Ait chaps Thought I'd share this with u Er, need a grow room, nice & compact, prefer 2 chambers, no thermal image, self contained, automatic, inconspicuous??? ahaah - a freezer = perfect! *ed removed detail pics due to amount of enquires THX I'll update u as the project progresses! looking to include co2 sensing & injection, low power lighting, temp & humidity control & a novel fire-damping set-up as my last build burnt down! ok - ur irght
Compact = small. No HPS for you buddy. No plants higher then 2 foot either. No thermal image & inconspicuous? Wait until you've installed an air intake/outlet. Automatic? After you've drained the freezer of its (toxic) Freon coolant and you drilled/hacked/cut your way into both sides for ventilation, automatic is the last word that comes to mind. Last build burned down? Need of a fire-damping set-up? You're on the edge here son. Don't tred any further. Your 'design' should be such that you would not need a fire-damping set-up. Posting your email address on a public forum on the internet? That's stupid. Stay as anonymous as you can be! Sounds to me like what you need really is a old and big cabinet. When done properly this will be just as stealthy!
growing 6, er, 'tomatoes' in a wallrobe ?) atm - started them outside but it rains a lot in uk 6 2ft plants will do me fine = not talking bigtime = more of a passion for healthy plants really.................. Advice would be welcome as this is my first £££ investment into a proper growing environment, though i'm on my 3rd fridge so far & still at the drawing board Wife thinks I'm insane I intend to concentrate more on other variables rather than just flood with lights, ie stable temp, humidity, ph & co2 level. Thinking of using low power maxigrow???????? (comments????) Ideally plc controlled to avoid stacks of timers & switches? I'm a hvac engineer & spark by trade so the degassing is nap - initial thoughts involved modding the fridge circuit (hot gas bypass) to give accurate temp control, but tbh I need the compressor space for the pumps etc so it's all got to go. Odourwise / venting, the plan is to mount the fans inobtrusively on outside of the back panel with carbon filter inside each cabinet, up near the lights, so they draw stale in through the filter rather than blowing out of it - just to save space & ducting really, but will also make changing the filter nice & easy. Should quieten the fans a bit too? Am I right in saying that if I control the co2 & temp accurately, i won't need whacking great fans moving 2-300cfm & sounding like a hoover? In fact if the co2 levels / temp & humidity are as required, there's no need for the fans to be spinning at all? As it's running into £100's already, the plan is to bin the small fridge idea & go for a nice looking fridge freezer with smaller top cabinet for eventual mothering - should give me a good 800mm growing space on the bottom (allowing for lamps). Doors can stay as they are - the egg holders are perfect for clones! That's been the problem so far - cabinet selection. & yes I've had a fire!!! was 2x250w sonT in my garden shed. My fault for not paying attention! Didn't cause much damage but shit the life out me Smoke detector fits in the extractor flow & will stop the fan, shut off lights & flood the cabs with co2 therefore extinguishing said blaze Just to pacify the mrs really............ The reason I removed the original pics of progress so far is entirely due the amount of canadians who need a new fridge U get the general idea though? Here's my babies so far Smell lovely already! Few leaves snipped in half as they were showing early signs of naffness - promotes growth though eh
OK. I get the picture now. You're an engineer on a mission : growing pot in a fridge. Great! I respect that! I understand how you could mod the fridge to control temperature levels but I do not see how you could control humidity levels without pulling air through the fridge. Which means you will need ventilation, 100% RH is not good. Probably mechanical ventilation that is, to keep the overall size down. I think you cannot get quiet mechanical ventilation using fans. The smaller the fans diameter the louder it will be at any given CFM rating. I'm considering building a 1 foot diameter room fan into the wall of my grow box to deal with the freaky heat waves up my attic and to make it shut up a bit. I now use 3.54" PC fans but they are noisy indeed. Also, without fans how do you intend the prevent the CO2 from sinking to the bottom of your fridge? And oh yeah to pacify the Mrs : You may want to connect your automated fire extinguisher trough a different circuit breaker then the one that powers up the inside of you grow box. Electrical installations on fire or when malfunctioning in any other way are not exactly know for their reliability. The cause of the fire may be a cause of a power failure.....which could disable your extinguisher. Whatever kind of scheme you come up with, please post us your handiwork. It should be entertaining in any case!
quite easy to control humidity with a fridge circuit, but I intend to rip it all out ! (again) Only problem there is that using the fridge circuit would mean cabinet temp of 2-4c to maintain dry air & u don't get many arctic plants Pinched (borrowed) a few dewpoint meters from work today to mess with - see what works the best. U can set high alarm / low alarm & use these to switch between fans & heaters & accurately control the humidity (in theory - works with compressed air so I don't see why not. Should be simpler tbh as we're dealing with atmospheric pressure not like 10 bar! - ah, but there's another snag - if it's atmospheric pressure in the cab, the door won't stay shut mmmh Smoke / heat alarm ( & possibly extreme co2 level) works a blocking relay & will cut power to all circuits, meaning the unit will have to be manually reset. Using a normally open co2 solenoid, cutting the power will dump co2 & flood the cabinets. I intend to use 4" mains voltage panel mount fans (on the exterior) - but only turning when the environment calls for them to. Think ur right about the co2 being heavier than air - mebe a recirc fan? & yes those pc fans sound like swarms of bees & move fk all air! Try a pc psu fan instead = more cfm & much quieter Thx for ur comments - however sceptical U lot know way more than me on this topic so I welcome ur input.