first grow room setup - need help/advise

ok so this will be my first foray into the indoor grow scene. i've succesfully grown a couple outdoors as more of a lark than anything but i'm real tired of worrying about animals like deer and the uncontrollable weather. time to move inside.

now i've been saving for some time to build my setup and i'm not really afraid to throw some money at this thing so here's what i was thinking. let me know your opinion.

4'x8'x7' hydrohut
2 x 600w HPS (aircooled)
carbon scrubbed exhaust

i really like the idea of the hydrohut. yes it's expensive but its so simple and convieniant plus i don't have to modify the room which is a big plus. i was already going to build a room inside a room to conceal heat as well as give me the option to add a second room later for purley veging. for right now though i'm going to keep it simple with a one room setup.

i need to know what kind of CFM i need to move an adequate amount of air for a 4'x8'x7' space. i've heard that with the hydrohuts you need a small intake fan as well as a slightly larger output fan. the exhaust fan will have a carbon scrubber attached to it which vents into one of the houses air ducts running overhead thereby dispersing the air to the upstairs without punching holes in walls or venting it outside which would make me uncomfortable. i realize that when i open the flaps of the tent the smell will leak out and i have ways of dealing with that but the air vented into the air duct must be 100% odor free. will the carbon filter achieve this on its own or will i need to implement something more complicated?

also i know many of you will say to use 2 x 1000w HPS but the electric bill is a concern especially since i plan on adding a second room in the future and will need another good amount of wattage for that. so my question is this, will the two 600w light do the trick? 1000w for a 4x4 space seems a bit much but i'm a noob and what do i know right? also what kind of ballast do i need to run these puppies? will i have to bring in an electrician to install a 240v outlet? i am willing to devote an entire circuit to the room and leave my dining room in the dark. there's an electrician i've known for years that wont ask questions and he's a good guy so i'm not worried about that so much.

i'm going to start with a soiless mixture as the great jorge advises all new growers to do. is there anything i should be aware of when going to buy this mixture?

my biggest concern however is controlling the temperature as i know this can really effect how much bud is produced. how do you guys maintain such a specific temperature all the time?

what strain should should i try to get my hands on? it would preferably be an indica with a shorter flowering period. any suggestions on whats good for an indoor first timer? with indica in mind how many plants will fit in my hut without overcrowding? i plan on vegging 1 month and then start the flowering so i don't imagine these plants getting any bigger than 3 feet by harvest. i'm trying to pull at least a pound. i know its a high expectation for a first timer but i keep expectations high because i expect the very best from myself.

ps. i know a good deal about the growing process as far as nutes, pruning, watering etc. etc. its just the grow room environment that is new to me. i've read through a lot of the stuff for noobs but i either know it or my questions are more specific than what is explained in that section. thanks in advance for your responses.

pps. arn;t you guys concerned about posting pictures online? seems not to safe lol

also a little more secifically i'm going to use an inline setup for the 2 x 600w hid's

can i use an impeller to pull air through my carbon filter inside the tent and then through my lights which gets exhausted or do i have to pull colder air from outside the tent to separately cool the lights and then a different fan exhausting smelly air through the carbon filter? thnx in advance. this is tough trying to throw together a pro setup on my first try.

let's see if i can help a little:

- the rule of thumb for lowering temp is 3 to 5 complete air exchanges per minute, so about 700 cfm as a minimum. put the carbon filter at the top of the tent and go filter - fan - duct - light -duct - light - outlet. you can go with a passive intake at the bottom of the tent. if the temps in your room are reasonable then the tent will be cool enough without another exhaust.

- a good carbon filter is all you need for smell control

- ballast, light and hood can be bought together and can be 110 v or 220v

- re-think a vegging space - it makes your grow twice as efficient as a single crop at a time.

- you can get 10 - 15 good sized indicas flowering in that space, twice as much for veg.

- one pound should be easy with your set-up. 3 pounds is possible.

Immature587 said:

the exhaust fan will have a carbon scrubber attached to it which vents into one of the houses air ducts running overhead thereby dispersing the air to the upstairs without punching holes in walls or venting it outside which would make me uncomfortable.

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not sure its a good idea to force air into a vent,when your furnace is running,it will have to fight the furnace fan and may end up pushing the air backwards.

Immature587 said:

also what kind of ballast do i need to run these puppies? will i have to bring in an electrician to install a 240v outlet? i am willing to devote an entire circuit to the room and leave my dining room in the dark.

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you will need 2 600 watt HPS ballasts,together,they will draw 10-12 amps so they will be OK on 1 circiut but depending on your fans,you may need another circiut for them.you should never draw more than 80% of what the breaker is rated for so 2 600 watt lights will max out a 15 amp breaker,in fact you may want 2 timers set to start a min or 3 apart because the lights will surge and draw alot more power for a few seconds when started.

Immature587 said:

can i use an impeller to pull air through my carbon filter inside the tent and then through my lights which gets exhausted or do i have to pull colder air from outside the tent to separately cool the lights and then a different fan exhausting smelly air through the carbon filter? ...

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dont see why you could not run your room exhaust thrugh the lights but personally I would run 2 separate fans.the room fan would be controlled by a thermostat to keep temps in check & the cooltubes would run continuiously w/ the lights.if you get your air for the cooltubes from outside the room,it wont smell so it wont need to be run through a carbon filter.for this,you would be better pushing the air into the cooltubes so any leaks will go into the growroom verses if you sucked the air from the cooltubes,any leaks would suck in the smelly air.w/out a carbon filter,you wont need a powerful fan to push the air,I used a PC fan for a 400 hps and it did the job very well-I would expect it to be fine for a 600 but not sure about 2 600s.
last advantage would be if either fan died,the other would help control heat better than if the only fan crapped out

desertrat said:

let's see if i can help a little:

- the rule of thumb for lowering temp is 3 to 5 complete air exchanges per minute, so about 700 cfm as a minimum. put the carbon filter at the top of the tent and go filter - fan - duct - light -duct - light - outlet. you can go with a passive intake at the bottom of the tent. if the temps in your room are reasonable then the tent will be cool enough without another exhaust.

- a good carbon filter is all you need for smell control

- ballast, light and hood can be bought together and can be 110 v or 220v

- re-think a vegging space - it makes your grow twice as efficient as a single crop at a time.

- you can get 10 - 15 good sized indicas flowering in that space, twice as much for veg.

- one pound should be easy with your set-up. 3 pounds is possible.

Click to expand...

thanks desertrat. i do plan on adding that veg room i just don't have the $$$ do setup both at the same time. thanks for the info on the exhaust set up. that's exactly how i was hoping to do it. i'll get this all ordered within a week, my electrician is going to throw some more juice to my room in a few days. now i just gotta get to toronto and visit the seed bank. maybe have a drink or five while i'm there

mrmadcow said:

not sure its a good idea to force air into a vent,when your furnace is running,it will have to fight the furnace fan and may end up pushing the air backwards.

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ive figured out which way the air is flowing through the duct and the exhaust will flow with the rest of the furnace air, not against it so it shouldn't be a problem

alright so my electrician is coming over monday to install a 240 volt outlet into my room that's stealing from my dining room which will be left in the dark (always is anyway) and i'll run the lights on that and all the fans and other equipment on the 120 volt line that's already in the room coming out of standard sockets. i talked to my local grow shop and he's got me set up with all the proper ballasts and whatnot so the only real question left is what to grow? i was thinking northern lights as thats what i always smoked at college and really enjoyed it and i grew a few outdoors guerrilla style and it was some of the best smoke in memory. so tasty and euphoric. plus i've heard it doesn't stink to bad either. odor contol is my biggest concern because i've heard of strains like ak-47 just overpowering carbon filters. so i'm leaning towards northern lights #5 which by all accounts i've read is a forgiving and easy plant to grow for a beginner and it also has a short flowering time with a decent yield.

any objections? thoughts? better ideas?

also i'm struggling to find good info on how to control a fan with a thermostat. i mean there is info but i was looking for more like a "how to" guide. to do this i assume this would be a separate fan from the exhaust fan and the thermostat tells it to kick on if the room gets to hot. any knowledge that could be past onto me would be much appreciated.

Where are you getting Co2 from? You are not exhausting to outdoors, so your exhaust will simply run down the hall and right back into your tent. You will need to suppliment Co2 with that configuration.

Here is a VERY good thermostat controller for your fan. http://aeroponicsnmore.com/climate-control-ventilation-c-23_5/temp-2v-fan-speed-control-variable-idle-setpoint-p-181

smokingrubber said:

Where are you getting Co2 from? You are not exhausting to outdoors, so your exhaust will simply run down the hall and right back into your tent. You will need to suppliment Co2 with that configuration.

Here is a VERY good thermostat controller for your fan. http://aeroponicsnmore.com/climate-control-ventilation-c-23_5/temp-2v-fan-speed-control-variable-idle-setpoint-p-181

Click to expand...

I'm exhausting into an airduct that runs to the upstairs of the house. It's not getting vented outside but it's going to an entire different floor of the house. Let me know if that's still a problem.

Thank u for that thermostat. Just what I needed

Immature587 said:

I'm exhausting into an airduct that runs to the upstairs of the house. It's not getting vented outside but it's going to an entire different floor of the house. Let me know if that's still a problem.

Thank u for that thermostat. Just what I needed

Click to expand...

Yes, it's a problem. Exhausting to ANY room in your house is bad if that air has the ability to crawl right back into your grow. If you exhaust to the great outdoors then you are creating negative pressure and fresh air MUST seep in where ever it can. That fresh air will be Co2 rich (400-500 ppm).

It doesn't matter if you're exhausting to another room or the same room. The air you are exhausting is Co2 depleted so you have to suppliment it somehow. We exhale Co2, but not enough to feed more than a couple plants. If you are growing a 4x8 room full, you can't keep up.

couldn't i just open a basement window? venting to the outside is not an option unfortunately. there is a small window in the grow room but it would stick out like a sore thumb on the side of the house if i had a pipe coming out of it. i'm also no where near the dryer or chimney. there is a basement window in an adjacent room that's not so easy to see. i could either open it a bit or if i had to hook up an intake fan to draw in fresh air to the basement of the house. co2 is so damned expensive and I might be biting off more than i can chew with that kind of setup. i'll do co2 if i have to but i would have to call in serious favors from a grower my buddy knows who could come over and teach me how to do a co2 setup.

wait i don't know why i didn't think of this before. come spring time i can plant some bushes around that window and no one will even know the window is there let alone see my exhaust pipe. ok problem solved. co2 averted (for now). thanks guys i think that's all i need. just waiting on the electrician to get here and do his thing. then it's time for my first journal. i'll be posting it under the name DoobZILLA and from a totally different i.p.

ps. i hope you guys don't post your pictures from your own IP adress. i work in IT and trust me i could find anyone of you right down to your address just from your posts here.

Fortunately for me, my grow is as legal as an 18 year old cheerleader (barely, but close enough if we go to court). Not everyone will approve, but who cares!

I love California

If you have a plumbing vent it usually has access to the basement and is usually a 3-4" pipe, it exhausts through the roof, nice and high if you have two floors. Before a "total" commitment is made, I would obviously test it to see that the "positive pressure" does not upset the workings of the drains, you may get a gurgly sound in the shower while in use but it should work. Remember, one way is gravity ... shit out and one is shit in ... exhaust. So make sure there is a Tee with a clean out. Hook up fan right at Tee to test. If you are concerned about possible shit water getting to pipe use a Tee-Wye to allow water by but the pressurized air would have no problem pushing down before going up the stack. Another thing is ... gotta chimney? Good enough draft it should be another safe way to get air out any expenses on filters could be put to better use if either of these are practical in your case. Each house is different, so it may not work but I've done both before and except for the gurgly shower and ever so slight waves in toilet when fan kicked on ... vent worked great. I helped with a room at a friends house and the exhaust went where an old wood stove used to be and also worked fine, barely moved the flap on the barometric damper.