PRE PLANNING MY GROW: Need some feedback on my idea.

Hey hey everybody!,
Been doing a lot of reading, and looking around the net as i plan to move back into indoor growing as mother nature keeps clutching my nuts her in her kung fu grip..... came up with a few ideas would like you guys to help me decide on the best way to go about my plan, and give me some guidance on the "Max" i could pump out of it, as internet has man different answers.
Now before i go further, the main things i needed to keep in consideration while planning was: Power,Space,Noise,Power....and Power again. (Wifey couldn't stress the power cost enough to me apparently)
im wanting to get a perpetual sog grow going as time is not an issue at the moment with care of garden and such, with 2 weeks in between harvest BUT as i said, on the least amount of power as possible....
My plan/what im still looking into doing is:
Veg/clone Area:
Size:1.2m x 1.2m x 2m (size tent)
Lighting: CFL's BABY! (not sure what strength or how many still looking into that)
Sub: 50/50 Pearlite/Coco
Strain: Have freeze cheese 89' seeds BUT wanting to get something more suited to sog, NO IDEA as of yet.
Air/Cooling: Prob just a DIY filter attached to some ducting (size unknown yet), exhaust fan, (hoping with cfl's and proper planning on sized ducting to extract air, should be cool enough to NOT require extra fan to bring in air and have a standard desk fan inside to move air.


Flower Area:
Size:1.2m x 1.2m x 2m (size tent)
Lighting: 400w HPS
Sub: 50/50 Pearlite/Coco
Strain:SAME
Air/Cooling: Carbon filtered extraction with fan (fan/ducting size unknown yet), internal fan.

NOW THE PLAN OF HOW TO USE IT:
VEG AREA: 2 mothers, clones , 9 x plants in veg (3x3 rows of plants with 2 weeks of age difference between them) in smaller pots, (pot size increased for flower)
FLOWER AREA: 9 plants central in position under light in same size after being upgraded pot size and - 2 mothers, the clone taking up space should hopefully fit fine, rotating there position in grow room every 24hrs to maximize the light intake.

SOME OF THE IDEAS IM NEEDING HELP WITH:
Could i run a filtered induction air system that could run 1 fan and move/dump air in BOTH tents if filtered right instead of save having 2 internal fans and what not.... would that be a better use of power?

I am aware 600w hps would make a massive difference but im cutting power ANYWAY i can due to wanting to go 2 rooms and perpetual think thats prob my best bet without going straight to 600w (from experience what i have read SO FAR) and keep in mind they will be centralized under the light in sog so hoping that will do the job?

Whats the best method to calculate power in both rooms so i can do so for total as i dont wanna cap 1.5kw (i know im reeeeaaaaaaaly pushing it) but im gonna try best i can not to???

if i want to perpetually grow that amount, is there a better more energy efficient way to do do the same amount that i havent thought of?

would i be better off settign up 1 big tent and splitting it and doing this?

soooo many strains not sure whats hype and whats wroth while believing, any suggestions for strains that would respond well to sog that are quite potent?, ii ask as i would rather take hands on experience info then on paper info any day

for Veg area, would 1 strogner cfl with a few smaller around to fill gaps be best, or mutiple smaller ones for even dispersal of light?, and if so what the best amount required for that size area from experience?

ANY AND ALL INPUT IS WELCOME AS I WANT AS MANY PEOPLES OPINIONS AS POSSIBLE AS THE MORE I GET, THE MORE CHANCE OF STOPPING MYSELF WASTING MONEY AND SO ON

Time isnt a worry as i have alot spare at the moment to look after the grow just not the money to waste on ideas i might have completely stuffed up .

Thanks for your time, help guys looking forward to the input

ICkY

PS. sorry if it in the wrong area for this post, picked the the place i felt suited it the best.

May have to add to it later/ may of forgotten to add something i was doing/wanted to ask as the site thing stuffed up 2 x when i wrote this, this was the 3rd draft from scratch lol, so bare with me guys.

You can run one fan with a T between two tents if it moves enough air.
No, one tents not the way to go, two different ones would be better imo.
To calculate power just google the watt calculator and add up all your equipments usage and it will even tell you what itll cost a month.
Startrek is a nice sog lady cause she grows straight up like a popsicle.
For the veg area if your using cfls id go with nothing smaller than 150 w equivilants and with 9 plants in there id say 6 of thems what id go with on Y splitters. Good luck

Oh and buy a 600w light for flower. You can have candles and discoballs with christmas lights supplementing your veg if you want but flowers where you make your money so thats all that frickin counts. Buy once, not twice, buy a 600.

thank you for the feed back

If you are looking at the most cost effective way to save on power your CFL for veg is ideal but I would consider investing in an LED for flower, you may have a high initial outlay but you will save a huge amount of money on your power bills in the long run.

I guess it comes down to if your willing to shell out the money for a higher priced lighting system initially, HPS will have higher yields from some strains but LED is proven to work well with many strains also in all different ways of growing SOG, SCROG etc etc.

If your in Australia also dependent on area and your paranoia there are often helicopters flying about, so I have a great fear of heat outlay from my HPS light system that I am going to run during flower and am considering switching to LED when my money can afford it.

I did up this quick 5 minute paint file for you to get an idea of how you can run a system of two tents with the same intake/extraction for air system and water cooled air (cheaper than ac).

The most important features you have to keep in mind if running a system like this is exchanging the air in your grow room at least 3-5 times per minute for HPS and 1-2 times per 3-5mins for a cfl grow space (buy the right fans for the size tents combined that has sufficient CFM). As your sharing the intake/exhaust system for both tents you cant really change the intake or exhaust for one an not the other. UNLESS If your outside temp is not to high in your room or your using an aircon in that room instead of running the intake from an outside source like a window or under the floor you can instead just run a small line of ducting out into the room individually from each tent as passive intakes (mostly to avoid light leaks use some ducting rather than just opening the holes in the bottom of each tent).

The benefit of a fan intake though is that you could attach a water cooler like the one in the picture (dump a couple of bottles with ice water into it, attach a DIY frame to the gold grill part that is venting the now water cooled air to your attached ducting into your y splitter and to both your tents) before the Y joint that can cool the air on hot days without the need for an air-conditioner and higher power bills (air-con will use more watts than a fan easily)

Hope this gave you a more visual idea of something you could do.

That helps heaps thanks man , im willing to spend the $$$$ to save the $$$$$$$/jail time in the future lol so led i had considered just never had enough hands on experience/know enough to calculate a rough idea on what i was going to cost me, the whole led thing confuses me as i dont get the (this many watts = real wattage output) kinda stuff so it seems daunting to me, you had much expereince with them?

shwat about a 150w hps AND some led's to minimize heat/power for floweR?, the more i think about it tho if for heat/power i avoid hps i should prob avoid it all together shouldnt i?

There are several australian companies that provide led, or hydro shops depending on your location. If you are friendly with your local hydro store you can even ask the owner if you can ship it there if they don't sell them and this avoids any unnecessary attention to your grow location. My local hydro store is well aware of what I was buying filters for etc. he asked me how many tomatoes your growing will equate to how big filter you want, cause those can smell pretty bad around flower he said with a big grin... We skirt around the issue of actually stating anything but he has said if I want anything delivered let him know and he will hold it for me till the next time i come in.

There are many posts about LEDs floating around but if your buying in Australia and not shipping from overseas you won't find the same brands obviously, so the key thing to do is look for the correct light spectrum for what your use is, you can get three types, veg spectrum, flower spectrum or full spectrum, some lights even provide a mix of these based on switching out lights or a switch which controls the lighting spectrum, but I am yet to find this type in Australia.

if your plan is to get a flower led you will want to do a google search on led flower spectrum for cannabis or something like that and you will find the correct numbers for each light - blue red white etc etc. then all you need to do is either ask your hydro store if they have this spectrum light or check with the company your ordering through before placing your order, most lights will say the spectrum range.

http://hydrocentre.com.au/led-specifications-versus-hps-specifications-may-change-this-is-jan-2010/

this is is an example of hps conversion and lumens between different wattage, as you can see hps provides much higher lumens at a lower price initially, but we are talking about long term power usage savings in the long run. The negative to led is they may not provide as many lumens as hps but if your in no rush you can veg out longer and then get higher yields (not than hps just if you had vegged shorter under led is my meaning).

do some research though if led is what you may be interested in, make sure to find out about them before buying as they are a big investment. You may need to import also perhaps from china or USA etc. so be willing to wait is another issue

I'm about to move my plants into veg space 2 under my 400w hps...I'm more concerned about the heat, you can relate to australian summers so you will know the issues we face, led is the future for me in summer grows next year I think and hps is going to be my autumn winter grow light, cause I want the heat at that time... So personally I can't say go with hps or led, you need to go with what best suites your grow room year round.

yeah i think led will be the winner, i COULD use hps and it wouldnt be crazy warm where it is tho BUT being under the house it has the potential to heat up the whole house from under neath on a beastly day (hit 34 here yesterday) so i think your on the point with the LED's, i will look today into the colour light ratio (r:b:w) and see if its worth while making my own, as i can wire LED's myself IF i can find a decent brand to use, wich i will prob do as a DIY guide if i do , research away i shall

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/419460-i-need-help-red-far.html

Matt420Aus, xcame across this while doing some reading today, thought i would share

http://www.bonsaihero.com/

^^ NOW THIS RIGHT HERE,

nice info on LEDs, if you can make your own that's an advantage, one thing that I would recommend when wiring it is making each light individual of itself. What I mean is that if you have say 6 lights in a box each light has a number of the different spectrums of light you need and if one bulb goes out the whole panel is not going to go down, many of the ones used these days have this feature and it ensures that if you are mid grow and one of the lights go out it may cut your yields till you replace it or fix it in your case but not mess up your light cycle.

Hope that makes sense, bit late and little bit of a ramble

i pretty sure i get where your coming from, now just to find out the ratio of White:short red: long red:blue for the different cycles, as im soo keen, HOWEVER, i will prob go HPS for now and just do my best to cool everything as my lack of knowledge on the subject even after reading a few things is daunting in relation to LED's.....
So eager to get some stuff started lol.

Yeh HPS are good, mine are under 400w now and doing ok, my two plants that I topped are already growing out nicely and few others in my system are getting bigger also, patience is something you really need to have when growing, if I was not paranoid about the PH and EC of my plants I would love to just not look at them for a week, then every time you come back it seems like a huge amount of growth rather than just bit by bit every day, haha.

Good luck and post up a journal once you get started.