12'7"x10'6"x9' Bedroom to Growroom Need Help on 1st time Set Up!

Im currently brainstorming a design for a 12x10x9 empty bedroom. There is 1 window, but opens over my garage, A 7'x2' sliding door closet, An Air conditioning vent connected to my homes central air system. And the door.

From my previous set up i have 2 Lumatex 400w Electronic Ballasts, and 2 hoods. And a Dehumidifier.

I guess my first question, because it seems like my biggest problem, is what do i do about ventilation. I believe my window is useless because of security reasons. I think the AC is good enough to bring in cold fresh air, but Im not sure. I have no idea about what i should do to get old air out.

My next question would be about lighting. I wanted to use the 400w bulbs and put them on light movers. Maybe two 9' linear movers with sodium bulbs. Or i also heard a Circular mover with one sodium and one metal halide works better. Let me know what yall think.

Please help! This is my first growroom build out. I tried to set up a 6'x4' closet in a garage and did ok but had too many problems. Pest, mold etc... I want to do it right this go around. I have the space, i just need to plan it right. I will keep a picture album going from day one of construction all the way to harvest time. I need everyones input.

Your house a/c is only going to come on when the temperature of the air around the one thermostat in the house is too warm. So basically that will allow the grow room to reach way beyond 100f and burn the plants to death and still do nothing to kick on the a/c... However with only 800w just leaving the door open on the room would keep it half decent and a fan blowing in the open doorway would be plenty.

A mover would be a serious waste of time and money especially just with 400w lights. No matter what you've heard or read 2x400w in no way makes a combination equal to one 600w light even let alone the 840w or so that burns.

I'm not trying to pick on you or be mean, I'm just saying if you want more yield than 2x400 don't buy a light mover, buy a 1kw light. Use one of the 400's for veg and the other 400 could be supplemental halide to the 1kw hps.

For cooling you could just use a 5kw window a/c or you could just use a 4" or larger squirrel cage exhaust fan blowing into the attic or out the window through a vent if you want lower power bills. I would suggest a 6-8" can fan or squirrel cage fan on a speed control so you can adjust it to run quiet and not bother you in the rest of the house. A 4" fan would be running fast and noisy.

From your description I can see you don't want some half assed room like I did here:
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/249237-no-room-prep-very-simple.html

But that gives you an idea of how simple and easy it can be.

Growing in the house is so much easier than in the garage...

Ok, So i think i will go with a grow tent, a room inside of a room. What do yall think is the best to fill up my free space. My room is 12x10. Should i get 2

Dr.GameSmoke said:

Ok, So i think i will go with a grow tent, a room inside of a room. What do yall think is the best to fill up my free space. My room is 12x10. Should i get 2

Click to expand...

honestly grow tents suck. i havent seen all brands but i imagine they are all similar. If you get an older one with pvc lining you may have a toxic gas probelem with hids. most of them dont hold all the light either. they have leaks at the seams. plus they are expensive and pointless if you have a whole room to dedicate. use a sqirrell cage fan and just blow the air outside or in another room. if you leave a door open it should be fine to handle your lights.

OregonMeds said:

Your house a/c is only going to come on when the temperature of the air around the one thermostat in the house is too warm. So basically that will allow the grow room to reach way beyond 100f and burn the plants to death and still do nothing to kick on the a/c... However with only 800w just leaving the door open on the room would keep it half decent and a fan blowing in the open doorway would be plenty.

A mover would be a serious waste of time and money especially just with 400w lights. No matter what you've heard or read 2x400w in no way makes a combination equal to one 600w light even let alone the 840w or so that burns.

I'm not trying to pick on you or be mean, I'm just saying if you want more yield than 2x400 don't buy a light mover, buy a 1kw light. Use one of the 400's for veg and the other 400 could be supplemental halide to the 1kw hps.

For cooling you could just use a 5kw window a/c or you could just use a 4" or larger squirrel cage exhaust fan blowing into the attic or out the window through a vent if you want lower power bills. I would suggest a 6-8" can fan or squirrel cage fan on a speed control so you can adjust it to run quiet and not bother you in the rest of the house. A 4" fan would be running fast and noisy.

From your description I can see you don't want some half assed room like I did here:
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/249237-no-room-prep-very-simple.html

But that gives you an idea of how simple and easy it can be.

Growing in the house is so much easier than in the garage...

Click to expand...

What the hell are you talking about? two 400 watts dont make the impact of
1 600 watt? not only can you place them closer to the plants, the Light stacks in itself.

A 1000 Watt HPS delivers 150000 Lumens at a distance of one foot. Well most
growers recommend you have a 1000 watt atleast 24-36 inches from a plant, that
means you are only getting a quarter of a quarter of that, which is roughly 9000 Lumens.

If you are recieving 50000 Lumens from a 400 watt at one foot, and you should
have that at 2 feet away, you are recieving 12,500 Lumens. And you're talking
about having two 400 watts in comparison to ONE 600 watt? Thats crazy talk.

Dude, get one more 400 watt and do 3 400 watts on a light rail, and have the lights about 16 inches above the canopy, the movement takes away hotspots
so your lights can be that close, and you will be dumping light on them.

do you have a attic or a place you could cut a hole in the ceiling to put a duct fan with like 250cfm or more to take the heat out and if there is a window in the room why not put a window ac unit in. Also how much are you willing to spend people will answer questions but there wasting there time if they dont know your price range. Also is this a stealth grow and do you have any intake fans to bring in fresh air.

Shrubs First said:

What the hell are you talking about? two 400 watts dont make the impact of
1 600 watt? not only can you place them closer to the plants, the Light stacks in itself.

A 1000 Watt HPS delivers 150000 Lumens at a distance of one foot. Well most
growers recommend you have a 1000 watt atleast 24-36 inches from a plant, that
means you are only getting a quarter of a quarter of that, which is roughly 9000 Lumens.

If you are recieving 50000 Lumens from a 400 watt at one foot, and you should
have that at 2 feet away, you are recieving 12,500 Lumens. And you're talking
about having two 400 watts in comparison to ONE 600 watt? Thats crazy talk.

Dude, get one more 400 watt and do 3 400 watts on a light rail, and have the lights about 16 inches above the canopy, the movement takes away hotspots
so your lights can be that close, and you will be dumping light on them.

Click to expand...

Some things sound good on paper but just don't work the way you would expect in real life. I've never run my 1kw lights that far away so your calculations are completely off from the start.

I have many 400w lights and 1kw lights. I never use the 400's any longer if that tells you anything...


If you can yield 2.5lbs with 3 400w lights then I will call it equal to a single 1k even though it burns more power.

A 1k light does not compare to 3 400w HPS the 1k light will only cover maybe half the area the 3 400w lights will and shrubs was right you loose alot of lumens from having to keep the light so far away and you say you dont keep it far away well then your plants dont reach full potential because any closer than 20 inches and they will be badly stressed by heat. Also a 1000w hps will make your light bill enormous. he could split to room in half and have a veg side and flower side if he did this I reccommend panda plastic(white on one side, Black on the other) and panda plastic is completely light proof.

If you are building 2 rooms inside that one room, go to the Home Depot and pick up some of their scrap 2x2 wood planks and pick up some card board boxes for free some where, paint them white and frame up your wall and you can staple the cardboard to the 2 x 2's

You should be able to do this under 30 dollars if you are thrifty, I would use the windows somehow if I could to bring in fresh air and get rid of the exhaust

Is there a way to gut the AC and fab up something to accommodate a couple 6 inch pipes?

And try to re-enforce the window and make it burglar proof, but double and triple it up

That's how I would do it, make it look normal from the outside

Good luck

OregonMeds said:

Some things sound good on paper but just don't work the way you would expect in real life. I've never run my 1kw lights that far away so your calculations are completely off from the start.

I have many 400w lights and 1kw lights. I never use the 400's any longer if that tells you anything...


If you can yield 2.5lbs with 3 400w lights then I will call it equal to a single 1k even though it burns more power.

Click to expand...

I can show you 450 gram harvest from ONE 400 watt light

I've seen that scrog, and it can't equal what an open bulb vertical grow can do like I run with a seperate little veg area. It's not just the weight, it's the time it takes to flip that weight. The setup I use flips only two weeks slower than a zero veg sog. That's 1kw flower, 250w veg, 2.5lbs per flower cycle, and it doesn't take the extra 6 months of veg and scrog to get there.

Vertical open bulb removes the reflector so the heat is no longer concentrated directly at the plants, heat simply rises and the distance you can keep the light from the plants drops dramatically.

If you can yield the same over time, or have ever seen any 400w setup that can yield the same lets see it. Anything is possible, I'd love to see it.

It was only 5 weeks veg, but you are right it took longer. Although you could argue that you can a SoG could have done an equal amount,
do 4 plants per square foor in the same area, and you should have the same result in 2 months with no veg.

And I semi agree on the open vertical bulb, although I believe more light gets wasted, unless you do a vertical scrog around the bulb

Shrubs First said:

It was only 5 weeks veg, but you are right it took longer. Although you could argue that you can a SoG could have done an equal amount,
do 4 plants per square foor in the same area, and you should have the same result in 2 months with no veg.

And I semi agree on the open vertical bulb, although I believe more light gets wasted, unless you do a vertical scrog around the bulb

Click to expand...

Ok, well we sort of agree. I've had some fun playing with various grow styles and ea has it's benefits but having found this style it's just so easy and productive I'm really happy with it. More light doesn't get wasted, though it may seem that way.

If someone threw that challenge at me though where I had three 400's I'd probably try a stacked open bulb vertical scrog to reach that weight. But then you're talking a fair amount of construction.

Or you could just try a layout like this with multiple open bulb 400's. This is old school classic but the results speak for themselves.

My budget is about $700-$1000 to finish this off. Its not really a stealth grow meaning i dont have to hide it from anyone in the house, but i also dont feel comfy keeping the door open all day either. I want to try and use the window to bring in fresh air. I dont have any intake fans but i will get one. I was thinking of having a fan placed inside of a hole on my false window background and just have it suck constantly suck in the air. Then i think i was gonna have the air exhausted into the attic. My room is hooked up to a 15amp circuit breaker, and i know nothing about electricity. Since i already have 2 400w ballasts, i will buy one more and go with the 3 400w set up. I want to but them on movers but do they have any that can move three lights in a linear path parallel to each other because im working with a 10'x12' square. Actually the power should be a problem because i can split up the power load between other rooms right??? Know if i did decide to put an a/c unit into the window, would that be my fresh air intake. And would i still need to have a ceiling exhaust. And finally, i want to use my 6'x2' closet space for my veg. space. I figure that should be enough, and since im using florecents, heat shouldnt be an issue. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks for all the info thus far!! This helps so much. I will post pics as soon as i start construction and keep posting all the way thru my first harvest, so you all can see your advice in action.

Yes look up the Light rail 3.0

since its you first grow you dont need something fancy.
i am currently growing with a 125 w bulb and a 75 watt bulb and y plants are fine.
pictures will be up soon.

Not to discredit you, but you haven't even finished your grow.

Just because it is his first grow doesn't mean he shouldn't maximize.

Not everyone's first grow is 100% learning process. Yes many abilities
come with experience. But really the biggest problem with most grow rooms
is the lack of temperature control, and air movement.. That is what a lot of people eventually learn.

If you give the plants Light, Nutes, and "fresh air" or co2 supplementation, it doesn't
matter if its your first or 10th grow.
And now that you have a 125 and a 75 watt don't you wish you would have just gone with
a 250 and a 400? Unless your space does not permit it.

Just wait til you see 3 400 watt lights on a light mover.

Yo Doc, your 15Amp circuit is plenty to hold 1200 Watts of Lights, with that light mover you should
be just over 12 Amps
The only problem I see is when you start adding fans. And air movement.

JoeCa1i said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asD01GI_cL4

Click to expand...

Urban grower.. Yea, he has a website so you
don't have to watch on youtube

Ok so the squirrel cage fan blows air right, meaning i would use it for exhaust right? I wanted to have something pull fresh air in from the window, and then have something blow the old air out the attic. What would be the most efficient route to go. And i really hope there is a light mover out there that can move three lamps parallel arcoss the room. The pics ive seen of the light rail shows all the lights on a cingular rail moving on the same path as each other. If so it looks like i may have to buy three light rail systems or get a circular mover. I hope im wrong tho.