Commercial Grow Questions

T

tubularty

Member
I am a starting caregiver and have some questions about my grow room design. Im planning on flowering in an area the size of a two car garage (26ft x 24ft), so thats 642 square feet. I will be growing in soil using 7-10 gallon pots. My main questions are these...

How many lights should I use? I hear a 1000w HPS covers a 6'x6' area so that would mean i would only need 4 lights to over the grow but I was thinking of having 6.

Is it better to have an exhaust fan and inlet fan or to have a closed system using an inline vortex fan to pull the air from outside over through the lights and back outside.

How much air would I have to move over six 1000w HPS to cool them enough in a closed system?

I want to use CO2 in the room cause I have read impressive things about it with increasing yield, but would it be better to use 50lb tanks of CO2 or just use a propane burner?

Or if you can help me resign it that would be awesome. I am just in the planning stages of my grow right now.
 
T

tubularty

Member
also what about light tracks... i could combine 6 lights on tracks with a closed system to cover all the area in the grow. would this be my best option?
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
tubularty said:
I am a starting caregiver and have some questions about my grow room design. Im planning on flowering in an area the size of a two car garage (26ft x 24ft), so thats 642 square feet. I will be growing in soil using 7-10 gallon pots. My main questions are these...

How many lights should I use? I hear a 1000w HPS covers a 6'x6' area so that would mean i would only need 4 lights to over the grow but I was thinking of having 6.

Is it better to have an exhaust fan and inlet fan or to have a closed system using an inline vortex fan to pull the air from outside over through the lights and back outside.

How much air would I have to move over six 1000w HPS to cool them enough in a closed system?

I want to use CO2 in the room cause I have read impressive things about it with increasing yield, but would it be better to use 50lb tanks of CO2 or just use a propane burner?

Or if you can help me resign it that would be awesome. I am just in the planning stages of my grow right now.
Click to expand...
I would definately go with 6 lights.

Split the light into 2 runs and put an inline on each. Pull fresh COOL air through the hoods and exhaust that hot air back outdoors. A 6" 350cfm on each side would be enough ... if the fresh air is cool. If the fresh air is NOT cool, it won't matter what your cfm is.

Co2 is for closed-loop systems only. If you are recirculating the air inside the garage (seperate from the light hood air) then you need to add Co2. If you are exhausting outdoors and pulling in fresh cool air, no Co2 should be added.

The costs really go up when you add Co2 though. Make sure you do your homework and know what your budget is. It sounds to me like you're going to need around 10k+ to pull this off. Good luck. Don't forget to include about 2k for the first 4 months of electricity.
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
Do NOT try to go cheap or band-aid your ventillation system. That is easily the most over-looked aspect of noob grows. Do it right, from the very beginning or your crop will fail AND you'll spend twice as much fixing it later.

Bad Ventillation = Doom (and it will fail right before harvest when you are fully invested).
 
oregon024

oregon024

Active Member
You definately have big plans.To be lighting up 6 1000w better make sure you have enough patients to not get a red flag from the electric company.And saying pulling in fresh air you don't need co2.You should see my room just added co2 a week ago.growth and yeild can double with co2 if done rite.My advice start simple and inprove things over time.Unless your rich.Then fuck it buy it all.Good luck
 
T

tubularty

Member
How do I insure that it is cool air even during the summer months? I'm guessing that I should pull off the shaded side of the garage or even put a shade covering up around the intake.

I know I can't run the lights in a linked run cause by the last light it would be hot air. So just come in with 6 or 8 inch and split it into there 6inch flex pipes for each light then run them back into a 6in or 8in then the inline fan. I was really thinking of having a 500CFM for each run.

If I have a closed system with no co2 how would I make sure the air inside doesn't go stale? I have read that closed ventilation systems are the best for displacing the heat since
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
Co2 does improve the yield a lot ... but if you are exhausting outdoors, Co2 is a waste of money. If you are running a closed loop system then Co2 is mandatory!

Here is some light reading on how to grow big. This is much bigger than you want, but you should always study the people that are doing it better than you are.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3368.html
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
tubularty said:
How do I insure that it is cool air even during the summer months? I'm guessing that I should pull off the shaded side of the garage or even put a shade covering up around the intake.
Click to expand...
Very good start. Find the coolest intake air possible.


tubularty said:
I know I can't run the lights in a linked run cause by the last light it would be hot air. So just come in with 6 or 8 inch and split it into there 6inch flex pipes for each light then run them back into a 6in or 8in then the inline fan. I was really thinking of having a 500CFM for each run.

If I have a closed system with no co2 how would I make sure the air inside doesn't go stale? I have read that closed ventilation systems are the best for displacing the heat since
Click to expand...
A closed loop-system with no Co2 WILL FAIL. Plants need Co2 during daylight hours. If you do not provide it though fresh air intake or some other source, you're fukt.
 
T

tubularty

Member
I will have enough patients to cover the high electric bill and such. With running a CO2 system, I'm planning on running on 1 50gallon tank with monitor to keep it around 1200-1500ppm and have it hooked in with the light timer so that my CO2 isn't coming on during nights. What is a controller that you would recommend for my set up?
 
panhead

panhead

Well-Known Member
What your talking about setting up for a grow op will require a minimum of a $5K investment for start up costs, not to mention a degree of skill & familiarity in setting up grow op's & taking a grow through harvest successfully.

If this is your 1st time out of the box i'd reccomend getting a single light & running a few grows before blowing it up with multiple lights,co2 ,atmospheric controls & light movers,without experience all these expensive things wont help a grow as much as it will hurt a new grower.
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
tubularty said:
I will have enough patients to cover the high electric bill and such. With running a CO2 system, I'm planning on running on 1 50gallon tank with monitor to keep it around 1200-1500ppm and have it hooked in with the light timer so that my CO2 isn't coming on during nights. What is a controller that you would recommend for my set up?
Click to expand...
A good controller for Co2 and everything else is a Sentinel.
http://www.horticulturesource.com/sentinel-sentinel-chhc-1-total-environmental-controller-3-year-warranty-p2961/
(but they have them on ebay for $500)
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
panhead said:
What your talking about setting up for a grow op will require a minimum of a $5K investment for start up costs, not to mention a degree of skill & familiarity in setting up grow op's & taking a grow through harvest successfully.

If this is your 1st time out of the box i'd reccomend getting a single light & running a few grows before blowing it up with multiple lights,co2 ,atmospheric controls & light movers,without experience all these expensive things wont help a grow as much as it will hurt a new grower.
Click to expand...
Definately agree! It really sounds like you are going to bite off WAY more than you can chew, but you've got time. This is a great community to learn from, so you're off to a good start. Just don't start buying crap until you've got the whole thing REALLY planned out.
 
T

tubularty

Member
I am graduating from college as an engineer and my mom is a caregiver with a year growing experience and we know many very knowledgeable growers so hopefully I'm not bitting off to much. We now have four 1000w in our flower but we are moving to a new location to expand. We will be combining our grows into one large grow, this is why I want to do it right with a closed system and CO2 injection. Plus I have a ton of future patients that are signing up soon. I have around $5000 to put this grow together plus more funds if need be.

What about the new CO2 propane burners that are water cooled and can be set up outside the grow and vented in with an inline fan in the tubing to help move the CO2. It seems that one of these would be cheaper and more cost effective than CO2 bottles...

Thank you for all the input so far!
 
T

tubularty

Member
I am also planning on constantly removing and adding plans trying to harvest 2-3 a week. Maybe more if I can. Would it be better to do it this way or to split the 6 lights into 3 different flowering rooms and I could harvest every 2-3 weeks...

I am leaning to having just one flowering room so that I can have multiple strains together and give my patients diversity.
 
T

tubularty

Member
So would I be better having a closed vent system or just pulling air in from the grow through the lights then to the fan then outside?
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
It is BETTER to have a closed loop system with supplimental Co2 injection. That is ideal, but it drastically increases costs and complexity. It also increases yield. If you have the resources to controll the Co2 levels, temperature and humidity ... thats the way to go.

BTW, 5k isn't gonna go very far. You had better do some hard figgerin cuz I think you will easily spend 3x that amount. I'm spending over $13k on 4k lights w/ 16 plants. But that's just me "doing it right" ;)
 
T

tubularty

Member
is that for a yearly total or was the how much it cost to set up your grow? cause lights are only around $350 for closed loop system so if im thinking for around 8 i could get it all set up. do you know how big of a fan i would need to pull air across 5 1000w HPS. im thinking doing two separate runs of exhaust for them instead of 10 lights hooked up to the same fan. sounds more efficient, what do you guys think?
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
That's my setup budget, not including any reusable items (rocks, rw and seeds) or electricity ($700+ month)

1000w Digital Ballast $350
1000w MH Bulb $90
1000w HPS Bulb $90
Enclosed Hood $190
240v Timer $60

Total $780 ea (and you still have to have a place to plug it in)

Then you will need an inline fan and all of the ducting. I wouldn't run more than 2 or 3 lights per string. If you are pulling hot air over the light, the hood is not cooled much and it will still give off massive heat. Don't underestimate the cost of ducting, it adds up fast (i would write down about $600 on the budget).

Watch this video. It's probably more than you want to do, but this is how to do it right. There is a lot of good info in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0uRrMvfucY
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top