Prop 215 Patient I had it planned to use a spare bedroom, now full of cluttered random crap, clean it out and make it a nice grow room with a 1000w, then a 2nd 1k watter down the road a bit. I thought about it and I think I want to do a bit more of a low key grow. My house has an above ground basement, and theres a room in the basement that I want to grow in. The room is about 18' long, 5' wide, and a little over 6' tall. Yeah I said 18 feet. Before I go much further...my house has a gas heater and the heater unit is in this room, at one end. Will this be a problem? So assuming that it will be okay as long as I keep the plants towards one end of the room, I'll continue. I was thinking of using the black and white poly sheet to do the walls, and ceiling. Theres only rafters going across the ceiling of the room, so I'll need something to keep it light tight, with one end with a zippered entry to let me in but keep it seperated from the gas heater, its pilot light and any fumes, and any other light leaks. The whole basement is always at a great temperature, even when its hot out. It feels air conditioned but its not. I figure I'll use 6" or 8" ducting with a matching fan and a carbon filter, drawing from the main room of the basement and also exhausting back into the same main room. Lighting is what I'm kinda stumped with. I don't know what would be the best for what I have to work with. I've been told that a 1000w light has about a 5ftx5ft spread of light, allowing around 8 plants, depending on the size. Since this room is so long, I'd like to cover more than just the 5' width of the room, and 5' long, but I may have to. I kinda got ahead of myself with what I have already planned, because my main point of this thread was to ask what would you do with this room? I am legally allowed to grow up to 30 plants in a 10x10 canopy. But I think that it can just be 100 sq. ft, so maybe in my situation with a 5 foot wide room I could do 5x15 at most for a total of 75 sq. ft. Sorry for the long rambling bullshit, I'm baked.
First off, welcome to growing and good luck. One, I don't think your gas water heater will be a problem at all. It may even produce some CO2 which would be beneficial. White Poly works great to line walls, styrofoam panels, or even mylar emergency blankets are also an option. I think in your situation (long/narrow space) you'd be better off with multiple lights. i.e. 3 400 watters or 3 600 watters. I think you'd get a more efficient use of light and space that way.
Im jeoulous that your in CA. Im close, but not close enough. Im also with hornet on the multiple lights, especially since space is not much of a concern. Have you thought about soil or hydro?
I was thinking of using soil for my first few indoor grows. I have a few outdoor soil grows under my belt but indoor is a new thing to me. My biggest concern here is money. I'm not a rich guy. Multiple lamps costs quite a bit of money...but I know it'd be the best way of doing this, or pretty much the only way, of having such a long grow room. I know I don't have to use the whole length of the room, too. I was thinking last night about maybe doing 2-1000w lamps, in 2 seperate 5x5ft spaces, one for flower and one for veg. Would 1000w be too much for the veg? So help me out guys...how can I do this the best for not a whole lot of money? I have been looking at the ValuLine ballasts and lights on www.discounthydro.com which look very nice for the price, are switchable, and have a 5 year warranty and a 1 year warranty on the bulbs. And for $199 for the switchable 1000w and another $50 for a bulb, I think its a pretty damn good deal compared to what else I've seen. Also, how horrible is this eBay setup? http://cgi.ebay.com/DIGITAL-OPEN-RE...ryZ42225QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I figured its uber cheap and didn't wanna bother but if anyones had some good experience with them maybe I'll try it out. Thanks for the help