New grow room going up, looking for some input!

so I haven't been growing for the past year and a half. I got kind of burnt out on it and decided to focus on some other projects. Now that time has passed I am looking to get things up and going again. I have a 20x40 barn with AC, 200amp electric, and semi finished to work with.

I am looking to set up 2- 18 site RDWC flower rooms and a veg room so I can harvest once a month or so. that being said I will be vegging for about 3-4 weeks in my veg system before switching over.

I already have all of the buckets, pumps, and other major components. the only thing I need is a chiller, which I am going to DIY from an older AC unit so I can have 1 chiller work for all 3 systems (have a chilled reservoir and cycle through wort chillers to systems).

the main thing I am looking for feedback on is what to do about lighting. I already have a bunch of digital and magnetic ballast with hoods laying around, but I was thinking it might be worth it to upgrade to some LED or DE lights. as far as LEDs go, I am inclined to go with something like the SF4000 to save some dough since I would need to buy like 15 of them. I wouldn't be opposed to DIY either.

I don't have any experience with LED lights, but the energy savings are very attractive to me. my only real concern is with light penetration compared to HPS. I know from previous experience running RDWC that plants can finish between 4 and 6 feet with a 4 week veg time.

any input is appreciated!

Well if you have the space, why not!
Hello @ballziez
If you are gonna buy new lights, I have heard greatbthings about the kinbrite hlg boards, good footprint n power and less money than others in the 'bracket'.

Maybe use the old digital ballasts with lower wattage bulbs for veg: (200w ish) get the last usefulness from your kit and then stick new kit where it counts: over the flowers!
Am sure if you contact a wholesaler a deal could be done if you buying multiples (they are already significantly cheaper than SF or on brand HLG or MH etc.
Light penitration isn't as good butbit isn't detrimental enough to stay with HPS. Just means you gotta get the flower where you need it, up top! So it becomes about your skill with LST to get those yields you want.
Mainline everything, you essentially create a light cavity...

Sound like a lot of work for a great project though, and one I'm very envious of..
Good luck.

JimmyNuggs said:

I have heard greatbthings about the kinbrite hlg boards

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Hlg and Kingbrite are two different companies...

I know, but kingbrite doing a HLG style board which is not only knocking spots of the usual suspects MH et el but is cheap (comparatively!)
Think a 450(ish)watts is about 400 of your money (£/€/$).
If I had money to invest in a light, its where I'd put it ATM.

@JimmyNuggs thanks for the suggestion. I am looking at those right now and they seem like a good option! I'm definitely looking to get the most bang for my buck, since I don't know if I will be growing for more than a year or so at my current location.

probably going to use T5 or blurpies for veg, I am really trying to lower my energy bill as much as possible. I am not sure if my current ballast would work with lower watt bulbs (possible, but ive never tried).

I will definitely start a thread on the build and grow when I get things up and going within the next month or so. its a lot more than I have ever done but in my experience RDWC is A LOT less work than most other growing methods.

any strain suggestions RIU? I obviously want something that yields really well that is good quality. ive been out the game for a while and don't know what new. have the plug on some tangie, strawberry banana, GG4, and cheese quake clones but can get most anything elsewhere since I am in a legal state. most important thing will be 8 week flower, 9 tops so I can stay on schedule.

please dont buy spider farmer or alibaba there are lots of good reputable lighting companies dont send money to chinese bootleggers

ballziez said:

I am inclined to go with something like the SF4000 to save some dough since I would need to buy like 15 of them

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Fill it up with these. Nearly twice the wattage and you would probably get a decent discount for a bunch.

Have a look at diy, save heaps of upfront capital and you can design it to suit your growspace.
Interms of needing the different heights you can either build the lights to smaller fixtures (2 x 4) so you can move them up and down on ratchet straps.
Or if you go for a bigger fixture make sure it's very well powered otherwise the intensity wont be great a couple feet below the fixture. I have found the penetration is good with leds but the intensity drops greatly with distance so keep aware of this and check the ppfd charts for each light you want to buy. The trick with leds is to keep them just above the canopy and use the dimmer to get them to the correct par levels using a meter, maximising your electricity savings whilst putting out the best growth and buds possible.

How stable is your environment ?
Hot summers, cool?
Cold winters?

@NewAgeTech I do like the idea of going the DIY route. I will need to look into that more. seems like a pretty straight forward and fun project. have any good articles or guides you could link?

@Boatguy those are some sweet looking lights, but I doubt I can get enough of a discount to make that a easier pill to swallow. I was hoping not to spend $10k+ on lights.

@pulpoinspace those are all much more reputable companies, but at the end of the day I can get 3 SF4000 for the price of 1 unit from most of those companies you have listed. I have never had much or a problem ordering from Chinese manufacturers/ Alibaba in the past. Definitely can get burned (hopefully not literally here) when dealing with overseas suppliers, but at the end of the day most of what we are buying is from there anyways.

@coreywebster my environment will be fairly stable (MICHIGAN). I will need to do some work to get things dialed in, but shouldn't be an issue. I've got a 5 ton central air unit out there so that'll handle more than what I need. it struggled to keep up when I was running HPS in the summer months, hence the switch to LEDS. I run sealed CO2 so as long as ambient air is around 85f I am happy.

will need to add a heat source for winter months. I hope that with the electrical savings from running LED I can hook up a couple electric baseboards. seems like the easiest option. I could also use my AC handler to run forced air heating but then I have to worry about getting propane delivered and what not.

Here is the website you should base your designs on, they are proven to work and many people have used this as their base design.