just trying to think a little out of the box.
 
How do you think your grows would be doing with jsut 2 of the 600's how you first started off?
Coudl you achieve the same output as your four 600's as with two of them on a light mover across the 3 stations?
 
DIRTHAWKER said:
Im at 5 weeks with one of my racks and the DAM!! yellowing has started again.

I know its not a heat problem beacuse the highest the temps in the room gets is 87.
I think it may be an over fert problem?

Stink? or lion? or any of yall? In my journal and earlier pics ( before i started using RO water and c02) the plants stayed green all the way to the flush.

My thinking and i may be wrong but when using my 600ppm tap water i would bring the ppm to 2000ppm in the flower res. maybe bringing the ppm to 2000ppm with clean 0ppm water is too much????? and the leaves are getting an overload and cant hold that much nutes?

I am flushing with clean water for 24 hours in this rack and need some input on what to do with the nutes afterward?
Click to expand...

ppm meters only measure *total* ppm not just nutes. so if there is 100ppm of calcium and whatever when you add your nutes the amount of nutes is the final ppm subtracted from the base ppm reading. with your 600ppm tap water you were using 2000ppm - 600ppm = 1400 ppm of nutes. now ur using 2000ppm - 0ppm = 2000ppm nutes. try a middle ground like 1700ppm final.
 
If I were to cut this stink bud flowering design in half would I be able to fit it in a 4x4 grow tent or no chance in hell? When I say split in half I mean 2x600 w and 3 7 slot flowering posts... any ideas would be great.. I'm just worried that ill get busted if I had the power consumption of the full design
 
nbroadhu said:
If I were to cut this stink bud flowering design in half would I be able to fit it in a 4x4 grow tent or no chance in hell? When I say split in half I mean 2x600 w and 3 7 slot flowering posts... any ideas would be great.. I'm just worried that ill get busted if I had the power consumption of the full design
Click to expand...

Here's what I've got. 2 Stinkbud Jr.'s joined at the hip. 12 sites total under a 600w.

tent1.JPG

tent2.JPG
 
Can anyone tell me what would be some things to consider if I wanted to use 1 reservoir tank for all 3 stations instead of using 1 rez for each station? Seems like it would be much easier to only change out 1 rez than all 3.
 
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