I have ponderd over the thought of growing for years My mind is made up I finaly have a safe place. I have a 8x8 room with about 8 ft ceiling. I have always researched things well in the past i never jump in to anything my first set up will be to learn the tricks of the trade with a room this size I could fit a decent amount my concerns are I live in tx and wonder how much light power is to much in a normal house whats the most power that can be used with out sending out a huge red flag is it easy to detect heat coming from room? how big can you go and still stay un detectable. I know nothing happens over night but if i decide to take the plunge i want it to be worth while how much could a 8x8x8 room yield in a cycle with an expierienced grower? money for equipment isnt a problem now im trying to research the best equip money can buy that will allow me to keep it stealthy. dont flame me we all start out as noobs
I have some great advice. Change all of your homes bulbs to low wattage cfls, and keep lights and other things turned off when not in use. Try to consume as little power as possible around your home. It will help alot more than you would think. You can use a pair of 600watt units on a sun circle in that room, or a simple 1000watt unit on a light rail. You have to conserve where you can IMO. You just have to do most of it outside of the grow. Divide the space into 3 4x4x8 rooms. one with a cfl setup for moms and clones, and 2 that are for flowering. Have the 2 flowering rooms on opposite light schedules and use a flip flop on a 600 watt ballast. One 600watt ballast, two boxes, two cord sets with bulb sockets, and a flip flop. Then you draw no more than the 600watts at any given time, plus the cfl wattage of a mom box. Perpetual harvest baby. Yield, depends on strain, size of plant, experience of grower, and nutrients. It is entirely possible to get well over 1lb each cycle out of each flowering box.
Hi Stealth, welcome to the city! You got a nice amount of space on your hands! As far as electricity use goes, You can use quite a lot of power without being "flagged", and in fact realistically as long as you are paying your bills on time, you should be able to use as much electricity as you want. I used to be concerned about that as well, but if you think of all the people out there with 6 roommates each one running a computer and a tv and lights and all that, a few 1000watt lights isint going to really tip the scales that much. So unless you are planning on filling the entire room up I wouldnt worry. Plus if anything does happen, usually it is the power company calling to let you know your usage is up. They don't care as long as you pay them . If they do ask just say you are running some servers, or some sort of large machine like a pottery kiln or something. As far as heat goes, if you are ventilated properly you wont have to worry about that. If you were an experienced grower with that amount of space you could produce A LOT of weed. You would not be able to smoke it all, but I'm assuming you wouldn't anyways if you were producing using the whole room. How big can you go and not get detected? How big do you want to go? The biggest security risk you are taking is by other people finding out about your grow. Do not tell ANYONE, unless it is absolutely nessicary. Idealy you will be the only person who knows about it, or maybe one other person. This is the hardest part!!!! It sucks to grow awesome weed and not be able to show your friends the grow room, but trust me it is worth it. Well thats just my opinion and I'm in no way an "experienced" grower, but i reccomend going for it. It can be one of the most rewarding and fun things in life, imho, and as long as you can keep your mouth shut about the room, it's relatively low risk. It has taken me a while to get stable production, but thats what its all about, learning how to get better. The sooner you start the sooner you will be pro! Good luck and I hope that helped, sorry it was so long lol.
Listen to this guy. He knows his shit. Also a great way to conserve your energy is to unplug just about everything. All the things you plug in use energy somehow, even when you think they're off.
Thanks solid advice guys I'm goin to vegas for a week next week between now and then I'm pricing equipment when I get back I will order what I need. One thing I have heard is that the lights put off enough heat to be detected from a chopper LOL this may be nothing to worry about but for obvious reasons being a noob grower every possible problem is a concern with a room this big and the lights recemended is this true? Also how safe is posting in this forum what keeps those silly sallys from just scoping out forums. And one more thing with carefull research is it un reasonable to expect a good yield my first grow if i follow steps just right. I am a mature 27 yo male with 2 kids and family ONLY 2 people on the planet will know me and a very safe person who is going to help with research we know there is a risk but other than people bein dumb and showing other people what are the risks of getign caught can the heat realy be detected ?
Nothing stops them from coming in here. Unfortunate for them that everything here is purely circumstantial and that does not give probable cause to get a warrant. Could be photoshopped, stolen from another forum, posted by someone else trying to frame you, ect ect. I think it isproven now to be violation of our rights to use detection on our homes unless they have a warrant. So be smart. No odor. Pay your bills. No heavy foot traffic. Be kind and appear like the average joe to everyone you talk to. Keep all on a need to know basis. There are solutions as far as Anti detection materials are concerned. And besides. American government can do nothing to us. We all live in Switzerland!
I was in that same position (cept my rooms a tad smaller) about a month ago. I had a virtually unlimited budget, and no clue where to begin. Hopefully this is helpful: If stealth is your main concern (as was mine) consider building a grow cabinet or two (or three) as opposed to just growing in the room. To be honest if money isn't as issue a pre-made, self-maintained grow box will take all the work out of growing, but I reckon building your own is way more fun & teaches you more about the plants and the process. I turned this back room I have in the house into a garage-esque work room. Its got a futon, a shitty wooden table, a full tool box, a 50 gal trashcan, a shop-vac, some basic building materials, and a rather large, inconspicuous white cabinet. The cab seems like it's probably just storage for things. If you want to get it right the first time, I would (in this order) Visit a hydroponics center (just to browse and take down measurements, not buy anything) Visit a lowes, home depot, target, wal mart or anywhere that sells cabinets (once again, just browse, gather information, don't make any hasty purchases). Figure out what system you are going to use (I would recommend a DWC AKA "Bubble Bucket" system if you want to go hydro.) Based on the measurements you took, figure out the best cab for whichever system you choose. Make shopping lists; try to spread out your purchases. Pay in cash, don't keep receipts. If you want to take extra precautions borrow a friends car to go to the hydroponics store. Once you have everything, assemble the system and grow dank nuggs. A few good things to know: Grow operations can range from $200 or less to $6000 or more depending on the system you choose and where you buy. Tomatoes have the closest grow criteria to weed so when you visit the hydroponics store tell the person there you are looking to grow tomatoes. They will never know that the information they give you will be used to grow drugs. A hydroponics store will probably turn out to be your best resource, even if you have to drive far to get to one (I have to drive an hour to find one). Reflectix brand insulation is arguably the best liner for the inside walls of your cab/room. I found some at lowes, be sure to pickup the reflective duck tape as well. Jorge Cervantes has 2 grow videos and a number of books on marijuana horticulture, lots of accurate information. Air needs to be vented out of the top and new air needs to come in from the bottom. I made the mistake of not planning my air circulation and am paying for it now. If you get a vented light hood or a cool tube, you should give it a seperate ventilation system from your main one. Bag seeds will often produce better quality weed than the weed you found them in and are recommended for a first grow. Don't try a ScrOG method or anything fancy your first time. The weed laws in your area! Know the risks before you grow imo. If you decide to build a cab, pickup extra weather stripping so no light escapes! Once a week, conduct a thorough check of your grow op including a walk around outside your house. Does light escape anywhere? Does the vented air smell? Can you hear noisy fans? Things you should have: A good day/night thermometer/hygrometer. A good pH meter (the strips of paper are too innacurate and impractical for how often you will be checking the pH). A ppm meter, or better yet a ppm/pH meter might be a little pricey (~$140-160) but well worth it. Rockwool cubes (you'll go through these so stock up imo). pH raise & pH lower solution. Fertilizer (you'll need a flowering mix and a vegetative mix, ideally Fox Farm brand). A small bottle of Super Thrive isn't nessecary but highly recommended as it considerably boosts healthy root development. Accurate measuring cup, you'll be working with some small quantities so this is kinda important. A journal to record pH, ppm, temperature, humidity, and notes daily. One last thing about lights and power usage: Keep in mind that an oven uses over 1000W--BUT--most ovens aren't on 18 hours a day so take the time to crunch the numbers, factor in everything that will use power and work out how much power you will be using a day, week, and month. I wouldn't worry about cops picking up any heat signature, I feel like they normally track 800-1000W bulbs and you're probably not going to need anything bigger than 400-600W. Don't rush anything, take your time to setup and test your cab/room fully before germination. Sorry if I missed anything, let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything.
I disagree. I run a single 400watt HPS and my electricity bill is 200+ dollars per month, because of other electrical usage. 800-1000W running 18 hours a day seems pretty minimal compared to how much you could possibly use (computers, tv's, ovens, electrical heating, amplifiers, ect). This statement is based on experience and I could be disproven, and if so would be very interested, for concern of my own safety lol.
I would check to see if you have a power leak, I run the same watt and during long cycle my bill is no more than 150 and 90 bucks during 12/12 so??? could also be cause of winter and gas goes up so???
It is based mostly on previous homeowners in that residence and average usage of the neighborhood u r in. But if you are growing only for personal use then go with a 250mh for mom room and a 400switchable for flowering. you can achieve 1 lb every 2 months or 1/2 lb. every month. you will run the 400 for 12 hours daily=4.8 kilowatts daily and the 250 for 20 hours a day- 5 kilowatts per day. 9.8 kilowatts per day x( .2)variable kilowatt p/hour cost)=1.96 per day or right about 60 bucks a month just for the lights you may have another 100 watts in bubblers or fans or what not.