Planning for a 2x1000w medical grow

[WPA]

High all! I am planning a 2000w grow for personal medical use.

I have an area under my house that is completely unfinished, there is a small concrete pad, and the rest of the floor is dirt with black plastic sheeting over it.

The room would be about 10x15 (maybe slightly bigger like 11x18)
with 15 plants (the max im allowed to have), 3 different strains, 5 plants of each.

Here is the big equipment I plan on using:

Harvest pro 1000w switchable ballast x2
coolsun xl reflector 8" cooled x2
eye hortilux mh, and hps bulbs
Titan controls for environmental control
6" inline fans for intake and exhaust
8" inline fan for reflectors
Phresh filter 6"x24"
Hanna combo meter
1 ton portable ac

Now to the growing aspect

I plan on using clones from the local dispensary and will veg for 2-4 weeks then flower. They wont be trained at all except I will top once.

I will use 3 gal if I veg for 2 weeks, but If i go for 3-4 weeks, I will used 5 gal grow bags.

advanced nutrients organic line will be used throughout.

Flushed for 7-10 days.

I will chop and pull off big leaves and hang the plants upside down until they are dried then go through with scissors for a second trim, then glass mason jars for curing.

The only thing I am second guessing is my electrical experience. between me and my assistant, we have very little if any experience with electrical. It would be very easy for me to go to someone else to wire it, but I would rather not anyone know about this other than me and my assistant. Should I get someone to hook this up for me, or should it be pretty easy? Im not sure how to hook the titan controls lighting controller up, thats where I think I will run into problems. I will need also need to install sockets for the fans, ac, etc.

Ask me any questions to make sure I have planned well, and throw out any problems suggestions.

Any help about the electrical would be helpful.

I can include pics of anything (I dont have the equipment yet) if that would help.

Thanks in advance

 

[WPA]

I just went down there to take temp/humidity. At 2:00 pm the temp outside was 63 degrees f and inside the basement area it was 59 degrees F and 74% humidity.

Since it is so cool, would I be able to get away with a smaller ac. In our area the hottest months are july and august. Usually the temps dont go much above 90 degrees. Most of the time the temps in summer are anywhere from the 60's to the 70's, and some days in the 80's, but only a few in the 90's and rarely goes over 100.

Also how powerful of a dehumidifier would I need, money is not too much of an issue, but bud rot is a huge issue. I also didnt realize how humid the air is down there. If I am pulling air from the outside area with 75% humidity strait to the room would there be a problem keeping it dry even with a dehumidifier?

Thanks for the help in advance, ill go down there now and shoot a couple of pics.

 

[Marshall]

forget the portable AC

Is the electrical panel nearby? It is not a big grow, but you have 2000w, an AC, a DH which can draw some amps. So you may need to do some wiring. It isnt that hard but it is something that needs to be done right

 

[WPA]

You mean forget the ac because I should get one that is not portable, or I dont need to worry about it?

Anyways I did a little test on my 10000 BTU ac
The test was to cool down a bedroom (15'6" x 14 x 8) 3.2 degrees F

Without the mega cool feature on the temp dropped 3.2 degrees F and 3% humidity in 20 min

With the feature on the temp dropped 3.2 degrees and 2% humidity in 18 min 10 sec

 

[WPA]

Well I think that i'm going to just stick with my portable ac because of the cold temperatures in the basement area, but I still think I will need a dehumidifier, especially for flowering. If any one can recommend what size I should use based on an 11 x 18 room at the largest that would be very helpful!

I also just wanted to ask about some estimates I always see thrown around.
2lbs per 1000w light
1gram per watt
etc etc

I consider my self a pretty decent grower, not that I have huge amounts of experience in lots of different environments. But more so that I have always grown quality even with poor environments. I have 3 grows under my belt, and an outdoor in progress. The worst grow room was in an apartment bathroom with a wooden frame connecting to the shower covered in panda sheeting. One plant ended up molding, but every thing else that we cropped out of that place was awesome! Bubblegum #1, Afgooey, Alaskan thunderfuck.
All of it has been very good quality, but i have never weighed my crops.

This leads me to believe that quality comes pretty easy, but increasing your yields comes with experience.

Does it all depend on optimum conditions and consistency?

 

[overbudjet]

Know your strain is the best think i can say.

 

[WPA]

ahh yes... I believe that just comes down to making a science out of it. by making a log keep track of everything oh which reminds me, that your the king of that overbudjet. After a couple of crops I'll prolly sell a lb to a dispensary and go buy all the stuff to make it computer controlled like yours! It got me so excited about writing code again lol!

I am a little lost though with the dehu. I have ready many places that you dont need a dehu unless you have a sealed environment, but with the humidity levels being 74% In the outside area in the basement I think I will need a dehu.

Or would I be just screwed with an unsealed system in this environment. Maybe I should be considering getting co2, and building a sealed room. Wouldn't be that much harder or money (I could eliminate one fan because of no intake). I have natural gas to my house, would just need to hire someone for that.

 

[Marshall]

portable ac's suck. If you need AC get a wall unit and build a box, or get a mini split.

Just dont use a portable AC

 

[WPA]

okay! wall unit is a great idea, I will look into that. not sure exactly what a mini split is, but I will look into it as well.

I think my biggest problem (in my mind at the moment) is going to be the humidity. It was 74% the other day, and I will check it again tomorrow when its light out. My original plans were to have a six inch intake fan bringing fresh air in, a 6 in fan pulling air through a carbon filter, then pumping it out. But then I thought about the fact that I would be pumping humid air in and dehumidifying constantly, so that doesn't seem very smart. I think the solution is just to keep it sealed and run co2.

 

[Neo 420]

okay! wall unit is a great idea, I will look into that. not sure exactly what a mini split is, but I will look into it as well.

I think my biggest problem (in my mind at the moment) is going to be the humidity. It was 74% the other day, and I will check it again tomorrow when its light out. My original plans were to have a six inch intake fan bringing fresh air in, a 6 in fan pulling air through a carbon filter, then pumping it out. But then I thought about the fact that I would be pumping humid air in and dehumidifying constantly, so that doesn't seem very smart. I think the solution is just to keep it sealed and run co2.

Sealed is the way to go. Assuming you have a good heat/cool system you can completely control the environment. I ran the exhaust/intake system and the outside temp dictated my temp in the grow room. Not good on 100f days!!. It has been lovely ever since I switched. I do run a closed loop exhaust/intake for my lamps at the moment. Eventually I'll be going vert..

A mini split is where the compressor sit outside and you have a indoor handling unit. Lots of great units out there. How hot does it get in your basement?

 

[WPA]

its never hot down there. I just took the temp on a somewhat cool summer day and the temp was 59 degrees.

I think for my purposes a sealed room would be the best way to go. I know it will be good quality, but I need to maximize my yeilds, because some of this is going to 2 other medical patients, and I would love to keep a bunch for myself, and stock pile lol. That way i can have lots of different smoke.

But I think that will be the way to go, I dont think I will regret it!

I still have one question to be answered though, i'm not sure of the size dehu I will need.

I'm not to sure on what size co2 burner i need, but ill start looking into that

 

[Neo 420]

Well A wall mount AC should do fine for you. Since you know humidity will be a problem I would look at something like this http://www.compactappliance.com/SD-...d-60-Pint-Dehumidifier/SD-60E,default,pd.html or comparable. At least a 60 to 80 pint a day system. Don't forget the co2 burner will create heat. Do you plan on buying a controller to regulate the Co2? You want the co2 around 1500 ppm's.

 

[WPA]

Oh okay... good thing you told me to get a bigger one, I was looking at 50 pint dehu's thinking that i might get away with 40-45 pints. Yeah I looked, didnt realize how expensive some of the top of the line controllers, so I will prolly go with a hydrogen co2 monitor. I still dont know how big of a co2 burner I need. The titan controls 8 burner says it is for rooms larger than 300 sqft. Then I look at the cap co2 burners and the 5 burner G.E.N. 1 covers an area of 15'x15'. But if I look at the ratings based of cubic ft/hr. the gen one only gets up to 13 cuft per hr. but the hydrogen co2 generator gets to 15-45cuft per hr.

I like the hydrogen more because it looks smaller, and sleek compared to the titan controls or the CAP, and is less expensive, and has water cooling. I think this is the way to go.

 

[Neo 420]

I personally never dealt with a burner. I stay the good ole fashioned route and stick with the expensive bottles.

 

[Marshall]

.

I like the hydrogen more because it looks smaller, and sleek compared to the titan controls or the CAP, and is less expensive, and has water cooling. I think this is the way to go.

This is growing, not a fashion show. Function over form. I suggest you do some reading on the hydrogens

You may not need AC now but wait till you put 2KW down there

 

[Neo 420]

This is growing, not a fashion show. Function over form. I suggest you do some reading on the hydrogens

You may not need AC now but wait till you put 2KW down there

I agree with the functionality over fashion but he could get away with 2k air cooled and a AC sealed room.

 

[WPA]

Looks like im going to have to change to the back of the basement area because the other area that I wanted to use has to many pipes to move, and the ceiling would be only 6 ft... But if I move more toward the back I can easily get an 8ft ceiling before I run into any pipes. But this makes the room skinnier, about 5' by 16' ft. This takes the width down by 5 feet which is unfortunate, but is still workable for sure. prolly going to do smaller plants in a 2x7 rows giving each plant 2'x2' of space.

I'm getting the final preparations including estimates for the insulated room, the electric and the natural gas line. Then to building we go!

 

[WPA]

Okay, so change of plans... the person funding this wants me to prove myself

So we have moved the space, which actually makes things much easier.
and have planned on using one light above 12 plants for the first cycle.

Tomorrow we will clean out the space, and make the room for the 9'x15'x8' room that will be built.

The next step after that is to find out where I can buy structural insulated panels (SIP) for the walls and roof. Ill put it together and get all the equipment to fit her out.

I am then going to hire an electrician to add new circuits that will run 3 1000 watt lights and a bigger ac unit (what I plan on expanding to).

I am going to use clones this first time, I might order a couple of feminized seeds off attitude. Really would like to grow the Reservada privada headband, and Next generation grape god.

This should be a grow diary by the end of the month!

Thinking with 12 plants and no more than 2-3 weeks of veg, Im leaning towards using 3 gal pots.