Get a Harvest Every 2 Weeks

thanks al you have been very helpful, i'm sure i'll have more questions down the road but the difference between me asking is i won't ask questions that have already been answered in the posts thanks again

Would there be a significant benefit to using four 600w lights, one over each tray, rather than the two 1000 watter over each pair?

If you were to use a 600w light per tray, would you buy a bigger trays?

EDIT: Oh, and how the hell do those commercial growers get away with 100 light grow houses? There electric bill 10,000 or so a month!?

Al B. Fuct said:

Use a couple of pieces of duct to take air from your flowering area and dump it back in there as well.

You can make a couple of serpentine light traps with cardboard boxes and a hot glue gun.

Kindy art time again-

Spray paint the interior bits flat black before assembly.

Use one of these at ceiling level with a blower to exhaust the mums' area. Use another at floor level without a blower to create a light trapped passive air intake path to the mums.

This will save you doubling up the exhaust & filtering systems.

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i dunno what macs talkin about goldberg for, this and all the other gadgets youve made are probably the simplest answers for peoples problems there is. i love your ingenious mixed with simplicity you are THE true stoned slacker/mcgyver lol. thanks tho thats a perfect solution for me

as for the kindy art it makes things very simple for us so it works well

do you think those little 4" inline duct fans that only move like 130 cfm will be good? ill do a box just like you said one in one out and the room is 2x5x6 so thats only 60 cubic feet should be good ya?

The cables and vents thing just sounded more like something I'd attempt than Al would approve of, that's all. I'm just a little surprised that he doesn't regard that kind of rigging as too sketchy to rely upon--but I suppose in principle it's simple enough to avoid most complications.

insanestang4life said:

Damn!!! On seedlings I know you use clones but you gotta start somewhere should I put in rockwool like I did in a seedling tray under flurescnt with the heat mat then transfer to the hydro like i did if so how ong should i let them sit under the flurescant. Or should I sprout the seeds put in rockwool then put straight into the hydro with 400w 4ft away. If I put into the hydro should i burie the cube till its covered or just the sides like i did. thanks again for taking the time out of your life to help everyone.

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Yep, run your very young seedlings under fluoro light. They'll be there for around 2-4 weeks or until they have developed their 2nd set of 'true leaves' (5 blades or more). Then you can introduce them to an HPS, with much greater than normal clearance, until they have developed another couple of pairs of leaves. That should take about 7-10 days on the high & outside. Then you can start dropping the light down, perhaps 6" every couple of days until the light is about 18" from the nearest foliage.

I've forgotten what media you intend to use. If you are nesting your cubes in pellets, just make sure the bottoms of the cubes are about 1/2" ABOVE the flood level.

knowledge seeker said:

thanks al you have been very helpful, i'm sure i'll have more questions down the road but the difference between me asking is i won't ask questions that have already been answered in the posts thanks again

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heh, thanks

Kuji said:

Would there be a significant benefit to using four 600w lights, one over each tray, rather than the two 1000 watter over each pair?

If you were to use a 600w light per tray, would you buy a bigger trays?

EDIT: Oh, and how the hell do those commercial growers get away with 100 light grow houses? There electric bill 10,000 or so a month!?

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I think a 600 over each tray would work better in the end than a pair of 1000s over each pair of trays. However, the pair of 1000s will give you good production and save you some dough. A 1000 draws about 1100-1150W from the wall socket. A 600 will pull about 660-680W. The excess above the lamp's rating is wasted as heat from eddy currents in the the ballast's iron cored inductor. Electronic ballasts eliminate (some of) this wastage but they are not nearly as reliable and cost 3-5x more than a std magnetic ballast.

However, the 600s will be able to put more average lumens per sf on to your lighted space by virtue of the fact that each 600 will be closer on average to the individual trays, simply because there's 4 lights and not 2.

6 o' one, half dozen... Either will work well. I'm not so sure there would be a huge production difference, but I do think the 4x 600 will yield somewhat more and will likely produce better average bud density across the crops due to higher avg luminous intensity.

I'd probably stick with 900mm x 900mm trays for either lighting setup.

Commercial ops quite often bridge out the meter, grow like mad for 3 mos and then split. If you bridge out a meter, you're just ASKING to get busted. If the billing dept notices your meter isn't spinning, they will send a techo to replace the meter. When the techo finds that the new meter is not spinning either but he can measure a current draw in the line, he knows what's up and will come back later with a supervisor- and probably a detective.

About the only place I can think of where someone might build a whole house op and expect to stay and pay $10K bills (and I bet that's not far wrong) would be in places like Canada and Netherlands.

cmak40 said:

i dunno what macs talkin about goldberg for, this and all the other gadgets youve made are probably the simplest answers for peoples problems there is. i love your ingenious mixed with simplicity you are THE true stoned slacker/mcgyver lol. thanks tho thats a perfect solution for me

as for the kindy art it makes things very simple for us so it works well

do you think those little 4" inline duct fans that only move like 130 cfm will be good? ill do a box just like you said one in one out and the room is 2x5x6 so thats only 60 cubic feet should be good ya?

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heh, thanks- we aim to please.

If you are actually getting 130CFM out of the duct fan (will vary with how much duct is attached and how many bends), it'd probably vent a 60cu ft space with a 400 in it reasonably well, but I think I'd opt for a 6" (150mm) blower. Most 150mms are rated about 190-200CFM.

Maccabee said:

The cables and vents thing just sounded more like something I'd attempt than Al would approve of, that's all. I'm just a little surprised that he doesn't regard that kind of rigging as too sketchy to rely upon--but I suppose in principle it's simple enough to avoid most complications.

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Well, I wouldn't consider such a rig if the PVC wye junctions could be placed so that I could easily get at them to plug the appropriate ports. Unfortunately, I have to crawl about in the crawlspace, which is actually above the grow room (don't ask, it's weird) to get to that area. It's a task that only really needs to be done a couple of times a year, so I may give it a miss- but I will say that with bulk bicycle brake cabling and bits, all things are possible.

hey al i have 2 1000watt hps and i read that u dont know much about american breaker boxes. i wanna know if i could run 2 fans and both those lights without having a fire issue in my op? my op is 120v i was wanting to plug 1 light and 1 fan into 1 outlet and use another outlet on the other side of the room for 1 fan and 1 light only running 12/12. instead of 2 lights into 1 outlet? any help from anybody would be great thank you

BEEFCAK3 said:

hey al i have 2 1000watt hps and i read that u dont know much about american breaker boxes. i wanna know if i could run 2 fans and both those lights without having a fire issue in my op? my op is 120v i was wanting to plug 1 light and 1 fan into 1 outlet and use another outlet on the other side of the room for 1 fan and 1 light only running 12/12. instead of 2 lights into 1 outlet? any help from anybody would be great thank you

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Chances are that all outlets in the same room are on the same breaker. What is the rating of the breaker that controls the outlets in that room?

ok i went downstairs and looked where is was wired and into what breaker switch. ok i have 3 outlets and they are all tied together but them 3 outlets go to 2 switches inside the breaker box. the 2 breakers say on them (120/240v) so you know how you can flip the switch to either turn that power off or on to those plugs. anyways on that switch that you can flip theres a number on that and it says 20. and on that same switch it also says (10 ka) now the other big ass wire that runs to the other switch has a number 15 on it and says nothin else on it anywhere. it looks a lil thinner than the other switch to. i dunno if i should run those lights or not ? by the way when i recieved those lights i put 1 together and plugged it in and it came right on with no prob i guess im worried about fire or wires melting causing a fire. thank you for the help

heres a link to a pic of what one of them look like
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07036.jpg

Sounds like your ckt has a 20A bkr. Each of your 1000s will draw 9.1A continuously and about 12.5A for about 10sec on start up.

Your 20A ckt will carry the pair of 1000s if you stagger their startups by a few minutes. However, this runs very close to the rating of the ckt. This leaves no headroom for other op gear nor what other items are running on the ckt in the household already.

I suspect that this single 20A bkr runs all the outlets in all the bedrooms.

I don't like to load a ckt more than 80% of the bkr rating. I would not put more than a 16A continuous load on a 20A ckt. I built my wiring for 30A but only pull 14.7 through it.

In your case, I would pull in a second 120V line on at least a 15A bkr and run one of your 1000s on that.

alright. well i have 3 outlets that run to that switch and 2 other outlets that run to a 15a so im assuming i could run that 1 light and fan and run the other light and fan on that 15. see in the pic where it said (20) in white on the switch lever? the other one that i said has the number 15 on it. i would see myself being shocked to shit by trying to wire something like that lol. would the one with 15 be ok for the other? thank you for your help!

nothin else in the household runs into the same switch as in my basment. the basment has all together 6 outlets and the rest of the household runs into the box but into differ switches. if im wrong please tell me before i hooked'em up. the 20a runs 3 of the oulets downstairs and the other outlets go into the 15's

Ah, OK. Can you run a heavy-duty extension lead (rated for heaters & aircon units) to an outlet which is not on the 20A bkr? There's your second 120V @15A feed for one of your 1000s.

i have no idea man i really dont. is that like a extension cord or is that something i can buy at a store? could ya send a link to what it is ?

Beefcake, you done smoked yourself retarted. Yeah Home Depot, like the orange ones. I am actually using two now Al. 1 to my setup, and one to put power in my room overall. LoL.

ya you want to get a 12/3 extension cord. it means it has 12 guage wire and there is 3 wires. your store will have all the ex cords in 1 area look at them and look for one that has 12 written rather large on it. this means it has 12 guage wire in it and will already be 3 wire because that is standard now. anyway what al is saying...go get this ex cord and run from one of your circuits, sounds like you have a 15 amp open. then use the other circuit in the room (20 amp) you are already using and split the power down the middle, 1 1000, 1 fan on each.

Kaosisglobal said:

Beefcake, you done smoked yourself retarted. Yeah Home Depot, like the orange ones. I am actually using two now Al. 1 to my setup, and one to put power in my room overall. LoL.

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lmfao thats what iu was thinkin but i just wanted him to understand.

i love when someone says what IM thinkin

hey al, i am going to use 6 inch pots instead of eight so i can get four per square foot, what are you using just regular plastic pots with holes in the bottom or a mesh bottom thanks seeker

kaos & cmak are dead right. Poor BC has in fact smoked himself retarded.

Yes, I may have inadvertently used an Australianism by calling an 'extension cord' an 'extension lead,' but yes- one and the same.

ks, regular old plastic pots with drain holes will do fine.

Keep in mind that I misquoted the size of my pots in inches in my early posts in this thread. I said they are 8", which is close. They are 175mm, which is about 6.9". I have not had to use feet & inches in about 12 years and don't estimate well in those figures anymore.

Netpots are expensive and not necessary. I pay $0.45 per regular 175mm pot- netpots are 2-3x that figure (or more at some clip-joint hydro shops).

I do need to stop for a moment and discuss electrical wiring.

I work with the presumption that anyone setting up a grow op has a relatively good understanding of how house wiring works. I expect prospective growers to know what a circuit breaker does, how chains of outlets are connected to the breakers and how to add up the current draws of all the gear to make sure one is not overloading a ckt.

I don't want to have to go to the level of detail necessary to instruct how breaker boxes are wired or how to install breakers, for a couple of reasons; a) I don't want a person who is fully unfamiliar with AC power wiring to jump right in to their first wiring project- especially a grow op- on my instructions alone and b) it's been a long time since I've had my nose in a Nth American 120/220 breaker box and I can't give exacting detail on wiring methods and standard component ratings.

You need to bring some skills to the table here. If in doubt, I'm sure you can find references on the web for DIY wiring, but writers of such references will have a lot of the same concerns I do.