Please critique my design!

[BongDaddy]

Hi folks, looking for some opinions or advice on a small grow cabinet I'm trying to design. I did a little drawing (see attachment below) as a visual aid. Sorry about the crudeness of it, I just did it up quick. It's not really to scale, so here are the specifics:

Dimensions of the cab are 38"W x 13"D x 34.5"H. The left side would be the flowering area, and its footprint would be about 24" x 13". Lighting: 1 Sun System 150w HPS and several CFLs for supplemental side lights if/when necessary. There would also be a small desk fan tucked in there somewhere to keep the stems strong, as well as a 120mm computer fan for a bit of cooling on the light.

The lower right is the veg/clone area and would be about 12" x 13" and about 28" high. Lighting in here would be one or two 42w, 6500K CFLs (or 26w, I have a couple of each).

The purple arrows represent air circulating between the veg and flower area using a couple of PC fans. The tall narrow rectangle in the middle is a light trap so that air can circulate freely without worrying about what cycle the lighting is in. The light trap contains two separate "runs", both with passive intake and active exhaust of 3.5" computer fans. These fans would be running 24/7.

The blue arrow is fresh air coming in through one or two passive intakes (I haven't finalized that part yet), in the back wall of the flowering chamber.

The red arrow on the upper right represents hot air being vented out of the box. The air goes through a carbon scrubber (represented by the grey space) and then through a 6" vortex fan sucking it all out (309 CFM with speed controller if necessary). I'm super paranoid about the smell so I want to use a good sized scrubber, and I imagine the fan I have will pull enough air through it no matter how much drag the scrubber creates.

Hmm, what other details would be relevant...oh yeah, a temp controller would be in the flower area, so the vortex fan would only run when the box needs to vent some warm air and draw in some cool air. I added the circulating air between the flower and veg chambers because it's going to be in an unheated garage and I was hoping with the veg chamber lighting being on a 24/0 cycle, the flowering area wouldn't cool down too much during its dark cycle.

The yield I was hoping to achieve with this setup is about 1-2 oz. per month, if I can learn how to clone and run a small perpetual harvest scenario (LST, SOG, whatever that takes). I can be realistic and know I might not get that the first few tries, but I know amazing results can be had once you get everything dialed in.

Any input anyone could provide would be really appreciated!

 

[oldone]

Hi BongDaddy, I'd like to help but a few questions, if you please...

arrange the following in order of importance to you;
-quality
-quantity
-simplicity
-grower workload
-stealth
-low initial cost

What season are you in eg, I'm early fall.
Do you have cold winters?
Have you grown before?

I think you've made a great start. The first thing that jumped out at me was that 150hps. Great light, lots of heat.

The second thing is that you're planning to vent warm flower section air into your veg. That may cause you problems.

My cab is almost the same W x H as yours but twice as deep:

This is the original E&F design...I'm now on wick hydro.


Good luck,
OO

 

[BongDaddy]

Thanks for the quick reply oldone. My top priorities would probably be quality, simplicity, and stealth (at least when it comes to smell).

It's going to be in an unheated garage and we're swinging in to fall where I am. It gets pretty cold here in the winter, and I have a separate question regarding colder temps here: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=3918896#post3918896

I was planning on starting my learning curve in the cab using ProMix HP, since I have a bail and a half of it. I pretty much have all the components I need, so initial cost is not really an issue here. Just waiting to put the rig together "properly" heh I've done one grow before, in a larger space under a 400w MH/HPS, but that was more space than I really needed, I'm just looking to produce maybe an ounce or two a month once I know what I'm doing.

The main reason I had air circulating between the veg and flower areas was to help with warmth when it gets colder. More on that in the thread I mentioned above.

 

[oldone]

Thanks for the quick reply oldone. My top priorities would probably be quality, simplicity, and stealth (at least when it comes to smell).

OK
1. quality means good genetics(aside from healthy plants). You might consider growing good bagseed for the first run. Lets you dial it in cheap.
2. simplicity, I think a soil grow is simple enough
3. stealth smell; Move a lot of air through a scrubber. It will make a lot of noise.

I'm just looking to produce maybe an ounce or two a month once I know what I'm doing.

You should have no problem with that quantity in that space.

see ya,
OO

 

[LoKey]

things i would alter would have the intake for the whole cab go into the veg room, then go between the wall divide out into the flower room through a light trap, then i would run that 150 hps in a cool tube where the air is sucked straight from your cab, and straight out to the fan and out the scrubber (will act as a partial muffler)

but mentioning the cold temps i would put an extra vent or two on the flower side, that can be closed at any time (adjustable caps/louvers), and make the glass easily removable in the cooltube, this way in cold temps you can throttle how much air goes through the veg to keep it warm (42w bulbs will keep it warm) and the exposed bulb will heat up the flower room. and then during summer close the flower room vents and put the cool tube glass back in, and have a cool running veg and flower room

and the veg room would only need to be about 18 high, and you could run two 23w bulbs and be fine for light. My veg room is approxamtelly the same size just only 13" tall and i only need two 13w bulbs (single 23w) for enough light

 

[BongDaddy]

Thanks LoKey, definitely some good ideas there. I'm for sure going to implement a way to throttle the amount of intake air it'll be able to pull. Probably some kind of louver deal on the intake(s), as well as a fan speed controller, should give me pretty good control.

oldone: I'm not worried about genetics. I have some Northern Lights, Indica Diablo and Blue God seeds for when I have the cab dialed in, and before that for the initial learning curve I have a bunch of bag seeds a friend gave me, as well as a pack of the "Indoor Mix" seeds from the Vancouver Seed Bank.

I've done one grow before, using a couple of the Northern Lights seeds and a 400w switchable MH/HPS. It was my very first grow and I learned a lot from it. For starters, I learned that a 400w is really more light than I need for a small personal supply, and the space I was using was more than really necessary. I'm hoping to learn how to manage with a 150w and maybe a couple of supplemental CFLs. That way if I relocate (which we may do soon), I can just move the little cabinet with minimal trouble.

 

[VerdantGreen]

my first thought too would be to have air coming into veg area and then sucked into flower area.

 

[BongDaddy]

do vegging plants have a higher tolerance for cooler temperatures than flowering plants? My biggest concern is the incoming cold air, before it has a chance to mix with the warmer air.

In fact, I've been agonizing on where exactly to place the intakes. I don't want to stress the plants out by them being hit by cold air every time the warmer air needs to vent.