Advice on multi room design?

[Joint Monster]

Planning for the future and would like things to be more efficient.

Yield is important as I struggle to keep up with consumption. Currently using about 1600W (Real Watts) LED, usually dimmed down to about 60% strength, or it gets way to hot. I think I may need more lighting for the new setup, but maybe not.

I also really prefer multiple spaces so that I can hunt for genetics and make seeds for myself.

Current: 6x6 Flower Room (RDWC), 4x4 Veg Room, 2x4 Clone Room ... Veg until I flower and dry, then repeat.


New Space is about 15x15. I was thinking something along the lines of;
a) 4x8 Flower (RDWC), 4x4 Veg (Bubble Buckets), 2x3 Clone, 4x4 Tent (breeding & strain hunting)
b) 4x4 hold genetics, 4x4 breeding/hunting, rest of the room as one space to veg and flower?


What would you do?

 

[diggs99]

You say 1600 real watts of led but then also say you can't run them more then 60% and utilize said watts because of heat. You either need new lights or Ac

I'm running 1440w of proper led at full power and can keep my temps within 83-86 easily.

Plants love it.

Before expanding and dreaming of bigger and better rooms, it's best to get what you have dialed in first.

Best of luck.

 

[Renfro]

Start your focus on canopy area and use that to calculate ideal lighting wattage for that area.

Then focus on environmental control, hard to get yields running at 60% intensity because you can't cool the room.

 

[Renfro]

With quality LED (I dunno what you have) you want 35 watts per square foot.

Definitely need to run in the mid 80's with LED.

Use the room the tents are in as a lung room, vent the tents to and from that room and use a dehumidifier and AC unit in there to keep things happy. Add CO2 if you want.

 

[coreywebster]

Hello JointMonster,

Are you a COB guy? What sort of temp is your ambient air and what temps are you getting in your flower space?
How do you cool? AC or active extraction?

Tell us about your current lights.

I would be tempted to run 8x4 flower and 4x4 veg along one wall, staggering your harvests in the flower tetn, then doing similar on the opposite wall with maybe 3x 4x4s , keeping the strain hunting and breeding over that side.
Depends on your situation though. How many degrees you can afford to raise by, if you have COBs or something you could go as far as aircooling them pretty easy.
What wattages are you running in each flower, veg and clone spaces? Can we borrow from peter to pay paul?

 

[Joint Monster]

So I had build my LED's (Vero29se Cobs, passive heat sinks like the pins) for a 4x8 tent. Then I moved to a 6x6 room and had to get rid of a few cobs (didn't fit).

[6x6]
Currently I have about 20Cobs - 1200W Cobs (at about 70% power) in the 6x6.
Active Intake. Active Exhaust. Regular Fans. (No A/c, Dehumidifier or any other gadgets)
Temps = 24C(75F) - 21C(69F)
Humidity = 30-40%RH

[4x4]
So I put the extra COBS (400W) in the 4x4 tent (at about 70% power).

[2x4] Clone Room
Just a couple CFL's (which is really sub-par and not ideal.)

Normal Temperature and Humidity year round (with No Grow) is 18C-23C (64F-73F) / ~30%RH.


@diggs99 That is good advice. I'm not moving onto something "bigger and better" because I choose to. It's merely situational things that are out of my control. It's going to happen - I'm just preparing for it. You make a great point, changing my lights would not be very purposeful but getting an A/c may help a lot!

@Renfro I really like the idea as using the main room as a "lung". I'm at the 35W/sqft. calc. if my lights are full strength 1200w. Maybe I can be pushing the temperatures higher then? (I'm mid 70s.) I seriously considered CO2 before, but lugging tanks back and forth is not practical for me .

@coreywebster Info above. And I sort of like that idea too, with the dedicated flower and veg, and then separate tents for breeding/etc.

 

[coreywebster]

Well it seems like you have room for movement on your temps and the fact that your not already above desired air temp with your incoming air means an increase in extraction or exchange rate can handle the extra heat from extra wattage you might need in the expansion.

How much more yield do you need and will it be from increasing foot print or can you up it with more pant training?
As I suggested an 8x4 flower tent, that would be a reduction in foot print so probably the wrong way to go.
Going with say 12x4 along one wall, however you do it would be a 33% increase from your current flower space, you could use your existing 1600w of lighting and lower it a few inch to make up for the few less watts per square foot.
I think you can afford to dedicate a up to 3rd of your room to flowering and be able to feed that area with plants to keep the system going while still having room to breed, hunt and clone.
The cloning can be done above veg areas if you have the height and you don't want to lose more floor space.

 

[Renfro]

I seriously considered CO2 before, but lugging tanks back and forth is not practical for me .

I won't bother with tanks either. I use a natural gas co2 generator.