Some questions from a new grower. Safe to grow near furnace/ac?

Hello,

I was recently approved under Michigan's Medical Marijuana act and I am interested in setting up a grow room.

I have a couple of options for where I can set this up at, they include:

1.) 25'x15'x7' area in the middle of my basement. Open area other than my newly installed forced air furnace / air conditioner / HEPA filtration system.

2.) 25'x30'x10' detached garage w/ partial poured concrete floor (other part is dirt), about 30' from the house. Has electricity ran to it and is on a separate fuse.

3.) 12'x15'x5 1/2' - small room in the basement, w/ short ceiling. Direct access to fuse box.

I would prefer location #1, however I am concerned about the forced air furnace/AC/HEPA filter being in the same area that I am growing in. What concerns should I have? Can I make it work without causing a health hazard?

Location #2 would be alright, however I am leary about having it in a garage that people could try to break in at night. In the basement it would be easier to monitor.

Location #3 is something I would like to try to avoid at all costs, but it is there as a backup if the other locations wouldn't be suitable.

I am located in Michigan, and my basement is currently @ 60% humidity. The house is 103 years old, however it was recently renovated from top to bottom.

I plan on starting with 12 plants, with the possibility of becoming a caregiver for other medical marijuana patients once I get my grow perfected.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

PS: Pics are of the basement area #1

Johnny Retro said:

Is there anyway you can block the furnace off? Is it in the corner of the room or the middle. If you can block it off, go get some styrofoam insulation..that should do the trick.

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I'm not sure how I would go about blocking off the furnace, here's a couple quick pics I took of the area that I am wanting to use.

As you can see the furnace is pretty much in the center of the room.

ns420 said:

I'm not sure how I would go about blocking off the furnace, here's a couple quick pics I took of the area that I am wanting to use.

As you can see the furnace is pretty much in the center of the room.

Click to expand...

Congrats on getting "approved under Michigan's Medical Marijuana act" Feel free to PM me if you need help

I like location 1, unless you have to have the furnace or A/C serviced. I would rather keep it secret, so that nobody is tempted to burglarize your grow.

You may even get a Co2 boost off the furnace, and the drain in the floor will come in handy.

Johnny Retro said:

Is there anyway you can block the furnace off? Is it in the corner of the room or the middle. If you can block it off, go get some styrofoam insulation..that should do the trick.

Click to expand...

Interested in hearing why you think the furnace would need to be blocked off?

if it was me i would go for basement the furnace shouldnt be a problem you could box it in if you was worried but i wouldnt bother i would give it a good clean up paint floor and walls and wack them i wish i had 3 options i would have them all going good luck with your grow thanks widdow

Green Cross said:

Interested in hearing why you think the furnace would need to be blocked off?

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Any heat let off? Itd do more good then bad. Plus styrophoam instulation is cheap.

Anyway, that area looks good. Except like someone eles said, Hopefully you wont need it serviced during your grow..

My hope is that the furnace would help maintain proper temps. In the summer it helps to keep the basement cooler since we have centrail air with an outdoor condenser unit. In the winter it will help keep things warm enough down there to compensate for our very cold winters. There are no cold air intakes in the basement so the smell shouldn't be circulated through the forced air system. The furnace and all the duct work in the house is newly installed and very close to being air tight.

Does having a HEPA filtration system in the house help control odors?

I plan on cleaning everything very thoroughly, using basement sealer, and putting a new coat of paint on everything. We just bought the house a couple of weeks ago, and I got my doctor's reccomendation to grow 12 plants legally on Friday. The basement was the only part of the house that we didn't remodel yet.

I've been watching numerous videos on setting up grow rooms, and I have maintained simple soil grows in the past in closets with decent yeilds, however I never was comfortable with investing much money on the setups while I was doing it illegally. I am strongly considering doing a system with a setup similar to the one used in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuOTnI34vCc (Mr Green) but I am a bit confused on what I should do about my ventilation, nutrition, and lighting to get the max yield out of my harvests.

Is there any tips for setting up in your basement? Anything in particular that will likely cause me problems that I should be on the lookout for?

For nutrition theres 2 ways you can go organic and non organic..i prefer organic
Are you fimilar with the vegitative period and flowering period?
When in the vegitative period you should use nutrients high in Nitrogen
When in Flowering period you should use nutrients high in phospherous (spelling, to lazy to check)

Do you have a big budget? Because a good light is gona cost you..Id recomend a HPS or MH
The size of the light depends on how big your room is..

Btw, this is the time were you gotta do a shit load of research..i know you said you watched videos but that wont cut it.
Read peoples grow bibles (search in grow bible on google)
Read around these forums alot to

ns420 said:

My hope is that the furnace would help maintain proper temps. In the summer it helps to keep the basement cooler since we have centrail air with an outdoor condenser unit. In the winter it will help keep things warm enough down there to compensate for our very cold winters. There are no cold air intakes in the basement so the smell shouldn't be circulated through the forced air system. The furnace and all the duct work in the house is newly installed and very close to being air tight.

Does having a HEPA filtration system in the house help control odors?

I plan on cleaning everything very thoroughly, using basement sealer, and putting a new coat of paint on everything. We just bought the house a couple of weeks ago, and I got my doctor's reccomendation to grow 12 plants legally on Friday. The basement was the only part of the house that we didn't remodel yet.

I've been watching numerous videos on setting up grow rooms, and I have maintained simple soil grows in the past in closets with decent yeilds, however I never was comfortable with investing much money on the setups while I was doing it illegally. I am strongly considering doing a system with a setup similar to the one used in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuOTnI34vCc (Mr Green) but I am a bit confused on what I should do about my ventilation, nutrition, and lighting to get the max yield out of my harvests.

Is there any tips for setting up in your basement? Anything in particular that will likely cause me problems that I should be on the lookout for?

Click to expand...

Ive seen Mr. Green's video and it's a pretty good perpetual grow. He uses T-5's for veg and cloning, and a 600w HPS for flower I think?

Does having a HEPA filtration system in the house help control odors?

No not unless it has a carbon pre-filter. You'll need some ventilation in the flower area, so I would just scrub the exhaust with a carbon filter, and divert the warm air back in - in the winter - if you need it.

The basement is ideal, because of the added humidity, and cool temperatures.

If it's very humid down there you may need a dehumidifier, but not until flowering.

I'm not familiar with Michigan Law. Is it 12 mature plants, or 12 plants total?

Yeah I have been reading articles for the past couple of weeks, searching the internet, speaking to other growers, researching the laws, etc.

I have a friend that grows and has female clones of numerous medical grade strands ready for me (White Widow, AK47, G13, Blueberry Kush, etc).

He has a bit of knowledge and has decent success with growing plants in soil.

My budget is very little at the moment (just bought a house, and fiance just went back to work after a year), I hoped to be able to get away with a couple 400W Metal Halides for my first harvest and upgrade after the harvest when money won't be as tight.

Green Cross said:

Ive seen Mr. Green's video and it's a pretty good perpetual grow. He uses T-5's for veg and cloning, and a 600w HPS for flower I think?

Does having a HEPA filtration system in the house help control odors?

No not unless it has a carbon pre-filter. You'll need some ventilation in the flower area, so I would just scrub the exhaust with a carbon filter, and divert the warm air back in - in the winter - if you need it.

The basement is ideal, because of the added humidity, and cool temperatures.

If it's very humid down there you may need a dehumidifier, but not until flowering.

I'm not familiar with Michigan Law. Is it 12 mature plants, or 12 plants total?

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It's 12 plants total. However if I become a caregiver for other people I will be able to grow an additional 12 plants for each patient I am a caregiver for.

However they don't count plants that are hanging.

ns420 said:

It's 12 plants total. However if I become a caregiver for other people I will be able to grow an additional 12 plants for each patient I am a caregiver for.

However they don't count plants that are hanging.

Click to expand...

If your budget is tight and you're thinking of 400w I would opt for HPS magnetic ballast and use one bulb for the entire grow - the Philips mastercolor retro white bub ($65) - It's ceramic metal halide that runs on HPS. Has a similar spectrum to eye hortilux blue, and has plenty of red and UV for flowering. I'm getting good results using these bulbs but I intend to switch to HPS (in the later part of flowering) - next grow - for comparison.

I would also pick up a 4' T-5 figure for vegging and cloning, so you can have 4 in veg, 4 being cloned, and 4 in flower = 12 plants. This could yield you a QP every 2 months