Underground Dream Garden (Construction and Troubleshooting)

[psychadelibud]

I will be using insulated ducting as well. I used to use the regular aluminum duct but always had tiny pinholes, light leaks, odor leaks, and they actually run way louder than a good insulated solid duct.

 

[CannaSci]

This may not be viable, but based on your drawing...

I'd buy a few of these guys: https://www.amazon.com/WILLHI-Temperature-Controller-Thermostat-Improved/dp/B00V4TJR00/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512356789&sr=8-1

Then buy an intake fan and an exhaust fan and put them in your walkway area (or wherever you can exhaust to), treat the walkway as a heat reservoir. Adjust temps on both controllers to basically work as HVAC. Then you'll probably want to put dampers on the ducting near the fans, and wye branch duct for your intake hose in the walkway. This way you can have your intake fan stopped while its freezing outside and the damper blocking the flow, while your tent/room pulls in air from the walkway.

I know it is no comparison but I use one of those Willhi controllers and a ceramic heat lamp(link below) to maintain the temperature in my 3x3 tents.
https://www.amazon.com/BYB-Ceramic-Infrared-Emitter-Brooder/dp/B00HFNZ59Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1512357668&sr=8-4

Just brainstorming... so if it won't work that way, whatever.

 

[ChaosHunter]

I understand using heat from the lights on to heat the other room with the lights off just not how your going to control it ? What happens if you need more or less heat ?

 

[psychadelibud]

This may not be viable, but based on your drawing...

I'd buy a few of these guys: https://www.amazon.com/WILLHI-Temperature-Controller-Thermostat-Improved/dp/B00V4TJR00/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512356789&sr=8-1

Then buy an intake fan and an exhaust fan and put them in your walkway area (or wherever you can exhaust to), treat the walkway as a heat reservoir. Adjust temps on both controllers to basically work as HVAC. Then you'll probably want to put dampers on the ducting near the fans, and wye branch duct for your intake hose in the walkway. This way you can have your intake fan stopped while its freezing outside and the damper blocking the flow, while your tent/room pulls in air from the walkway.

I know it is no comparison but I use one of those Willhi controllers and a ceramic heat lamp(link below) to maintain the temperature in my 3x3 tents.
https://www.amazon.com/BYB-Ceramic-Infrared-Emitter-Brooder/dp/B00HFNZ59Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1512357668&sr=8-4

Just brainstorming... so if it won't work that way, whatever.

Is there anyway you could draw this plan out for me? So far this sounds like a really good option. I just can't visualize it like I need to.

 

[CannaSci]

Is there anyway you could draw this plan out for me? So far this sounds like a really good option. I just can't visualize it like I need to.

Yeah it's hard to visualize I suppose. Here is what I came up with but like I said before, it may not be a viable solution.

 

[CannaSci]

Also your passive intake for your rooms/tents should probably be nearest to the outside air intake.

 

[Anothermeduser]

Seems a lot of overthinking for a start up and budget set up, nothing wrong starting on a budget, dont use insulation between the rooms, walkways a lung room, air in and out to that, air in and out of that to the rooms, use reheostats on fans to control the enviro, check daily or with major temp changes, skip the dehu if your venting. A quick wood floor and for fuck sakes skip the poison, just frame a floor, ive never worried about pests and never had a problem with wood over dirt, pour the concrete when you find time and money.Quite thinking about tents and growing, tents are for camping or closet growers, step up and build.. get at er, times a wasting

 

[Bakersfield]

I am a carpenter by trade that specializes in concrete form work and placement in a seismically active region of the sub arctic of Alaska.
If that was my storm cellar I'd dig them floors out another 2 feet right up to the edge of footings. The footings should continue to carry the weight of the structure with the earth left intact beneath the footing. If the soil is prone to slough, you can shore it up with pressure treated ply and stakes.
This additional height will allow you to run 1000 watt double end HPS vs single end. These DE HPS will amaze you if you have never ran them.
Pulling 2 lb a light is simple and shooting for 3 becomes yesterday's 2 per light.

Next I would insulate with rigid insulation. Ideally I'd cover the exterior of the structure with 2 inch extruded polystyrene. This would allow the thermal mass of exposed masonry to act as a heat sink during lights on and would release its warmth during lights out - a thermal flywheel. This should provide plenty of warmth in your climate, allowing a single light cycle.

However, since the structure is already backfilled i would install 2 inch rigid insulation throughout and have 2 grow areas with separate light cycles to provide the heat lost during lights out.

I would remove the insulation in the summer, allowing the earth to absorb the excess heat using thermal cooling, bringing in cool air through buried ducts.

 

[Bakersfield]

Seems a lot of overthinking for a start up and budget set up, nothing wrong starting on a budget, dont use insulation between the rooms, walkways a lung room, air in and out to that, air in and out of that to the rooms, use reheostats on fans to control the enviro, check daily or with major temp changes, skip the dehu if your venting. A quick wood floor and for fuck sakes skip the poison, just frame a floor, ive never worried about pests and never had a problem with wood over dirt, pour the concrete when you find time and money.Quite thinking about tents and growing, tents are for camping or closet growers, step up and build.. get at er, times a wasting

I was going to say the same about tents. Tents are for folks that can't build something more structural and permanent, like apartment dwellers and hobbyists.
You are obviously not a hobbyist, which makes you a hell of a lot cooler in my book.

 

[psychadelibud]

Guys this information is golden to me. Some amazing creative layouts coming from the minds of excellent growers. I am extremely experienced with growing, little over 15 years under my belt. But I have never went too big indoors, most I have ran at once was 2 5x5 tents at the same time, side by side, averaging a lb and a half per tent with 2 1000 watt lights. But outdoors is a toaly different game. I have been growing outside commercially, guerilla of course for the entire 15 years. So indoors is still a little new to me even though I have been running indoor for over 5 years. It is time to step up my game and graduate to something bigger.

I finally found an electrician who is going to help me, a close family member and thankfully he is in for the holidays. So that along with you guys and your brilliant minds, I see this grow coming together quiet quickly and I am extremely excited for it as well. Growing is my life, My passion, my love, my blood.

I am headed out to work on the farm today as I write this but I will be back this evening and I am going to respond to these posts and get something together by the coming weekend. Bakersfield your idea is amazing. Same to the rest of you guys. If I could send you all a fat J of this landrace I am about to fire up, I would definitely do so haha...

 

[HydroRed]

If you could run just one room for all (4) 1KW lights planning your room would be much simpler. Its the 2 seperate rooms and the request of no heater for either thats gonna be a monkey wrench in the plan. If you can have the electrician wire up a 220V supply from your panel, you can run your 1K's at half the amperage draw then duct them in a manifold exhaust setup and run them all 12/12 at the same time.
If you run all 4 lights at the same time in the same room, you only need 1 inlet, 1 exhaust, one fan, one carbon filter, and one exhaust controller for everything. Then get you a small space heater with a thermostat built in, and put it on a timer that only comes on when the lights are off. Get a thermostatically controlled outlet and plug your exhaust fan into it.
Something like THIS is what I use in the same manner Im showing you, except Im only using (2) 1KW HPS.

The way I have in the picture basically checks off all the elements. You have room temp control, air exchange, filtration, and lights off heating all in one setup with very little invested. With the ducting being in a manifold style should reduce any hotspots and cool the lights pretty evenly. This should do well until you need to invest into cooling & a sealed room for summer etc at a later time like you mentioned.

 

[ruwtz]

DE sounds good bro. I may use that as well.

Useless once wet. And you're gonna get it wet.

Also I know you said budget and time is against you but the best ideas here so far have been to dig out that floor and concrete it in... with heating if required.

If you can drop $250 on paint then i'm sure you can toss the same at a concrete pour! Easy as it gets.

 

[psychadelibud]

Folks, I believe I got it figured out. I am going to start a thread soon. It will include my construction as I go and the whole entire process up to harvest period. Stay tuned and watch for me in the indoor growing thread.

Thanks to everyone who took time to help me brainstorm all of this!

Peace!

 

[psychadelibud]

Well I had finally got a few hours in lastnight. Figured I would throw up some photos of the progress so far. Next up is throwing in some studs for tonight and hopefully finishing the frame. I am gonna be left with 6 foot ceilings but I honestly believe I will be okay with some LST and training.

Next run I am going to dig the two 8x6 rooms out about a foot or more and throw down a couple or 3 inches of concrete. But for now this is what I'm gonna do, Gotta get it on the roll asap. For now I am going to put down 6 mil plastic doubled up and then styrofoam over that to keep the bottoms warmer.

Still interested in a method for venting. For now I believe running a flip flop on the two rooms would be my best bet so it would stay constantly heated. We just had heavy rain, steady and very hard for over 24 hours and it is seriously bone dry in there. That makes me very happy to see. Especially once I throw in a dehumidifier in there I believe and hope with all I have that the humidity will be decent and at the most average.

I am going to Lowe's today so if anyone has any ideas on what insulation to throw up on the walls shoot it out. Or anything else you guys have in mind for the entire room to throw on my list.

When I took doobie breaks while framing out the wall I have never seen such a beautiful moon in my entire life. I have seen these halos before and even double and triple but NEVER one this large and perfectly defined and visual. Haha the ganja gods must have been watching above me the entire time! It was amazing in person, the pics don't do it any justice whatsoever. Enjoy!

Don't forget to throw me some ideas out for my Lowe's pick up today. Grow thread will start soon!

 

[natasdaisy]

nice work, my cielings are low also maybe just a smidge higher, I do 5 gal dwc so that takes up some hieght too. Lst does just fine i prefer to have bushier plants anyway.
I like the foam boards at lows i think they come in 4'x8' and one side is covered in foil, My grow room is lined with these and one wall of the room is made of these on wheels so i can get at the plants easier. no mylar needed unless you want it sealed tight.
as for heating I think running two rooms flip flop would be the most practical, the entire bunker looks to be brick and concrete once you have it warmed up in there the stone is gonna hold heat. So I would be willing to bet between the the radiant heat of the "on" room combined with the retained heat of the building itself would keep the "off" room warm enough for 12 hours of dark.
And if not a simple electric oil filled heater on a thermostat should be plenty in a well insulated room. Ive done this before in basement grows when michigan winters really kick in.

we had a moon like that in Mi the other night. I believe its the rays of light from the moon refracting in the high moisture content of the air. pretty neat

 

[SensiPuff]

I didn't read through the entire thread but it seems you would really have to keep humidity down to avoid mold and budrot in such a location. Best of luck on your endeavors and happy growing

 

[Bakersfield]

Your going to have to vent unless you run a dehuey in winter, Air Condition during summer, and supplement CO2.

 

[CannaSci]

That's gonna be sweet, man! You aren't the guy from the double rainbow video are ya? hahaha

Don't forget to weight test where you are hanging the lights.

 

[psychadelibud]

nice work, my cielings are low also maybe just a smidge higher, I do 5 gal dwc so that takes up some hieght too. Lst does just fine i prefer to have bushier plants anyway.
I like the foam boards at lows i think they come in 4'x8' and one side is covered in foil, My grow room is lined with these and one wall of the room is made of these on wheels so i can get at the plants easier. no mylar needed unless you want it sealed tight.
as for heating I think running two rooms flip flop would be the most practical, the entire bunker looks to be brick and concrete once you have it warmed up in there the stone is gonna hold heat. So I would be willing to bet between the the radiant heat of the "on" room combined with the retained heat of the building itself would keep the "off" room warm enough for 12 hours of dark.
And if not a simple electric oil filled heater on a thermostat should be plenty in a well insulated room. Ive done this before in basement grows when michigan winters really kick in.

we had a moon like that in Mi the other night. I believe its the rays of light from the moon refracting in the high moisture content of the air. pretty neat

Yeah man last night I actually took a tarp and hind over the current "doorless" main entry. Had a shop light on while working and that was only one bulb, even with the broken window on the wall it was below freezing outside and I got hot in there and had to take my coveralls off. It is very very well insulated even without a sealed door and cracked window.

There were no moisture on walls or ceilings after a steady heavy 28 hour rain fall.

Dude the moon was breath taking. I have never seen a ring that large around the moon. Your right, I believe it does have something to do with the moisture as well.

And yes, I do not believe ceilings will be am issue as for the 6 years I have grown indoor in tents I have acclimated to growing short bushy plants. The height of my hoods are right at a little over 12 inches so all together I believe I have plenty of head room. I will grow in the shorter more squat fat grow bags instead of the taller ones.

Actually thinking about running my first ever "scrog" grow which I have always wanted to try.

Have some elite clone only cuts got shipped down from a good friend/breeder from uo north.

GG#4, headbanger #5, Chem91, Corey StarDawg and 413 chem.

And in my veg room which is in a separate location I have tons of seeds to start selecting from while the flower rooms are doing their thing...

I am overly excited about this, everywhere I go I hear the exhaust fans and mind numbing sounds of a good grow op roaring in my head. I fucking love it!

 

[psychadelibud]

I didn't read through the entire thread but it seems you would really have to keep humidity down to avoid mold and budrot in such a location. Best of luck on your endeavors and happy growing

Thanks bro, All we can do is try and give it a shot. We will know no other way!