My plan is to build out a 200sq foot garage into a veg room before spring. looking for a little guidance from you guys along the way. I've only ever done very small scale indoor so this is a big step up So me and my buddies slapped together one of those prefab garage kits from home depot on my property. initially flimsy as hell so we reinforced it with wood and weatherproofed it. feeling like a good investment finally. I'm hoping to veg them in there for about 6-8 weeks in the spring before taking em outside. I'm way up north so i can sometimes still get frost in to june! my biggest worries are with the insulation/heating/ventilation. growing at home before this, i never had extreme temps to battle. what do you guys think i should do about insulation? what do you think i should do for heat? i was thinking one of those mini split ductless units. how many BTUs do i need for a 200sq ft room in very cold temps? guess it depends on how i handle the insulating. also, i should be fine running it as a sealed room with a co2 pump right?
Insulation. More the merrier. Goto home depot and tell them your trying to insulate an outdoor workshop and then go a little more heavy duty then what they tell you. Seal everything up solid and before you even think of co2 just run your system for a few weeks there's a good chance you won't need any. Ad you need you have your system fine tuned before co2 As for btu. There Is a calculator here for you BTU Calculator | Sunlight Supply
id go for leds if its just a veg room , you wont be battling with any temps. my meizhi 1200w vegged 8 awesome plants and it given off virtually no heat. led gives shorter / bushier plants. these are my plants at 4 weeks , i topped them but they didnt even need topping. the canopy has been like that all the way through.
Buddies? Damn...that complicates the entire thing from the start. That's a whole other thread though... Definitely insulate. If this is long term....wallboard it/paint it flat white. Panda plastic over the insulation itself is also an option. And don't forget the floor. If you don't insulate it....at least sit your pots up on some chunks of blue board/etc. Other wise you will see slow-to-no growth due to cold root zone temps. I would suggest running 1000 watt MH (s) 24/0. (or, if it's warm enough outside during the day @ some point during the cycle, a 6 hour lights off mid-day) MH's will heat the space...and unlike LED's...will penetrate into the canopy the needed distance to grow >larger< plants. Space the lights/etc. out on as many breakers as you can so if something trips it isn't the entire room going dark (losing heat). If you can, set up a small space heater on it's own breaker that will only run if something on the light side trips. I would also advise finding an alternative heat source that doesn't use electricity....maybe a kerosene heater/propane heater/etc. in case you have an ice storm/storm that takes down the grid. Not sure you'll truly need CO2 or will want a completely sealed room due to humidity issues. That will probably be a "fire it up and see where it goes" kinda thing. (dehuey/fans?/etc). Every space/climate is different. Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.
very nice plants. mine didnt want to stretch at all with my leds. next time im vegging with led and letting them sretch for first few weeks flower with hps then adding led back in.
all my growing experience so far is under LEDs. always super short and bushy veg growth no matter the strain. i figured since im vegging for outdoor i'd wanna get a little more stretch before moving them outside and also LEDs arent as affordable when you expand to room ten times as large. you guys think running 8 1000w MH's will cut it? maybe i should get some LEDs in between and do a mixed spectrum kind of thing
how much are the 1000w Mh's , yes leds might be more but you wont need as many fans exhaust intake plus it will be a ALOT cooler. i have 2 vented hps with a seperate 6 inch fan blowing through them and my temps are touching 29-30c. thats with plenty of cold air from outside house and exhausting up chimney , im on my first grow but i feel ive learnt alot so far.
Here's my 2 cents. I grow indoors in an unheated barn attic. A larger scale shed so to speak. I use a 600w hps and last winter, my temps were pretty much perfect even during single digits. I insulated a portion of the attic and insulated with r30 and over that, 2"thick mylar covered insulation. I do have some that are only white faced as well. Nice and reflective. I think if you insulate the shed well, and go MH, they may be enough alone to maintain enough warmth. But if you aren't going to use it during warmer months, I think a mini split is a waste. You could run some electric baseboard heating with a thermostat and use more energy efficient led lights. And in a space that size, even with Leds, your heat may not need to kick on much if insulated enough. Leds are cooler but do put off heat. Oh, and insulate that floor if you haven't already.
what do you think is the best way to outfit it with LEDs? in my old set up i just had two mars hydro 400s (site says about 250w equivalency) in my 3x4 tent. my issue is i dont quite understand the equivalency of LEDs to other lights. I understand that LEDs pull way less power, so you cant really go by watts. so i tried looking up stats on lumens. from what i can tell it would take a lot more lights to make a good 4-5000 lumens per sq ft like im shooting for. unless lumens also isnt a very reliable way to measure it? i wish i understood PAR better. do they have a higher PAR rating even at lower lumens because of the full spectrum of light?
Im on my first grow mate and i used led for veg now i have 2hps and the led in a 8x4 tent. I really do rate the led. If i was you is go for a mixture of light. How many plants are you planning? Im 4 weeks into flower. I went with the hps plus led cause i was worried about canopy penetration and hps is proven to work but people.do some amazing led grows. Sent from my SM-N910C using Grasscity Forum mobile app
thanks for the in depth reply. I'm confident i can insulate the walls and ceiling pretty damn well on my own, within my budget. the floors im a little confused about. i put the whole thing up on a wooden base on cinder blocks. i'm gonna do my best to spray foam the underside of it, but mostly im thinking i'll just put the plants up on tables to keep em away from the floor. maybe i could run those electric mats for floor heating under the tables? but im thinking if i get em up like 3ft off the ground the soil temp will be fine with just the ambient temp of the room
Definitely insulation is the best. Keeping your garage cool starts with proper insulation, and the area that requires the most attention is the garage door. It’s important to purchase insulation that’s compatible with the type of door you have. For a more energy efficient and permanent solution consider a through-the wall-unit or, even better, a mini split unit. Many through-the-wall and mini split units offer heating in addition to cooling. Mini split units are energy efficient and quiet making them the best overall choice. Ductless System Size
Because of wattage to penetration that they have compared to other lights. With t5 you have about a good 4 to 6" of usable light strength from the bulb before the plant goes dormant
I mean iv never heard that I use t5s for veg with power veg bulbs keeping my light at 18 inchs above my plants and have excellent results....I suppose for his application it might not work....but it was just a suggestion
You can do it but. I veg with t5s aswell and if I don't have the bulbs 2-4" from canopy that they just don't grow fast enough. And if growing for outdoor you want to grow them fast
T5 were great....but sorry to say they suck now for efficiency. Plants love T5 spectrum no doubt guys; but 8 T5 is over 400 watts. May as well buy a shit load of adhesive led strips with LM561C and mount them to your own aluminum strips. OK I understand this thread is outdated but I'm already here.... If it was my set up I would: use fiberglass for the walls with poly vapor barrier caulked with acoustic sealant; then 1" foam over that with the foil face toward inside. Scraps of foam can be used for under plants. For electrical; run conduit to make it easy to change; plus no breach in your vapor barrier. The foam itself functions as vapor barrier also. This would make for very efficient space. To go one extra step; hang wallboard; tape it, coat it, and prime and paint flat white. Paint the floor white. Interior wallboard paint won't be very durable on the floor but it would he worth giving it a quick coat. Floors absorb a lot of light. Did you ever setup your space?