Insulating A Growroom

Ok so i thought this would be the best section to post in regarding growroom design and setup - im looking to build a fully insualted grow

I have some idea of whats needed through reading various posts on here, however im hoping to hear from some of the more experienced growers out there who have in fact insualted their grow.

If im going to do it... its going to be big, as the effort and expense not to mention the lack of portability have to be worth it.

So far the best idea i have heard is to build a timber frame around the entire grow, raise it off the ground, nail plasterboard to the outside of the frame and fill the gaps between the timer and the inside with good insulation and then plasterboard the inside as well. Id imagine you need to get fresh air in there as well so i would need to make a hole somewhere in the frame and have a strong fan pushing fresh air into the enclosure. Ive heard that this will also help insulate as the layer of fresh air provides a barrier to protect the grow. Ive never done anything like this before so im looking for ideas on what materials to use, where to get them and an approximate cost. I cant find any tutorials on how to do it but if anyone has a link or has experience of setting up this kind of thing id love to hear from you.

Thx.

how big is your space? what is the temp difference (max) between the grow and the outside you are protecting it from?

is there existing insulation? do you plan to add to it or replace it?

there are also some other options... i've seen one guy go nuts with the spray on foam insulation... (which works pretty well).

At the moment ive only got two small cupboards 0.5mx0.8mx1.7m - one for veg and one for flowering and im running flouros in the veg chamber and a 250w in th3e flowering room.

Probably not enough to warrant insulating...

However, it is something that i want to do - so if im going to spend the money on insulation materials etc i might as well move this all to another room and build a massive enclosure - that way when its time to upgrade to a big tent and 4x600watters and clone room im fully protected - i dont see the point in building something just to have to knock it down when i want to expand and people keep telling me that i will be ok running the setup that i have as FLIR cant see through walls.

Will i be ok with the setup i have?

Has anyone built such an enclosure and if you have could you share with us how you did it and what you used?

anyone.............

cant believe no ideas as of yet or links to anyone elses insulated grow? the best one i have seen is SOGs insulated attic grow if anyone is interested you can do a search for SOG growroom - but i was hoping more people would have some experience to chip in on the matter

noone at all?.... id have thought a lot of people would be interested in this to stop your grow getting spotted by the choppers... seems the safe and sensible thing to do if ur planning a big grow.

whitewidow2 said:

noone at all?.... id have thought a lot of people would be interested in this to stop your grow getting spotted by the choppers... seems the safe and sensible thing to do if ur planning a big grow.

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I think they make a black poly to line your growroom with if your intention is to avoid being spotted by IR.

I built a sealed room inside my garage. It is ALOT OF WORK but really not too complicated. I used 1/2" ply wood on the outside walls, 8' 2x4's in between to hold it all together, and 1/2" sheet rock on the inside of my room. I used regular wall insulation between the ply and the sheet rock, and I used attic insuation above the "roof" of my grow room (still inside my garage). If you are looking to control temps, humidity and CO2 good in your room be sure to insulate EVERY point between your inside walls and your outside walls. When insulating above (attic, etc) be sure to cover every point of the ceiling.


FLIR can ony detect surface temps. If you have an insulated room INSIDE your garage then FLIR will not be able to see it unless it is heating up the outside of your roof/walls of your house or garage. When they use FLIR they are mainly looking for exhaust points that are "fishy". If you vent out lets say a dryer house where hot air would normally be coming out they cannot even suspect anything. If you are growing in a shack that is 80 on the inside, 30 on the outside and have NO isulation the walls will litterally glow when looking at it with FLIR, but they won't be able to see exactly what you have in there. If it's 80 on the inside and 80 on the outside they cannot even detect it's warm because the surface temp is equal to ambient temp. They cannot see through walls, and they cannot detect heat through insulation.

JediSmoker said:

I built a sealed room inside my garage. It is ALOT OF WORK but really not too complicated. I used 1/2" ply wood on the outside walls, 8' 2x4's in between to hold it all together, and 1/2" sheet rock on the inside of my room. I used regular wall insulation between the ply and the sheet rock, and I used attic insuation above the "roof" of my grow room (still inside my garage). If you are looking to control temps, humidity and CO2 good in your room be sure to insulate EVERY point between your inside walls and your outside walls. When insulating above (attic, etc) be sure to cover every point of the ceiling.

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sounds almost exactly like what I did yrs ago in an old barn.mine was 4x4x8 inside. at the bottom ,I had a 8x16 opening for fresh air covered by a furnace filter & a 3 foot electric baseboard heater on opposite side.about 18 inches up,I built a shelf across the entire bottom for the plants.under went the ballast,water & fert storage.on top I used a PCfan powered when the lights went on and a bath fan tied to a thermostat.I started w/ 10 4 foot floros (swapping bulbs for veg or flower)and a 400 watt hps but added a 400 mh later.both were on a pulley to raise/lower as needed.this was set up for use in the cold of upstate NY & I could start about oct & end in march. the heater was switched by the light timer so it would only come on when lights out.when the outside temps where above 30,I had some heat issues (mainly after adding the 2nd 400 watts) but it worked good for several yrs.

nice to get some replies... im just thinkin that if i get a big grow tent and 4 x 600w air cooled HPS lights in there it might show up on FLIR if i dont insualte the whole thing... would i be correct? Can they see partially through roofs etc if the grow is bright/hot enough... ive seen some pictures with glowing parts of insides of rooms circulating on here where it looks like you can see into the house to the warm spots, and hence it worries me. Realistically i dont think im going to be able to vent to the outside and i dont really want to anyway... so with all that heat from the lights - where do i put it to effectively cool it to the same temp as my surroundings within the house? would air conditioning work?

Try this out if you have a lowes around you. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=13358-56291-BP48025&bc=c

king span silver so allready reflective nails straight to frame and best of all do it two thick making sure second layer covers cracks 0 heat loss and its -10 here but in my mates garage in the grow room its nice

AC would work to cool the room, but you need to realize that even AC has an exhause that needs to be expelled. Also, if they actually see you running an AC sticking out the window during the winter that is much more suspicious than a "warm room" or even a basic exhaust.

They might be able to see a warmer room, and possibly even warmer half of any peticular room, but they can not see through walls. FLIR measures surface temptures only. If you have nothing but plastic walls and the plastic is close to the grow lamps they *might* be able to make out some shape but I have not tested FLIR under those conditions.

If the ambiant tempture is 80 and the exhause of your lights is 80 they cannot even detect it.

How much they can see with FLIR totally depends on exhaust and insulation. The heat has to go from room >through wall> through insulation> through wall> outside before it can be detected. Any unportected cracks will be easier to detect. the better quality stuff you use and the more layers of protection you can get between your room and the outside the better.

right ducting rolls can be brought in 30 meter sections they join together with clips, find were your water heater heating co2 exstraction point is be next to water heating system now use this point if you can get the flexi ducting under floorboards to the co2 exstraction hole job done as boiler covers it even if temp is much colder outside

but you might say your mouth will be your downfall telling friends falling out quick phone call job done tell know one keep cultivation on a personal level become a conaseir

JediSmoker said:

If the ambiant tempture is 80 and the exhause of your lights is 80 they cannot even detect it.

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thats good to know, so would i use one of those infrared laser thermometers and just aim it at the exhaust to see the temperature and then try and get the rest of the house to a similar temp? Free heating in one room anyway lol

Im just worried that my exhaust temps might be more than that if im running 4 x 600w lights in one room - id need to keep the house super warm all the time lol

whitewidow2 said:

thats good to know, so would i use one of those infrared laser thermometers and just aim it at the exhaust to see the temperature and then try and get the rest of the house to a similar temp? Free heating in one room anyway lol

Im just worried that my exhaust temps might be more than that if im running 4 x 600w lights in one room - id need to keep the house super warm all the time lol

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If you have a clothes dryer you should be able to patch your light exhaust in there and expel the hot air without looking suspicious. I dont know where you live and if washer/dryer systems are common where you come from, if they are and even if you dont have a clothes dryer - you could install a clothes dryer exhaust point and do it anyway.

Another way to "mask" it is to have a heavy duty outside light installed (like mounted on your house) and have the exhaust right behind it. Have that light set on the same timer as your grow lights. That way if the FLIR cameras scope your house they will see the light and assume the heat signature is coming from it and not the exhaust right behind it.

i dont think the clothes dryer outlet is going to be a feasible option for me and i cant do the security light as i live in rented property... im just wondering if there is any way to cool that exhaust heat from inside my building - can i run it straight into an ac unit so that cold air comes out the other side or can i make some kind of cooler, ive seen allsorts of things on here but just dont have much experience so have no idea whats simplest and would work best.

thanks.

anyone got an answer on this one....................

anyone know how to cool the exhaust?