Pepe that lovable sex pest!
Thanks thats very helpful! Just one more thing - how does the CO2 enriched air get from your bedrooms to the room where you draw the cool air into the flower room, passive vents?Hello KLX,
What I did in my situation is complain about condensation to my other half and then explained the benefits of a positive pressure ventilation system to her. The system causes a positive pressure in your home like inside of a balloon. It draws air from the loft and instead of drafts coming in the pressure reverses the the flow. You know yourself we get a lot of moisture in our air in the U.K. Double glazed doors and windows attract condensation. The air is constantly turning over in our house, which is healthy for people and plants.
I installed this bit of kit:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kair-Kalahari-Positive-Ventilation-Pressure/dp/B004VW51TI/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1469016733&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=positive+pressure+ventilation
It comes with a switch with "boost" and "trickle" options. You set it on boost for a couple to three days and then leave it on trickle which uses 40 watts.
View attachment 3736902
View attachment 3736982
I mounted a rhino pro carbon filter on top of the unit where you see the intake arrow. This vents out of a flange from the ceiling over the stairs and landing. I needed a reason for fan noise and this is the best I could come up with. There is fan noise (quiet hum) but the family is used to it and the house air stays fresh.
So CO2 enriched air is actively drawn from our bedrooms into the flowering room. It is then depleted of CO2 and dehumidified and exhausted through first carbon filter out of the flower room into the rest of the loft. From there the unit above draws it through another carbon filter and back into the house. The second carbon filter is just for redundancy. If the first filter fails the second helps me to avoid uncomfortable conversations with the wife (screaming and name calling). It also filters any nasties that might be in the air from loft. Not the cheapest solution but my situation warranted some extra money spent to insure myself a quiet life.
This is my hobby and I do tend to spend a bit here and there if needed. Even if I did not grow I like the system for what it does. The house stays warmer in winter and the air is drier. You do get some warm air in the summer from solar gain of the roof but is not too bad.
The active intake fills the flowering room with warm air in the winter from our house central heating so no electric heaters are required up there in winter. More watts saved.
You could make one of these unit easily with a filter and fan. I needed to buy it and make a show of reading the instructions so the wife was happy.
If you would like to give me details of your situation we could put our heads together and maybe come up with a viable solution to suit your needs. I am always happy to help my secret interweb Canna Buddies.
Cheers,
Will
The plants looked as if one more day would have been their last.
Once I established that I was not having a nightmare I explained to the wife that our roof must have a leak. So as is expected of me as a husband up into the loft at 2:00am I go, explaining to my other half how dusty and spider infested it is up there. 
My hope is that my story provides you the reader with a moment of mirth. A bit of trouble shooting and my luminaire is working again and the rough seas have calmed.
Shit man, thought I had a bad night, hooked those drivers up and it seems some of my soldering must be a bit shoddy. Some mono's lit, some didn't and some were just flickering. Didn't have time to investigate any further cos my plants needed watering too. Gonna try and sort them tonight.Update:
Rolling into the end of week 5 and sad to say disasters have struck. My kids are on Summer holiday from school. This has made tending my loft garden rather difficult to say the least. Yesterday I had a narrow window when the family was out and I was not at work. A quick scramble up the loft and I find my water reservoir (HMA filtered water fed via blumats) bone dry.
So duty bound I filled the tank and made my humble apologies to the plants. An unavoidable problem solved none too soon. The old wives tale of trouble happening in threes reared it's ugly head again. As I tucked into my bed for a peaceful nights sleep I was awoken by my wife informing me that the ceiling in our bedroom was dripping water.
Upon investigation I realise that the reservoir has completely emptied through the plant pots filling the trays they sit in and spilling out onto the floor. Somehow despite my judicious use of pond liner the water has found a way to ruin my night's slumber. My only course of action was to poke a small hole in the ceiling to allow drainage into a bucket. Needless to say I did not sleep at all after that. Thanks to the rain that seems a constant here in the U.K. my wife was satisfied with my explanation (or I am living in denial).My after action report will state that not only had the soil dried out but the Blumats must have also. I assume this caused the valves to stay open.
Fortunately for me the wife is off to a music festival this morning with the girls and will be away for several days. As I sat with my morning coffee stroking my beard and pondering my narrow escape. I thanked providence that my worries were over. I decided to once again return to the loft and assess the damage. Low and behold disaster number three made its unwelcome appearance. My fixture for some reason was only illuminating the garden with the supplemental 660nm osrams and not the CXB3590s. Well bugger me, 30 years of growing and my hubris allowed me to forget that sometimes things go south with a vengeance.
Fellow gardeners I seek not your sympathy with my tale of woe. Though beset with minor trials and tribulations, I take heart that I am a fortunate man in many other respects. Age has taught me that no matter the challenges I face there is always some other poor sod somewhere with bigger worries than mine.
The only casualties from this situation is my pride and quite possibly a holy grail kush that did not appreciate being parched and then flooded. The super lemon haze, pineapple express and girl scout cookies however seemed to have taken the situation in their stride.
I am content with life and it's lessons. I would take momentary strife over boredom any day.
Cheers,
Will
A tale well told. Glad to hear all's well that ends well.Update:
Rolling into the end of week 5 and sad to say disasters have struck. My kids are on Summer holiday from school. This has made tending my loft garden rather difficult to say the least. Yesterday I had a narrow window when the family was out and I was not at work. A quick scramble up the loft and I find my water reservoir (HMA filtered water fed via blumats) bone dry.
So duty bound I filled the tank and made my humble apologies to the plants. An unavoidable problem solved none too soon. The old wives tale of trouble happening in threes reared it's ugly head again. As I tucked into my bed for a peaceful nights sleep I was awoken by my wife informing me that the ceiling in our bedroom was dripping water.
Upon investigation I realise that the reservoir has completely emptied through the plant pots filling the trays they sit in and spilling out onto the floor. Somehow despite my judicious use of pond liner the water has found a way to ruin my night's slumber. My only course of action was to poke a small hole in the ceiling to allow drainage into a bucket. Needless to say I did not sleep at all after that. Thanks to the rain that seems a constant here in the U.K. my wife was satisfied with my explanation (or I am living in denial).My after action report will state that not only had the soil dried out but the Blumats must have also. I assume this caused the valves to stay open.
Fortunately for me the wife is off to a music festival this morning with the girls and will be away for several days. As I sat with my morning coffee stroking my beard and pondering my narrow escape. I thanked providence that my worries were over. I decided to once again return to the loft and assess the damage. Low and behold disaster number three made its unwelcome appearance. My fixture for some reason was only illuminating the garden with the supplemental 660nm osrams and not the CXB3590s. Well bugger me, 30 years of growing and my hubris allowed me to forget that sometimes things go south with a vengeance.
Fellow gardeners I seek not your sympathy with my tale of woe. Though beset with minor trials and tribulations, I take heart that I am a fortunate man in many other respects. Age has taught me that no matter the challenges I face there is always some other poor sod somewhere with bigger worries than mine.
The only casualties from this situation is my pride and quite possibly a holy grail kush that did not appreciate being parched and then flooded. The super lemon haze, pineapple express and girl scout cookies however seemed to have taken the situation in their stride.
I am content with life and it's lessons. I would take momentary strife over boredom any day.
Cheers,
Will
Test us indeed. I would not worry too much about your fixture. You will sort it mate. I am a soldering novice myself and suffer the odd misbehaving build still. It always ends up being a bad connection somewhere with me. Be sure to double check your math on the driver/COB relationship. I have goofed up the math with monos and smaller drivers and had similar results as you. Flashing and only some LED illuminating. When in doubt give a shout. There are plenty of folks here smarter than me that can help.
At the time I thought bugger it is the end of the world. After a few deep breaths I remembered that revelations (the scary end bit of the Bible) never mentioned leaking grows, faulty light fixtures or dying plants. So I guess I will just soldier on.A tale well told. Glad to hear all's well that ends well.
My driver is putting out more voltage than I'd accounted for and these UV led's I've got are real sensitive to a bit of extra voltage and blow real easy. I'm not even sure they're actually gonna add anything, but this is a hobby for me and I don't mind wasting a little bit of money experimenting, shit, I used to spend thousands on guitars and amps and stuff, so I can justify extra money spent on over elaborate lights, which will hopefully save me money in the long run anyway.
Yeah, I keep telling myself that too, lol
What UV leds do you have and from where? Everywhere I have looked they seem super pricey. I ran a test grow recently with a T5 UV lamp. Two AK47 one with UV supplementation and one without. I honestly could not see any difference visually and after giving some friends the "Pepsi" challenge taste test the result were inconclusive. For the sake of clarity I only had the UV come on for 4 hours in the middle of the day light cycle so perhaps that was not enough. I have read rave reviews from other growers about the benefits of UV but I am still unconvinced. I would rather save that 21w from the UV T5 for something else. Cost effective UV leds would peak my interest though. I have heard that they're expensive to manufacture.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131345637382?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=430664558139&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:ITWhat UV leds do you have and from where? Everywhere I have looked they seem super pricey. I ran a test grow recently with a T5 UV lamp. Two AK47 one with UV supplementation and one without. I honestly could not see any difference visually and after giving some friends the "Pepsi" challenge taste test the result were inconclusive. For the sake of clarity I only had the UV come on for 4 hours in the middle of the day light cycle so perhaps that was not enough. I have read rave reviews from other growers about the benefits of UV but I am still unconvinced. I would rather save that 21w from the UV T5 for something else. Cost effective UV leds would peak my interest though. I have heard that they're expensive to manufacture.
I agree about spending money on our hobby. The efficiency side of things has had me reaching for my wallet quite a bit lately. I replaced two on my exhaust fans recently with the Hyperfans which in my opinion are brilliant. Quiet, low power draw and comes with their own speed controller. The one in my small grow cabinet is only drawing 10 watts.
Cheers,
Will
You've built what I wish I had built almost exactly. I'm jealoua...
haha
