Grow Room Plans for a CFL perpectual grow.

Hey guys, I just finished my first draft of blue-prints for a new cfl grow closet.

Take a look and let me know what you think. Have I missed anything other than thermo/humidity meter?

The light reflectors will made using disposable roasting tins, hung on chains so I can move them up & down. Also, I will try and add some side lighting for each plant to help with growth.

The scrubber will be DIY using activated carbon from an aquarium filter.

I'm planning a soil grow with miracle grow nutes. (cant really get my hands on anything else)

Here's the questions....
Have I got my heights for each cab okay? 2ft Veg / 4ft Flower
Will there be any noticeable odor from the veg cab? Can't really get the scrubber down there.

As usual, any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

heights are ok might have to train them a bit but you can grow.
vegging plants do give some odor, if exhausting outside, i dont think you should worry. why dont you open the exhaust hole from the veg chamber into the flower chamber? that will be more efficient, so you would exhaust using only the fan with the scrubber, passive intake into veg then into flower then to the scrubber. what's your area? sq.ft?

Hi zem, thanks for the input.

The closet is only 1.3ft deep, so sqft as follows: veg cab 2ft x 3ft x 1.3ft = 7.8sqft, Flower Cab 4ft x 3ft x 1.3ft = 15.6sqft

The total height is around 6ft. The shelf between the 2 cabs can be moved if you think it will help. Maybe 2.5ft veg & 3.5 flower.

I don't really want to mess around with training too much as Im not experienced at all. I've been reading a lot of LST'ing and will give it go.

I did think about having the passive intake coming only from the veg cab and passing thru the flower cab but i was concerned about the light getting into the flower cab. Any ideas how i can overcome that issue? Heard about lighttraps but not sure how to make one here.

The intakes and exhaust will be coming and going from the room the closet is in. If temps get too crazy, I thought I could always turn the a/c on in the room to give some cooler air thru the intakes.

Here's a birds-eye view of the closet. Its a corner unit, so i have these cavities on each side of the closet to use for intakes and exhaust.

to get something decent, get a 250w HPS aircooled in the flowering chamber. you have 1.3x3 thats almost 4sq.ft, with cfl's it can be done but you will eventually need more than 200watts of CFL to get good flowers, 250hps has much higher efficiency. if temps outside cab are good, then all you would need is good enough fan exhaust,in your cab a 100cfm+ fan is good

I hear what you're saying zem. 250HPS would be better but where I live it will be difficult to get my hands on one, let alone the cooltube. Thats why i thought i would start with a simpler cfl grow. Temps here in summer can easily hit 100, so i feel it will be a constant battle to keep temps down but then on the otherhand I'm hearing more and more that cfl's DO get hot, especially when you have as many as i plan. I will do a bit more homework and see how if I can go HPS.

I got my hands on a copy of SeeMoreBuds book 'grow 8oz with cfls'.. He grew 3 plants under 6/8 42w cfls and harvested 8oz dry. I would be happy with 3/5oz from 3 plants.

So much to think about.....

IstTimer said:

I hear what you're saying zem. 250HPS would be better but where I live it will be difficult to get my hands on one, let alone the cooltube. Thats why i thought i would start with a simpler cfl grow. Temps here in summer can easily hit 100, so i feel it will be a constant battle to keep temps down but then on the otherhand I'm hearing more and more that cfl's DO get hot, especially when you have as many as i plan. I will do a bit more homework and see how if I can go HPS.

I got my hands on a copy of SeeMoreBuds book 'grow 8oz with cfls'.. He grew 3 plants under 6/8 42w cfls and harvested 8oz dry. I would be happy with 3/5oz from 3 plants.

So much to think about.....

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hey man, i live where theres not one hydro shop, and i cant order online, i find hps. dont you have electrical store around? where will you get all these cfl's? hps is very common, used as streetlights and in parks. you can get magnetic ballast you will save some $ and you can get a regular reflector and drill in it a cooltube in and out with fan pulling air from room through light. it will probably cost more to get many cfl's and yes CFL give out heat, i use them in clone boxes in winter to warm up the babies...

zem said:

hey man, i live where theres not one hydro shop, and i cant order online, i find hps. dont you have electrical store around? where will you get all these cfl's? hps is very common, used as streetlights and in parks. you can get magnetic ballast you will save some $ and you can get a regular reflector and drill in it a cooltube in and out with fan pulling air from room through light. it will probably cost more to get many cfl's and yes CFL give out heat, i use them in clone boxes in winter to warm up the babies...

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I didn't think HPS bulbs were easy to get your hands on without a hydroshop or buying online. I will go and have a look this week and see if I can find one. Not sure where I'm going to get the ballast from though.. I've seen a couple of threads a videos on DIY cool tubes. One was looked really easy and doable, using a MDF box with an In/Out and some ducting. Not sure about using wood though, seems a bit of a fire hazard.


So do you think a 250HPS will be enough for 3plants in a row? Yield?

Amazon.com will become your best friend, I got everything I needed without leaving my house. As far as blocking light, air has an advantage that light does not have, it can go around corners so you could build a little separator that makes the light go through 180 degrees of turns (painted black) it will block it out. Another option is to buy a prefilter that will allof air but little light to travel through. Even panty hose will cut down on the light if you double them up.

IstTimer said:

I didn't think HPS bulbs were easy to get your hands on without a hydroshop or buying online. I will go and have a look this week and see if I can find one. Not sure where I'm going to get the ballast from though.. I've seen a couple of threads a videos on DIY cool tubes. One was looked really easy and doable, using a MDF box with an In/Out and some ducting. Not sure about using wood though, seems a bit of a fire hazard.


So do you think a 250HPS will be enough for 3plants in a row? Yield?

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in electric supply shops you can find hps ballast, bulb and reflectors. the reflectors are usually the compact type built in ballast, so theyr hard to do a cooltube DIY. i wouldnt do a wood reflector, i find it craazy fire hazard. in my room i go wth 400's without cooltube but my room is compact with good fan so it's like a big cooltube itself in your flowering chamber, it;s about 4 sq.ft so 250w is more than enough, number of plants is depends how much you let them veg before flowering. you can do 3 plants, but take care when to veg switch them 12/12. if you wait too long they will overgrow the room

I've decided to go for a 250w HPS with magnetic ballast. I like the sound of your grow cab being one big cooltube. I think that might work for my set up too. I just have to find one now or order online.
How long is your exhaust fan on for?? The full 12 hours that the light is on or 15mins per/hour?

I only plan on vegging for 2-3weeks the first time round, to see how tall my bagseeds get. Second time round i will be ordering some nice genetics online. Possibly white widow, cheese & blueberry but still need to do a bit more research on that.

I'll be going to hardware store this week to buy the mdf for stealth door and hopefully get that all finished and sealed and begin the shopping list for everything else. I'll keep you posted.

Peace

i keep exhaust on 24/7. i really suggest you get genetics. you will need at least 6 weeks from germing to start flowerin. then 10 more weeks flowering, thats 4 months! so you will lose too much time as you try the seeds. remember, good weed is born NOT grown

zem said:

i keep exhaust on 24/7. i really suggest you get genetics. you will need at least 6 weeks from germing to start flowerin. then 10 more weeks flowering, thats 4 months! so you will lose too much time as you try the seeds. remember, good weed is born NOT grown

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Yeah you're right there. 4months waisted growing shitty mountain goat weed as i like to call it.

So 24/7 ey? Wow, didn't think i would need it on for that long but I'll take your word for it. In your early posts you said a 100cfm would be okay for my setup. Even with a scrubber and baring in mind that my room temps can hit 80 easy in summer and thats without any lights?

Sorry to hassle you with more questions but I found a cooltube online that will deliver to me but i'm not sure if its necessary. If i get it, I plan on having the fan pulling air thru the light from the cab itself and then out thru the scrubber, so Light->Fan->Scrubber. I would prefer to push the air out of the scrubber to save on space in the flower cab. On the other hand, i'm thinking if i just get a normal reflector and have a nice exhaust pulling the hot air from the cab I might be able to control the temps. (thats what you do right?)

I'll get some more plans up asap.

IstTimer said:

Yeah you're right there. 4months waisted growing shitty mountain goat weed as i like to call it.

So 24/7 ey? Wow, didn't think i would need it on for that long but I'll take your word for it. In your early posts you said a 100cfm would be okay for my setup. Even with a scrubber and baring in mind that my room temps can hit 80 easy in summer and thats without any lights?

Sorry to hassle you with more questions but I found a cooltube online that will deliver to me but i'm not sure if its necessary. If i get it, I plan on having the fan pulling air thru the light from the cab itself and then out thru the scrubber, so Light->Fan->Scrubber. I would prefer to push the air out of the scrubber to save on space in the flower cab. On the other hand, i'm thinking if i just get a normal reflector and have a nice exhaust pulling the hot air from the cab I might be able to control the temps. (thats what you do right?)

I'll get some more plans up asap.

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you have like 15.6 cubic feet, multiply it by 3 thats 46.8cfm but thats the actual exchange. fans lose efficiency with filters, ducts and curves. so 100cfm+ would be better. best is to get it stronger then use fan controller. if you set it on medium or low it will be very silent. as for the cooltube, it helps a lot, just make sure how you will fit it in the cab. try not to make sharp curves, the bigger the better.
now for the worst part is that it is much better to pull air through filter rather than push and even then, it's better to make filter bigger not to lose much venting. where are you exhausting to??? can you make something on the outside like a box? do you intend to buy or to build a scrubber?

Thats good to know about the cfm rating on the fan. I was looking into getting an inline bathroom extractor rated at 325cfm but it was hella loud. Good to know I can get away with a smaller one. I'll try and get a speed controller, so I can set it to medium or low and keep the noise level down when I need to.

The cab I have is really tall like 9-10ft. The top has a compartment about 3ft tall which i plan on using to house my fan,scrubber,ballast and timers etc. The veg cab will vent from a passive intake, thru to the flower cab, then thru the cooltube and out the scrubber. In the top compartment I plan on cutting some passive exhaust holes to let the air get out. I'm not sure yet If I can make a good enough DIY scrubber, so I might have to buy one. Although, there's lots of diy designs on here that I can try. One of them seemed really easy, just using some scotch brite cloth made into little pillow cases filled with activated carbon.

The closet I plan on using is a fitted corner unit, floor to ceiling, so I cant really get away with having anything outside of the closet. The corners have these empty cavities on each side for me to use as intake and exhaust. I'm hoping the air will be free enough to get out of cavities and into the bedroom. (I think I'll be alright, as they are hardly air tight)

Here's the next stage of plans. 2 choices, one with cooltube and one with a standard reflector.

I still might be able to fit the scrubber into the cab itself so I can pull the air thru it rather than push. But with 1ft x 3ft, i'm doubt I'll be able to sit the light and scrubber side by side, which means the scrubber will sit above the light and loose some of my height in there.

For the lights in your respective cabinet areas, I know that using CFLs you want a balanced spectrum of light. Not just 65k or 27k for veg and flower. Also you may want to plan on putting a bulb on the sides of the cabinet to get more light penetration which is most important; especially with CFLs which usually lack it compared to HID lighting.

EDIT:

I see the new update, pardon the lateness. In an enclosed space like that, I would most certainly go with an active cooling cooling tube or similar. An open 250W HPS in a space like that seems to be asking for temp troubles. In a 4' high x 3' wide space x ( ?? deep), You may even be good with a 150 HPS to further help with cooling and supplement with some CFL on the cabinet walls. Food for thought.

Cool, no worries. The depth of the cab is only like 1.5'. Just enough the line 3pots in a row.

Temp is a MAJOR concern for me, thats why I originally thought to go the cfl route. Not sure if I going to able to grow in summer months due the ambient temp in the house reaching 85-90 easy. I have no room for a/c either but this is going to be something I'll have to deal with at the time.

Do you think an open end cooltube with a 250w will be okay heatwise? i.e. one end open exhausting the cab thru the light and up thru the scrubber.

Thanks

yes a cooltube will help it will be easier to cool it than cfl's. a 250w is not that much heat, i go with 400's and theyr always bearable. a 150 will be ok for 1.3x2.3 so you could shrink it a bit and go with 150. i'd still go with 250 but thats just me

Zem> I have a 250HPS on the way and you seem familiar with this. I have a 26' wide cab. The cool tube in 19 in x 6 in diameter. So ducting and fanning will be challenging especially if I want to raise/lower the height.

A)Do think I can run the tube with out a dedicated fan just as is hanging. My cab ventilation worked with over 400 true watts of CFLs
B)I have 3.5 in to play with inside the cab on both sides of the cool tube. Would it be possible to duct and vent with some bends?

1sttimer > check out ebay, they have digital ballast, cooltube, bulb all in one setups from $200 -$270.
I bought a lumatek dimmable 400W, which I am going to run at 250, but 400 in the future when I get a bigger cab (these are at the upper end)

you need a fan to pull through the cooltube. could as well use the same fan you used with cfl's. 400w cfls surely give more heat than would a 250w HPS. you can vent with some bends, the sharper the curves the less air exchange. i try not to curve ducts, but if you have to well then you have to...