How horrible is the idea of a 5000w+ apt grow...

The apt is a big 2 bedroom, 6 rooms total including a large hallway.

Alright Im kicking around the idea of an apt grow, ive done a 600w grow here before got like an HP, smoked it so fast it was ridiculous.

Honestly, I dont like living in fear I kind of want to do one big time grow then be done for at least a year...(or forever..?)

I have a spare room (15x10) and I have 4 20amp circuits I can run off of, it is electrically possible to do this. The winter is coming and I can use the ~20f temps outside to chill the lamps then exaust into the next room through the wall, no carbon scrubber needed. I will have a seperate exaust (also into a different room through the wall which will be scrubbed. SO temps and smell(if any) will be exausted into the other bedroom. The landlord rarely comes around and the neighbors dont bother me. No one has ever entered my house and Ive been here for a year. I feel like the only risky part is during flowering where all the lights will be on and there will be so many plants it will be impossible to hide them if I had to.

Basically I will be running 9 plants per Magnum XXXL in soil for a total of 45 plants, those can be grown with flouros until theyre ready for veg then I can use 1 or 2 thousand watts adding in aditional thousand watt lights as the plants require as they grow. This will slowly raise the bill and then when flowring comes I will have to run 5000w for 12/12 for 2 months... I feel like this is such a short time by the time any red flags are raised my grow will be over and I can sell/store all my equiptment and be done with it.

If smell is handled properly I dont see this being a risk and no one lives above me so no leaks or maintence men near by. The landlord lives like an hour away and is rarely around. The only problem I see if everything else is done properly is the electrical company seeing the electric bill almost triple during the winter months, the bill will be under a new name though dont know if that matters.

idk where you live but here electric bill is every two months so if you split your 2months of flowering in a 4months billing period it would def look better on the bill . my 2 cents. cant help for anything else

my 2 cents...

that would be a huge amount of power for one apartment to use.. all that power surging on and off at regular intervals. people get caught that way.

usually you pay your electric bill. there is nothing for them to complain about. all they really care is that you pay them on time. BUT. does anyone else see an apt elec bill besides the electric company? like the apt owners if its a complex? that would be a worry to some ppl.

Canabian420 said:

usually you pay your electric bill. there is nothing for them to complain about. all they really care is that you pay them on time. BUT. does anyone else see an apt elec bill besides the electric company? like the apt owners if its a complex? that would be a worry to some ppl.

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nah no one else sees it but me

JealousGreen said:

my 2 cents...

that would be a huge amount of power for one apartment to use.. all that power surging on and off at regular intervals. people get caught that way.

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I know but itll be a short amount of time this aint a repeating sog grow this is one time big time

choufleur47 said:

idk where you live but here electric bill is every two months so if you split your 2months of flowering in a 4months billing period it would def look better on the bill . my 2 cents. cant help for anything else

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i think its every month here. i appreciate the idea, its very smart thinking

Why so much light really? i mean we all know the reason, more light=more buds. But have you thought about 600s? They are more efficient(watt for watt) than 1ks and you can just have more of them if you really want. IN general i like your idea of just one hit and done. Have you grown before? I would be a little more concerned about the smell, it penetrates more than you would like to think.

Ya if its not a legal medical grow, theres no way i would risk it. Too much plants/power/smell in one small space to try to contain. If you do go forward with it, just do like you said and one big time only. Good luck

in movies, theses one big time things always fail and everybody goes to jail then the little girl is so sad and the dad feels like a bastard and all you know... or something like that...neway i would say you should do like 2 smaller grows instead of a big one. Safer i think. I mean, 45 plants man, thats huge...

this is kind of off of his topic but what if you lived above someone in an apt building. such as a complex. could the smell seep through the floor by chance? in a small room and a micro grow? anyone know if the smell could leak through?

first of all, I believe that if you are running 120v ballasts for your lamps that each 1000w light will need 9 amps. Since the maximum wattage you want to put on any circuit is 80% or 16 Amps on a circuit you would not have enough circuits for just the lamps.

Secondly, that is a HUGE amount of power for a 2 bedroom apartment. Considering you are going to still live there it will put a minimum of 600-700 dollars onto your monthly electric bill. that might be enough for the company to do an audit to ensure there is not an issue.

Also, you havent indicated how much experience you have with grows. it might be a little overwhelming to take on such a big crop at one time.

5000w for 45 plants in an apartment? Good luck. Seems alwfully inefficient for that many plants. I would just grow more of them at a smaller size

NLXSK1 said:

first of all, I believe that if you are running 120v ballasts for your lamps that each 1000w light will need 9 amps. Since the maximum wattage you want to put on any circuit is 80% or 16 Amps on a circuit you would not have enough circuits for just the lamps.

Secondly, that is a HUGE amount of power for a 2 bedroom apartment. Considering you are going to still live there it will put a minimum of 600-700 dollars onto your monthly electric bill. that might be enough for the company to do an audit to ensure there is not an issue.

Also, you havent indicated how much experience you have with grows. it might be a little overwhelming to take on such a big crop at one time.

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1) I have 4 20amp circuits and a 15amp (forgot about that one, I can runn off of, I am aware of the 80% rule and I could do it safely with the circuits I have.
2) 5000w 12/12 will cost roughly 350$ in power per month, add in fans and all that we can assume 370$, factor in my usage we're at about $470. The vegging will not require all 5 lights, im thinking maybe 2, 1000w lights for veg. which will be around $210 additional, 310 including my monthly 100$ bill. The main power consumption will be during flower.
3) Valid point, I have 1 grow under my belt, a 620w closet grow and it was fairly easy I had about 6 plants. 45 will be tons of work but more work more reward

Canabian420 said:

this is kind of off of his topic but what if you lived above someone in an apt building. such as a complex. could the smell seep through the floor by chance? in a small room and a micro grow? anyone know if the smell could leak through?

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If you are exchanging the air minimum once every 5 minutes then there is no way anything will seep anywhere, assuming you have a negative pressure ventilation system set up, youll be pulling air from your neighbors wall cracks, if you have positive pressure youll be pushing stink air into the walls. Use a store purchased carbon filter and you should be fine.

lotsOweed said:

Ya if its not a legal medical grow, theres no way i would risk it. Too much plants/power/smell in one small space to try to contain. If you do go forward with it, just do like you said and one big time only. Good luck

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in theory if the air is exchanged properly and the room has a negative pressure then there should be no issues with smell.

choufleur47 said:

in movies, these one big time things always fail and everybody goes to jail then the little girl is so sad and the dad feels like a bastard and all you know... or something like that...neway i would say you should do like 2 smaller grows instead of a big one. Safer i think. I mean, 45 plants man, thats huge...

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Yes it is, if i get bopped theyll charge me 3oz per plant minimum, theyll hit me with around 9 pounds and theyll jack that street value up to like $80,000, then since im withing 1000ft of a school ill get a two year mando and theyll throw the book at me and Ill probabaly get around 2-3 years in jail.

karr said:

Why so much light really? i mean we all know the reason, more light=more buds. But have you thought about 600s? They are more efficient(watt for watt) than 1ks and you can just have more of them if you really want. IN general i like your idea of just one hit and done. Have you grown before? I would be a little more concerned about the smell, it penetrates more than you would like to think.

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600w lights would require more hoods, in turn more money.
The smell really doesnt seem to be an issue to me in my head,i could get a ozone generator for the room if it got crazy during flower and/or add more extraction fans with crabon scrubbers.

kudaross said:

5000w for 45 plants in an apartment? Good luck. Seems alwfully inefficient for that many plants. I would just grow more of them at a smaller size

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9 plants per 5x5 area? thats too many? no way!

The goal is as little plants as possible (I understand RDWC is the best method for this, but im not experienced in hydro) so if you get bopped its a lesser charge. They find 100 clones and 100 plants youre getting chanrged for 200 plants.



I forgot to add that I will move out when the grow is completed. I understand that 5000w in an apt is crazy thats why i posted a thread so people could post their thoughts, I may do a 3000w or maybe even a 2000w. I cant do anything for a month so I just have to research and plan now.

Man, when I was a kid I had a couple plants from bag seed and the smell they made in my tiny bachelor pad had all the neighbours over bumming smoke off me. And that was only 4 plants. LOL I was lucky I was young, dumb and fulla cum. The apt I was in everyone liked to party together so the smell didn't really matter at all... but then again i was young and dumb. I don't know if the landlord ever did get the smell outta that place when i moved out. So thinking of 45 plants man that would be a ton of ventilation going I would have to assume. Then again there was no internet when I was a kid and no one admitted to being a grower back then.. so I had noone to learn from and just messed around.

I think the guys here would be the best to get honest input from... some are brutally honest and will try and keep you out of that dark place I went to for several years. Better to be safe and do a few small grows that you know you can get away with than try to explain to some guys in uniforms you thought you were growing ferns on a massive scale to sell to bored housewives.

personally use enough light to get the job done. if you can use 400 go with that. shoot for it and let us know how it goes....

SolRosenberg said:

Honestly, I dont like living in fear I kind of want to do one big time grow then be done for at least a year...(or forever..?

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Personally, I'd be more worried about holding that much finished product for an extended period of time. Still gotta hide the smell. And some pretty tough penalties kick in with that much depending on where you are. I am kinda paraoid though lol.