Room Design...Fun with AutoCad. Need input, see pics!...

Im in the midst of designing this grow room. This is my first attempt so this forum is proving to be very valuable. I was hoping I could get some input on my design, I have already framed the outside walls and insulated them and layed the floor. Now I have to design how the room is going to look.

Heres what I am thinking:










This is an attic grow and my main concern right now is figuring out how I am going to divide the flowering room and veg room from the main room. I would like to run ONE A/C, heat, and dehumidifier unit for the entire space. So that means whatever I use for walls to separate the rooms needs to be "thin" so that the temp. is fairly consistent thourghout. I figure having a sealed air cooled light will help a lot with that. But am still worried about each room having different climates..

Any thoughts?

PS-Only the exterior walls (9' x 11') are framed so changes can be made and will be if anyone has some good input for alternatives. Any comments on my design to improve it willl help a lot. Ill post pics of what I have already built very soon!

Thanks.

I would run duct work to both rooms, no other alternative. Both rooms need to be controllable on their own. Both rooms having an input run and exhaust fans in both rooms to send that air out to the main room and let your planned exhaust in the main room suck that air out. I would do this for two reasons. you can filter the intake air in to both rooms so that eliminates pests or other crap, and two you would not have to worry about the air in the main room. 3/8 inch particle board is what I would use. Its about 9.00 a sheet right now versus expensive plywood at 13 to 15 a sheet. Keep

MR BK? How is going to post real pics when he is in the design phase?

think about switching your veg and flower area so tht you can enter the veg area24 houirs a day when your flower aera is darjk

i cannot be held accountbl forthei s pos

MR BK- Real pics of what I have already built will be posted shortly after I can get them off my camera.

Foodman - I really like your idea of running each room's exhuast into the main room.

Do you think if I have the A/C and Heat unit in the main room it will controll both rooms temps and humidity effectively? If not how do I go about setting up this to do so? I DONT want two seperate AC/Heat units but it gets cold as balls in the winter (well cold for me like 32*F).

desertrat - Both rooms will be completly sealed from eachother. The flowering room is positioned where it is to take advantage of the height of the room (the peak is 6' and goes to 4' at the sides). Figure the flowering room needs more height then the veg.

Thanks for all the replys guys! Exactly what Im looking for!

How big is the A/C unit? What kind are you using

don't you want to be able to reach yor sink area during the flowerung dark period??

Havent picked one up yet. Was gonna pick one up used off Craiglist, theres tons of Portable ones that do AC, heat and humidity for $150-$400ish. Ranging from 7000BTU-12,000BTU. Want just as big as necessary so it wont kill my powerbill. Any suggestions?

I have a portable, 12000 btu that works real good. The only problem is ducting that unit. Can't do it real well. Can you duct from your house in to that area?

desertrat - I think you must be reading the diagram wrong...there is a 5'x5' flowering room then a sink outside the room on the right. Then the Veg room is at the bottom of the diagram (2.5'x6.5'). You can walk from the main door all the way to the sink by walking between the flowering and veg room (going under the 600W exhuast ducting which may look like its blocking it but its not).

Make sense?

No central heat or A/C in my house (its old as hell from like 1920). Thats why I was hoping the one A/C unit would controll the temp in the main room and by doing so hopefully controll the temps in the Veg and Flowering rooms as well..But if thats not going to work am going to need some other suggestions (besides two units).

told you i was baked plus rep for design and patience. next time i'll try to add more than comic value

So I had an epiphany just now while smokin a bowl and im pretty excited cause I think it may work...tell me what you guys think:

AC/Heat unit feeding directly into the Flowering room controlling JUST that rooms temp. The flowering and veg room will have there own fresh air intakes (so the flowering room will have two intakes, the fresh air intake and the AC/Heat intake from the outisde). Then each room has its own exhaust removing the air that is inside the rooms out to the main room. The flowering room will also have a third intake for the air cooled 600W HPS and also its own exhaust which will feed to either the outside (chimney) or to inside the main room (the main room if temps are too cold in the winter). Then in the main room there will be a big ass charcoal filter with a matching cfm rated exhaust fan taking all the air out of the main room and out the chimney.

By doing this my thoughts are that the temp is most important in the flowering room so I control that rooms temp with the AC/Heater then the exhausted air from that room actually in fact heats (or cools) the main room depending on the time of year. (It will cool in the summer when the AC is on and heat when its winter and the heater is needed and if even more heat is needed I can route the light's exhaust into the main room rather then out the chimney).

Any thoughts?

How about this? I dont have autocad but have Photoshop
This way your heat and a/c are in the most important room. In the cold months you can run your Veg lights 24/7 to keep the room warm and the plants dont mind the 24/7 light. If that doesn't keep it warm enough you can simply get 2 4" 90 deg. duct bends and a 4" duct inline fan ($30 at HD) bend the 90's down to keep light out and you get heat from the control room. Up grade to a 1ooow HPS to get more bang for your buck and a bigger grow/room. And you have 24/7 access to the water through your veg room, plus put a R/O filter on it. 6'-8" duct should be fine.. This is what I pretty much did but in my shop not attic. Just an idea

nickibus said:

By doing this my thoughts are that the temp is most important in the flowering room so I control that rooms temp with the AC/Heater then the exhausted air from that room actually in fact heats (or cools) the main room depending on the time of year.
Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

back now that i'm not baked. a couple of thoughts:

1.we need to know roughly the temps in the attic. temperature regulation in attics is tough in many parts of the country. handling a heat problem in a cold area is much easier than handling a cooling problem in the summer in a hot climate and requires different solutions.

2. consider insulating the main room - it will make whatever solution you come up with work better.

3. consider moving the intake for the veg to the main room instead of outside the attic and moving the ac and flowering intake back to the main room (your original design with the veg room intake moved). your assumption that heating and cooling the veg room is not right. you are going to fry your vegged plants if they take hot air from the attic in the middle of the summer..

4. consider changing to a 400 watt mh in the veg room. i assume you were going to use flourecents?? given the size of your operation you will get a lot of benefit from the extra light. the point for ventilation is that you;ll need another intake and exit into the veg room.

i'll try to post a diagram if i have time.

Dude desertrat...your the SHIT man! That second design is genious!

To answer some questions,
the temps in the attic actually im not really sure. Never go up there. But in the house it gets COLD in the winter (like 40*F most the time). Sounds like Im crazy but my roommates and I stick it out without central heat haha) we just use individual electric heaters in our rooms (6 Bedroom place). Northern west coast of the U.S. is where were talking.

Main room is already insulated (see pics).

I would like to keep it at a 600W I think....I am being VERY cautious about everything I am doing...this is the first grow I have ever attempted and the thought of getting caught scares the shit out of me. So I am doing everything I can to stay on the safe side. And the 600 watts is much less then the 1000 watts, Im just concerned about all the power. Plus I need a shit ton of fans and also not to mention the A/C unit will draw 1000 watts alone. This is also the reason I wanted to use flourecents for the veg room. Arent these legitiment concerns?

I got those pics I promised you guys....take a look:

So the pics are pretty self-explainatory....the 3rd and 4th ones show the cut out to the chimney. The 5th shows the door frame. The 8th is the drain to which the "sink" will drain to (actually my sink is a 16 Gal rubbermaid container with a sink drain hooked up to the bottom and a shit ton of silicon).

The last picture shows outside the back wall (looking into the room kind of).
But you can see that the room is actually highter then the floor where the picture is taken from. This is because of the framing of the house, had to do it. BUT I thought that because I am using an EBB and Flow system and the reservoir needs to be LOWER thean the table, I could put the Reservoir ouside the room where the floor is lower and run the in & out tubes through the black pipe I installed in the room (not the drain a different pipe, its a pipe I put in specifically for doing so even though Im not sure if its a good idea). By doing this the reservoir is LOWER giving me the option of having a lower table so I can grow HIGHER plants. Because I only have the 6' at the peak and it goes down to 4' on the sides (not a ton of hieght). Dont know if this is a good idea, I just thought it may be....any opinions on that?

Desertrat,
On your second diagram...the orange boxs are fans abviously, but I notice that there was not one behind the filter...That is very a very necessary fan and Im assuming it was just left out right?

nickibus said:

Dude desertrat...your the SHIT man! That second design is genious!

To answer some questions,
the temps in the attic actually im not really sure. Never go up there. But in the house it gets COLD in the winter (like 40*F most the time). Sounds like Im crazy but my roommates and I stick it out without central heat haha) we just use individual electric heaters in our rooms (6 Bedroom place). Northern west coast of the U.S. is where were talking.

Main room is already insulated (see pics).

I would like to keep it at a 600W I think....I am being VERY cautious about everything I am doing...this is the first grow I have ever attempted and the thought of getting caught scares the shit out of me. So I am doing everything I can to stay on the safe side. And the 600 watts is much less then the 1000 watts, Im just concerned about all the power. Plus I need a shit ton of fans and also not to mention the A/C unit will draw 1000 watts alone. This is also the reason I wanted to use flourecents for the veg room. Arent these legitiment concerns?

I got those pics I promised you guys....take a look:

Click to expand...

big sigh - just wiped out my brilliant 10 page answer. bottom line is a small grower does not have to worry about heat or electricity - you are not going to stick out from other houses - think hobbies like pottery, etc. do check the norml website for the penalties for growing in your state - you may be able to avoid the possibility of a felony just by how you do your setup.

the real issues with more hid lighting are cost, ventilation and getting enough electricity to the room.