Sealed room stadium grow... A build/grow thread

[LuckyTampon]

Hi all, been lurking for the past week or so. The thing that really got my attention of these forums was when i stumbled across the vert section, it really intrigued me. What sealed the deal for me was reading all 40 odd pages of Northern Farmer's thread, and oh my good Jesus what a legendary grow that is, hats off to you NFR if you are reading this, you have created something very inspiring there!

So... I've a load of timber, hardboard, foam insulation and mylar on the way to me. My original plan was to build a completely sealed and insulated room within a room so that i can control the environment completely and also because I'm one paranoid muthafucka when it comes to the ole' helichoppers. The idea was to go with your bog standard horizontal grow, all that has gone completely out the window after spending the last 3 days pretty much non stop reading all the threads i could in the vert section here. Enough of my waffling anyway lol, let's get on to some specs of what i am creating.....

• The sealed room will be 6x6x7ft (considerably smaller than i intended to build but logistics got me there).
• 4 stadium style shelves.
• 3 x 600w Dual spectrum HPS lamps (Intend to veg and flower on the same bulbs).
• 6" Extractor fan with carbon filter, passive intake.
• Undecided yet on adding CO2 as the intake air will be fresh from the good ole outdoors.
• 2 Gallon pots with a soil/perlite mix.
• Strain undecided as of yet but it will all be from seed as unfortunately i have no access to clones and if i'm honest i'm too impatient too grow a mother plant for them lol.

I think that about covers it, almost sure i've missed something out though.

The room itself will hopefully be near enough fully built by this time next week pending delivery on materials. Intend to be fully functional and seeds sprouted by 4 weeks on monday. Anything I've missed here or if you feel i could improve on then please, all comments or criticism are welcome.

Oh by the way this will be my second grow..... Well, first serious grow, first time round was at 17 years old and i didn't have a fucking clue lol.

Look forward to chatting to you all and sorry for the essay haha

LT

 

[surfguitar]

Got this thread tagged, similar to my build I'm planning in the next couple months.

 

[LuckyTampon]

Cheers Surf, just had a quick read through your thread there... Looking very nice dude that fan does not look too safe though haha, hope it doesn't catch you out! Where did you get them bags? NFR uses them too doesn't he? I'd love to grow in them instead of pots but no idea where to get them from.

LT

 

[surfguitar]

Geopot.com

 

[DHF]

Welcome to Vert-ville LT , and Northern Farmer was indeed a forerunner for vertical setups , even if all the backs of the plants haveta hacked out and done away with so the fronts can benefit from the lumens and swell accordingly....now....

Stadium setups are generally longer and narrower in rectangle rooms , so let me try and persuade you to run shelves on all 4 walls and stack the 3 bulbs for optimum bottom to top light sideways penetration and plant absorption since you plan on a "square" room setup.....IF......

You can provide enough plants to fill the space....but....Whatever you decide on , please start a thread and keep us updated....and...I know there`s the same equivalent of "reflectix" in the UK , cuz Heath Robinson`s the first person I ever saw use it back in the day , and he got it from "Wickes" building supply co , so .....

Please substitute if at all possible cuz mylar sucks balls with hotspots from hell as well as wrinkles like a mofo for even less diffusion and light dispersion.....anyways...

Good luck....DHF.........

 

[LuckyTampon]

Good shout on using more walls for shelves, would only be able to do it on 3 sides though as i'd have a door on one wall and would like to leave ample space for using it.

I've never heard anything bad about mylar... I'd always assumed that reflectix was just a nickname type thing for mylar lol, will most certainly look into it now though.

Well, another change of plan. We've lost tenancy on this place and have to move within 6 weeks. As luck would have it a family member has a 4 bedroom house that they're not using and are willing to let it to us for peanuts. Although it's bad news having to move i consider this a very fortunate thing at the same time, 4 bedrooms means i will be setting up two stadiums for a perpetual harvest, this is something i wanted to do here but don't have the room for it.

So the new house, i will be setting up sealed rooms as still planned but on a larger scale. One room will be roughly (these are only approximate as it's been a couple years since i've been to the house) 7x6x6.5ft and the other will be 10x7x6.5ft. Now seeing as i will be running with a lot more space in the second room, i'm unsure as to wether to get 4x1000w lights in there or use 5x600w lights. Electric usage will become a bit more critical to be keeping as low as possible due to the cost of running two rooms does present a rather expensive bill.

Any thoughts on how to minimize the electric bill while still producing quality buds would be very very much appreciated.

LT

 

[soil margin]

Any thoughts on how to minimize the electric bill while still producing quality buds would be very very much appreciated.

LT

A combination of low wattage HPS (one 400w in each room for example) + quality LED's arranged in a vertical setup is your best bet imo. Arrange the timing of the lights so they come on in the evening and turn off in the morning to minimize AC/fan usage. If you live in a cold climate drawing outdoor air to cool instead of AC is probably even cheaper. Keep vegging plants to maximum of 16-18 hours with lights on.

 

[LuckyTampon]

Nice suggestion on the LED's but I'm really not sure on using them, i hear nothing but controversy surrounding them. Plus the initial cost for buying enough LED's i probably wouldn't be able to afford.

I do live in a fairly cool climate, i already plan to utilize the cold outdoor air for intake so I hope not to have to use AC, until summer at least anyway when i might have to.

Is vegging for 16 hours recommended at all? Heard of vegging at above 18 hours but never below, in what way would vegging for 16 affect the plants?

Thanks for the suggestions. Aside from what you've suggested i'm not sure i can do much more to minimize electrical usage without swapping out lights. Thoughts on 600 vs 1000 in the larger room anyone?

LT

 

[DHF]

You can veg 8-4/8-4 , but it still comes out to 16 hrs a day.....Do a search on "DIF"....now....saving electricity....

Less power draw means less lights and equipment Bro.....Really no way around it without compromising something in said grow.....

My 2 cents from all those yrs....

Peace....DHF.........

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Hi, a lot of warehouse type growshops sell the reflectix, but you can get it at Wickes/B&Q, it'll be with the loft insulation and roofing felt. Or you can use "Radiator reflector foil" which only comes in little rolls, and doesn't have silver on both sides. Ebay has it also, ask around, trade call it "Double bubble" insulation.

 

[DHF]

Hi, a lot of warehouse type growshops sell the reflectix, but you can get it at Wickes/B&Q, it'll be with the loft insulation and roofing felt. Or you can use "Radiator reflector foil" which only comes in little rolls, and doesn't have silver on both sides. Ebay has it also, ask around, trade call it "Double bubble" insulation.

Thanks a lot Harry...

Cheers...DHF.........

 

[LuckyTampon]

Some slightly good news, managed to get our current tenancy extended by 6 weeks so i now have 12 weeks to complete a grow here before i move and really get my groove on hehe

I've decided to do a small autoflower grow stadium style in a tent, purely for the short harvest time they have which is crucial to me. Got a LAB160 on the way to me and lights and everything else will be bought on Monday.

Setup will be as follows:

-3 stadium style shelves with 3 plants a shelf and going to try squeeze another two in somewhere, dunno where yet, will see when the tent arrives.
-Two 600w Sunmaster bulbs and Maxibright ballasts hung vertically.
-Vision AK49 auto seeds planted into 11L square pots. 75% coco coir, 25% perlite.


I need help with working out extraction, I have 95ft3 of air to replace. I can't for the life of me figure out what size of fan I will need to replace the air efficiently at a maximum of every 5 minutes. No intake as it will be passive. As for routing the exhaust it will be run through a hole in the bedroom wall and dispersed into a walk in closet which in turn will heat my living room with the door left ajar (no more running expensive electric heaters to keep warm in these cold months .

Really need help with this one as i want to order parts in ASAP. Cheers.

LT

P.s. God i can't wait to move and have the sealed rooms setup, all this faffing about with tents and super quick harvesting is putting my head away lol

 

[DHF]

"Ventilation 101" thread in growroom designs and equipment at the top of the page in "sticky"

Peace....DHF........

 

[LuckyTampon]

Many thanks for the pointer DHF. I'm still struggling with working this out, just can't seem to wrap my head around it lol, but if i have this right then to replace the air every 3 minutes in a 1.2x0.8x2m tent with 2 600w lights and carbon filter then i need to have a fan that can move apporx. 72m3/h at minimum. The fans i've been looking at, a 4 inch will run at 130m3/h which would be more than adequate according to my calculations.

Have i got it there or am i way off? Lol. As i said i just cannot seem to wrap my head around this, it's one of the few things that's had me stumped!

LT

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Many thanks for the pointer DHF. I'm still struggling with working this out, just can't seem to wrap my head around it lol, but if i have this right then to replace the air every 3 minutes in a 1.2x0.8x2m tent with 2 600w lights and carbon filter then i need to have a fan that can move apporx. 72m3/h at minimum. The fans i've been looking at, a 4 inch will run at 130m3/h which would be more than adequate according to my calculations.

Have i got it there or am i way off? Lol. As i said i just cannot seem to wrap my head around this, it's one of the few things that's had me stumped!

LT

There is no way a 4 inch will cool those lights in that space. I'd go for a high power 6 inch at least (Rvk150l1 for example, ruck also do high power versions), or preferably the 8 and a 6 for the intake. You could probably do it with a low power 6 on the inlet and the high power for the exhaust.

It is definitely better to have too much fan power than too little.

 

[DHF]

Thank God we`ve got you here ta help fellow UK`ers Harry cuz everything he`s showing me looks like Greek using all the metric measures and triple mtr squared thingies ?........anyways....

Air exchange twice per minute , and exactly like Harry says on active intake , plugged into a speed controller if needed to maintain negative pressure and not allow any smell to be pushed out of any nooks and crannies....whatever it takes to extract the heat and constantly re-plenish the room with fresh air......

Peace....DHF.....

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Thank God we`ve got you here ta help fellow UK`ers Harry cuz everything he`s showing me looks like Greek using all the metric measures and triple mtr squared thingies ?........anyways....

Air exchange twice per minute , and exactly like Harry says on active intake , plugged into a speed controller if needed to maintain negative pressure and not allow any smell to be pushed out of any nooks and crannies....whatever it takes to extract the heat and constantly re-plenish the room with fresh air......

Peace....DHF.....

To help you out mate, 1 metre is a little over 3 1/4 feet. I really struggle to suss things out in Imperial or US measures. Metric just makes sense, because it's all based on 10 and multiples thereof. Fractions boggle me


For Lucky Tampon, Id like to add, when sussing out a fan for your space, it isn't just the space, but the number and power of the lights combined with the space, because it is heat emitted by the lights you are counteracting, and obviously, the more lights you have in a smaller space, the faster the heat builds up. I've never seen a good formula to include the wattage of your lights in a calculation though.

 

[LuckyTampon]

There is no way a 4 inch will cool those lights in that space. I'd go for a high power 6 inch at least (Rvk150l1 for example, ruck also do high power versions), or preferably the 8 and a 6 for the intake. You could probably do it with a low power 6 on the inlet and the high power for the exhaust.

It is definitely better to have too much fan power than too little.

Ok, the math clearly didn't work for me there then lol. Thank you so much for your advice there, I've just gone and purchased an RVK150L1 for extraction and A1 for intake. I would have gone for an 8 inch for extraction but trying to keep costs down as much as possible for this tent grow, will leave me more moolah to put into the sealed rooms once i move.

Many thanks for the help

Btw how do i do the thanking someone in a post thing? Can't see any options for it, assuming maybe because of my low post count...

LT

 

[LuckyTampon]

For Lucky Tampon, Id like to add, when sussing out a fan for your space, it isn't just the space, but the number and power of the lights combined with the space, because it is heat emitted by the lights you are counteracting, and obviously, the more lights you have in a smaller space, the faster the heat builds up. I've never seen a good formula to include the wattage of your lights in a calculation though.

I'd read somewhere that you add 15% for every extra 600w light and 20% for a carbon scrubber, could be a load of shit though. I've no clue on this subject as you can tell lol.

LT

 

[Harry Gypsna]

I've just gone and purchased an RVK150L1 for extraction and A1 for intake.

LT

Blimey, you don't piss about do you

You'll be fine with the high and low 6's, the 8 and 6 was just me suggesting overkill.
I would recommend a little bit more spending, buy some thin ply/MDF/Correx, some 2 by 1**, some 6 inch duct to wall adaptors, (4 per fan, 1 inside and outside the box for each end of the fan, plastic ones for bathroom fans are fine and much cheaper) and some polystyrene insulation boards (they are only a couple of quid at Wickes) or cans of expanding spray foam and build a box/boxes for the fans, and you will reduce noise considerably. The 150L1 is noisier than the 8 inch fan, because it is the same motor, in a smaller housing. I even box filters so I don't have to hang them in tents taking up space. Plastic dustbins are good for boxing a filter in.


**DHF, even in metric land we still call it 2 by 1 LOL


EDIT
You are right, you can't give rep until you have 100(I think) posts.

If you can afford to buy Combiduct (normal duct with a grey or black plastic outer covering), then do so, the regular flexible ducting is crap, it punctures if you fart near it, and insulated ducting is a Pain in the arse.