Basement grow, 4000 watts of HID goodness!

Hi,

I'm currently running a combination of cfl+LED grow of 5 white widows in my closet (about 2 weeks into vegging, going great.)

Since I have the money and time, I've decided to grow big!
My cement basement is a cool dry area, just recently cleaned out...over the years I've accumulated everything from HPS ballast (5 of them actually ) t5 mounts, some bulbs....and a bunch of other shit that I've forsaken for organic soil grows.

So after finishing this off I took a quick inventory of what I had and said "oh what the hell!"
I installed the lighting mounts for the hps and MH bulbs, I'll give you a relatively quick run though of the entire operation.

The basement itself is about 60feet by 60 feet with a height aprox 10.5 feet. Pretty damn big.

• two 1,000 watt HPS bulbs (with hood and ballasts)
• two 1,000 watt MH bulbs (with hood and ballasts)
• 10 net cups for medium container
• 5 pounds of hydroton
• 50 feet of aluminum ducting
• 2 intake fans aprox 6inches in diameter
• 1 inline duct fan
• 3 wall mounted fans
• 6 sets of steel cable 5 feet long each, attached to mounting hooks (for the lights.)
• five 42 inch T5 florescent bulbs with mounting fixture, hood and internal ballast.
• two 225 full spectrum 5mm LED,goes along with the t5's for cloning and seedlings*
• 1 carbon air scrubber combined with 3 smaller units (IE: carbon air filter)
• 100 sq feet of mylar super glued in the middle then duct tapped on the edges to black tarps.

It looked big when I made the list because when I got it all stacked and in one designated area, it was big! haha. But more seriously, it's a lot of wattage which required knowledge upon how to wire dangerous equipment safely. My cousin being sympathetic to my `cause` who also happens to be an HVAC certified technician was more than happy to come help me wire the lights (for steak and free beer. the bastard! plus he gets some weed.)

So we finally got it done, I mounted the lights how I wanted them...The MH bulbs are separated from the HPS by 6 feet, they are positioned corner to corner (diagonally.)

Next came the task of attacking the ducting and fans, I didn't like the drooping look so I mounted some hook screws into the ceiling and attached it to the middle of the ducting by way of twine. Afterward I mounted the ballasts 10 feet away in a vented enclosed box that was about 5x5x3.
Here comes the second hardest part, venting the actual heat from the lamps. Granted I already had the ducting set up it was only half finished really. I still had to vent the heat somewhere, and it was defiantly going outside.
I cut a 5 inch hole in the upper wall large enough for the aluminum ducting to go through and attached it to the item in the picture below.

Now! keeping in mind this is the exhaust for the combined 4,000 watts of lighting I still had 1 more exhaust system to build. The entire reason I build two instead of one was simple, I wanted something like a closed system circuit for the lights when it came to cooling.
It would draw in cold air from the outside, run through the system and be expelled once again outside. I turned the system on for about an hour earlier and the exhaust was pushing air that was probably hot enough to bake with- outside. Meanwhile my basement went from a dry 60degrees Fahrenheit to a comfortable and grow friendly 72 degrees.


Next I began on the venting system for the indoor air itself, I started with some old venting hoods
It pulls air through the room and eventually out but connected to the main aluminum ducting exhaust hose is a carbon air filter, to eliminate the funny smells some grows can produce. (prior to the time when smell meets its death from a carbon air filter combined with ozone producers, the air is sped up to 10 MPH by an inline duct fan.)


Now that I was satisfied with both exhaust systems I set out about rebuilding my hydroponic systems. I've tried a lot of things, aeroponics (actually until recently I thought it was, as it turns out it really just sprays the water on the roots...buyer beware eh?) and just about any type of high oxygen deep water culture. For this grow I'd go with something of a glorified bubble bucket rack.

For the bubble buckets, I went pretty standard, except I double wrapped mine in aluminum backed tape, and also installed a drain valve for easier flushing and water replacement. I had to go out and buy all new air pumps and air stones since my current ones are from the early 90's (haha!)
What I did end up getting (aside from 16 air pumps, the register lady looked at me like I was crazy) was four 600g/h pump and 20 feet of clear plastic water tubing. I then filled the net cups with hydroton and wedged a 2 foot long piece of plastic tubing in each, this carried the water up to the seedlings until their roots can reach the water. The sound produced a piece of mind and a mind soothing tinkle of falling water


So that about wraps it up, my seedling/clone chamber is just a small 10 gallon flat Rubbermaid container with 5 T5 bulbs over it, and 500 LED's on the sides.


I really will try to find a cheap camera at some point to take pics of both grows but meh, just let it roll I suppose


** A side note about my positions on LEDs.
I feel that they can be great...within the next 5 years. At the moment the viewing angle of high power diodes is simply not large enough. You forsake angle for more power...its give and take while the line will not stretch to accommodate huge amounts of Milicandelas to be produced by wide degree LEDs.

Its not all bad really, I use LED's in tandem with CFLs. I feel that together they make a powerful low heat low wattage alternative to HID bulbs.

 

By the way the actual grow area itself is about 24 sq feet, with the average 1,000 watt HPS bulb producing roughly 140,000 lumen it more than meets the 3,000 lumen psf requirement, it literally blows it out of the water

 

haha, buying the seeds today...anyone up for some church? How about white rhino and widow...maybe even a little "fucking incredible" afghan kush, arjans haze and whats a grow room with some northern lights!