danielJackson
New member
Hello everyone! I've gotten a ton of knowledge and inspiration from this forum already; and now, hope to learn more and share my mistakes and process so other can learn as well. Here is what I am working with.
I have approximately 5.5ft. x 12ft. x 5.5ft. Tall to work with, for both veg and flower together. One 12ft. side is open to the room, so I have a wall with 3 big doors for access to everything. In addition to space restrictions, I also have a wattage limit, and want to keep my plant count as low as possible.
The amount of power I have for my whole house, total, is about 1100kwh per month. For daily living I estimate we use about 250 to 400kw, leaving the rest for the grow, and needing some margin for error and overages.
I run my lights at night, w/outside temps nice and cool (usually 55 tops). I have been fine with hood so far, and hopefully with proper planning I can go vertical without A/C (if not, the cost of A/C in power would probably force me back to horizontal growing for now).
I grow in soil, so no electricity is needed for that part of the grow (using Blumats and loving them).
That leaves the following for power draw:
Lights
Inline Exhaust
Other Fans (Oscillating, Fans Below Lights)
Looks like I'll be limited to 2 600w plus something small for veg based on the following rough math.
Lights
468 kw = 1300w (includes ballast overhead) x 12 hrs. x 30 days
Inline Fan
180 kw = 250w x 24hrs x 30 days (I do run it at a lower speed during lights off, but I believe it still consumes the same power)
Other Fans
50 kw = 70w (2 Honeywells for below the lights) x 12hrs x 30 days
That's about 700kw right there, not including anything to veg with... I believe I can make some household changes to free up at
As many people are, I am inspired by Heath's Tree Grows. Flip Flopping lights would probably be smart in my situation. Here are my ideas so far, X's are plants.
1) OXOXO with the outside lights each on for 6 hours a day, either both at once, or flip flopped. (I have extra ballasts)
2)
....O
.X.O.X
.O.X.O
This drawing is not really to scale. I was thinking 3 plants around one 600w, with a 600w in between each of them. Center on the whole time, the other 3 would each be on for four hours. This gives each plant 8 hours of 1200w and 4 hours of 600w. This may be two much for the width of my space.
To Try and get a little more out of my space with this setup I was considering staggering the plants for a harvest every 3 weeks. This would somewhat reduce the amount of total space I need.
3) Something involving a number of smaller plants surrounding a light.
Initial questions:
1) Seems like about 18" is the minimum circle around a 600w.
2) Is it better to put a cage around the light, or the tree. I'm concerned of buds growing/falling into the light.
3) General guess on bush diameter for tree style, 30"?? More, less?
4) Do adjustable wing type reflectors bounce too much heat into the grow to be useful for the bulbs on the edges of the grow? I haven't seen any killer grows using this idea, so I'm just guessing that might be the reason.
I hope I have given enough details to start a good discussion, Thanks!
I have approximately 5.5ft. x 12ft. x 5.5ft. Tall to work with, for both veg and flower together. One 12ft. side is open to the room, so I have a wall with 3 big doors for access to everything. In addition to space restrictions, I also have a wattage limit, and want to keep my plant count as low as possible.
The amount of power I have for my whole house, total, is about 1100kwh per month. For daily living I estimate we use about 250 to 400kw, leaving the rest for the grow, and needing some margin for error and overages.
I run my lights at night, w/outside temps nice and cool (usually 55 tops). I have been fine with hood so far, and hopefully with proper planning I can go vertical without A/C (if not, the cost of A/C in power would probably force me back to horizontal growing for now).
I grow in soil, so no electricity is needed for that part of the grow (using Blumats and loving them).
That leaves the following for power draw:
Lights
Inline Exhaust
Other Fans (Oscillating, Fans Below Lights)
Looks like I'll be limited to 2 600w plus something small for veg based on the following rough math.
Lights
468 kw = 1300w (includes ballast overhead) x 12 hrs. x 30 days
Inline Fan
180 kw = 250w x 24hrs x 30 days (I do run it at a lower speed during lights off, but I believe it still consumes the same power)
Other Fans
50 kw = 70w (2 Honeywells for below the lights) x 12hrs x 30 days
That's about 700kw right there, not including anything to veg with... I believe I can make some household changes to free up at
As many people are, I am inspired by Heath's Tree Grows. Flip Flopping lights would probably be smart in my situation. Here are my ideas so far, X's are plants.
1) OXOXO with the outside lights each on for 6 hours a day, either both at once, or flip flopped. (I have extra ballasts)
2)
....O
.X.O.X
.O.X.O
This drawing is not really to scale. I was thinking 3 plants around one 600w, with a 600w in between each of them. Center on the whole time, the other 3 would each be on for four hours. This gives each plant 8 hours of 1200w and 4 hours of 600w. This may be two much for the width of my space.
To Try and get a little more out of my space with this setup I was considering staggering the plants for a harvest every 3 weeks. This would somewhat reduce the amount of total space I need.
3) Something involving a number of smaller plants surrounding a light.
Initial questions:
1) Seems like about 18" is the minimum circle around a 600w.
2) Is it better to put a cage around the light, or the tree. I'm concerned of buds growing/falling into the light.
3) General guess on bush diameter for tree style, 30"?? More, less?
4) Do adjustable wing type reflectors bounce too much heat into the grow to be useful for the bulbs on the edges of the grow? I haven't seen any killer grows using this idea, so I'm just guessing that might be the reason.
I hope I have given enough details to start a good discussion, Thanks!
.
